Back to Gondishapur

“How Do I Find the Christ” is a lecture by Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Anthroposophy. The lecture was given in Zürich on 16 October 1918. It's not very useful, since Steiner is trying to cover many different topics in a short period of time (he even discusses a book by US president Wilson!) and therefore says relatively little on how to actually find the Christ.

The bulk of the talk consists of Steiner's weird interpretation of human spiritual evolution and the role played by “the Mystery of Golgotha”. Steiner makes a few startling claims, for instance that the truth, significance and reality of Jesus' ministry, crucifixion and resurrection cannot be known through historical research of any kind, since the Gospels are symbolic initiation dramas written by the disciples based on their “atavistic clairvoyance”. The Mystery of Golgotha is the most important event in human history and precisely for that reason can only be known through supersensible means, by which Steiner presumably means his own “spiritual science”. He further claims that not even the apostles understood the full ramifications of the Mystery until centuries later in the spirit world!

The years 333 and 666 are particularly important, and so is the nefarious “Academy at Gondishapur” through which Ahrimanic and Luciferic forces tried to derail human evolution into demonic channels by alluring scientific knowledge. In the lecture, Steiner connects Islam (“Mohammedanism”) to the Academy, but in an apologetic footnote, the editors point out that Steiner had a slightly more positive view of the Muslims in another lecture.

Overall, I can't say I was thrilled by “How Do I Find the Christ”, but I'm nevertheless giving it three stars since Rudolf Steiner feels like an old acquaintance at this point...