The mystery of Christ

Previously posted on September 6, 2018 under a different title. 

"Christianity as Mystical Fact and the Mysteries of Antiquity" is a book by Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Anthroposophy, a spiritual movement which claims to represent esoteric Christianity. In his book, Steiner attempts to explain the relationship between the ancient mystery religions and Christianity. While he makes interesting points, the work is tedious, boring and difficult to read - although not as difficult as many other writings by this author!

Most esoteric groups claim that the Gospels are clever allegories with a message identical to that of earlier mystery cults. Steiner, by contrast, believed that the events depicted in the Gospels were in *some* sense literally true. His belief in spiritual evolution led him to concede that Christianity was, on a number of important points, different from the ancient mysteries. Thus, Steiner adopts a position similar to some modern Christian theologians (and C.S. Lewis). The mysteries were a preparation for the ministry of Jesus Christ, a kind of pagan version of the Old Testament. In this manner, both similarities and differences between the mysteries and Christianity can be accounted for. Christianity, while expressing the same basic truths as the mystery religions, was nevertheless at a higher stage of spiritual-cosmic evolution. Christianity is a "mystical fact", not simply allegory.

In the mystery cults, the initiate becomes "a son of God" by establishing contact with the Spirit in his individual soul. The mysteries were exclusive, in the sense that only a few individuals reached their highest pinnacles. In Christianity, the Son of God or Logos who lies suspended cross-wise in the universe is literally born as a man in order to manifest the Logos to all of humanity, not just a select few. Jesus thus becomes the unique Son of God. Steiner believes there are parallels between the lives of Jesus and the Buddha, but only up to Buddha's death, which Steiner compares with the Transfiguration of Jesus. Buddha disappears in a ray of light, making his transfiguration and physical death identical. Jesus, by contrast, stays behind and enters a new phase of his ministry, which is quite unlike that of Buddha: the crucifixion, death and resurrection.

Since everyone can't experience the passion or "initiation" of Jesus, a church organization with a formal creed becomes necessary. Those who can't directly experience the mysteries, will at least be saved by faith. Thus, in this text Steiner takes a surprisingly irenic view of the Church. He also depicts the various factional struggles within the Church as an attempt to grasp the relation between the historical Jesus and the eternal Spirit of the Mysteries. My problem with this is that Steiner seems to be suggesting something else in other, more "esoteric" texts, where salvation is pictured as a protracted process over several different incarnations (Steiner believed in reincarnation), until some humans eventually become like gods during the Vulcan stage of Earth evolution. He is also less friendly towards the main-line Christian denominations in other texts. Perhaps Steiner's thinking itself "evolved", since "Christianity as a Mystical Fact" is an early text. However, since the death and resurrection of Jesus plays a central role in the cosmic evolutionary process envisioned by the author, Steiner in some strange sense nevertheless remained closer to traditional Christianity than many other new religious movements. (For more details, see my review of Sergei Prokofieff's "Mystery of the Resurrection in the Light of Anthroposophy".)

Apart from Steiner's views on Christianity, "Christianity as a Mystical Fact" also contains expositions on Plato and Heraclitus, arguing that both were initiates into the ancient mysteries.

This book exists in a plethora of different editions. This review is based on the 1961 English translation, published by Rudolf Steiner Publications and available free on-line at the Rudolf Steiner Archive. It contains an interesting introduction by Alfred Heidenreich, who reminisces about Steiner and reveals that this spiritual leader had one very human weakness: snuff tobacco! The edition depicted on this product page could be another one...