A mystery unsolved

 

Previously posted under a different title on September 10, 2018.

"Mystery of the Resurrection in the Light of Anthroposophy" is a book on Christology by Sergei O. Prokofieff, one of the leaders of the Anthroposophical Society, a religious-spiritual group founded about a century ago by Austrian occultist Rudolf Steiner. Prokofieff is a prolific writer on Anthroposophical subjects, perhaps most known for his sharp criticism of Valentin Tomberg, author of "Meditations on the Tarot" and a defector from Anthroposophy.

I didn't like Prokofieff's sectarian attacks on Tomberg, so it was with a certain dose of scepticism that I bought "Mystery of the Resurrection". I admit that I didn't get very far with it. It's an extremely difficult book, bordering on the incomprehensible. Still, I was weirdly fascinated. Perhaps I simply need to read more books on practical occultism or very advanced Christian theology?

Although many of Steiner's ideas about Jesus were strange (to put it mildly!), he is closer to traditional Christianity than most other groups in the New Age-occult underground I'm familiar with. He doesn't view Jesus simply as a great spiritual teacher, but believes that "the Christ being" really was a supernatural being who incarnated on Earth in order to save humanity, not simply to "show us the path to Christhood". The crucifixion, descent into the bowels of the Earth and subsequent resurrection really were salvific acts, and a kind of supernatural gift to fallen humanity from more elevated spheres of existence. The resurrection wasn't purely spiritual, but was, in some sense at least, "physical". Steiner even says at one point that the Resurrection body was created "out of nothing", although it's somewhat unclear what he means by this, since Anthroposophists don't believe in a personal god that creates ex nihilo. However, it seems that the Resurrection body really was a novelty in cosmic evolution, introduced by the Christ being through a purely voluntary act of grace.

One obvious *difference* between Steiner and traditional Christianity is his adoptionist Christology. To Steiner, Christ was a spirit-being who incarnated in the human Jesus after the baptism at Jordan. At the cross, Christ left Jesus who then promptly died. However, it's not clear to me whether the distinction between "Jesus" and "Christ" really means anything after the baptism, since Steiner says that the ego of the human Jesus had to leave him in order to make room for the Christ being. (In a fit of weirdness, Steiner claims that the ego of Jesus was the reincarnated ego of Zarathustra!) Steiner also seems to be suggesting that the human body of Jesus was a kind of sheath for the Christ, which presumably means that the person "Jesus" really ceased to exist when Christ took over his body. It's also interesting to note that Christ isn't an impersonal cosmic principle, but a personal being. To be exact, Christ is a sun-spirit. Since the spiritual sun is the "god" of our solar system, the Christ of Anthroposophy is, in some strange sense, "the Son of God", too!

The work of the Christ is part of the incredibly complex and almost conceited cosmology of Anthroposophy, with its countless spiritual hierarchies, different evolutionary trajectories and even reincarnated planets. There are also several types of physical or quasi-physical bodies. A Christian theologian would probably get grey hairs trying to grasp whether or not the resurrection really was "bodily"! To make a long story somewhat shorter, Anthroposophists believe that human personality and individuality are positive traits. Prokofieff criticizes the impersonalism of Buddhism and Hinduism. However, the personal autonomy of humans also necessitated a temporary severing from the spiritual worlds. This made humans more and more estranged from Spirit. They were also preyed upon by a wide variety of evil spirit-beings: Lucifer, Ahriman, the Asuras and Sorath. If this process had continued unhindered, humanity would presumably have destroyed itself at some point. This is why Christ incarnated on our unfortunate planet and voluntarily sacrificed himself. Prokofieff has an incredibly detailed discussion on how Christ built his different body-sheaths by descending through a whole number of heavenly spheres, how these energies gradually took over the earthly body of Jesus, etc.

Perhaps inevitably, Steiner believed in "infusion" rather than "imputation", to use the Christian terms (not used by him or Prokofieff). The death and resurrection of Christ had real ontological significance. They really cleansed the Earth and our human souls from negative karmic/cosmic influences, opening up a path to salvation. Also, our souls were somehow infused by the spiritual energies emanating from the crucifixion. The passion and resurrection of Jesus weren't purely soteriological acts accessible by faith only.

But what about the bodily or physical resurrection? The physical sheath left behind by the Christ on the cross decomposed as any corpse, but since it was imbued with spiritual energies, it became "a homeopathic medicine" for the Earth. Or the soil? The blood shed on the cross was "etherized" and seems to have entered into both the energy field of the Earth, and into the etheric bodies of humans, strengthening them (at least potentially). Meanwhile, the Christ Being entered the interior of our planet, where Steiner (literally?) believed that the evil forces dwelled. After somehow defeating their influence, Christ restored something Prokofieff calls "the phantom". Frankly, I never really understood what the phantom might be - some kind of archetypal physical body lost by humans during their negative evolution? It was supposedly created by angels at "Old Saturn". From "the phantom", Christ then created the Resurrection body. He also condensed his etheric body, which looked and felt like a physical body. Thus, when Thomas touched the scars of the resurrected Christ, these were not the actual scars from the crucifixion, but etheric substitutes created specially for this occasion. Prokoffief ingeniously points out that the Christ seems to be a bodily being in the Book of Revelation, but lacks the scars! Therefore, the scars can't have been a permanent feature of the Resurrection body.

Steiner was presumably aware of various occult attempts to create an imperishable body. He seems to have regarded both this and the Buddhist attempts to reach nirvana as too narrow paths. The Christ opened up a path that is at least potentially broader and easier by letting his etheric blood fuse with all humans. Human evolution could continue on its intended course, and will end at "Vulcan", a new version of Earth in a very distant future. Vulcan is the closest equivalent to the millennium in Anthroposophy, where humans will become Christ-like beings with the capacity to "create out of nothing". When the Vulcan stage ends, humans will reach even further elevations so lofty that not even Steiner could describe them. In effect, they will become like gods...

Well, I suppose *that* isn't taken from traditional Christianity, LOL.

"Mystery of the Resurrection in the Light of Anthroposophy" is a very narrow, complicated treatise. It's not intended for the general public, but rather for advanced students of Anthroposophy. I don't consider myself to be one, so the above review should be read with that in mind. I'm not sure how to rate this mysterious work, but in the end I give it the OK rating (three stars).