Rudolf Steiner's Intentions for the Anthroposophical Society

By Peter Selg

Although the fruits of Anthroposophy - Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, Camphill, anthroposophic medicine, and so on - are relatively well known and moderately successful, their relationship to Anthroposophy and its vehicle for transmission, the General Anthroposophical Society, and the School for Spiritual Science, remains mysterious and unclear; sadly, the same is true of the meaning and purpose of those institutions.

Related to this is the fact that, though these offshoots of Anthroposophy are well known, eighty-five years after his death and eighty-seven years after the re-formation of the Anthroposophical Society, what Rudolf Steiner brought into the world, what entered the world through him and what he sought to accomplish - that is, what spiritual science and spiritual-scientific research are and how one practices them - remain virtually unknown.

In other words, something essential has been forgotten.

Written both in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Rudolf Steiner's birth and in the context of the long-standing, episodically erupting, and ongoing confusion surrounding the mission and task of the Anthroposophical Society, Peter Selg seeks to recover what has perhaps been forgotten or overlooked in Rudolf Steiner's own words and life. He does so by describing, clearly and objectively, the historical background of Steiner's vision of the "civilizational task" of Anthroposophy and how he had hoped it might be accomplished.

This book has two parts. First, the author offers a lucid description of the development and gradual sharpening - in the face of the crisis of Western culture epitomized by World War I and its aftermath - of the vision of spiritual science as a truly Michaelic task for the Michael Age.

In part two, Peter Selg takes up the events following Rudolf Steiner's death, outlining deftly and subtly the struggles and developments that ensued, commenting tactfully on the questions and perspectives that arose and continue to arise.

Rudolf Steiner's Intentions for the Anthroposophical Society is a book for all those who care about the reality and future of Anthroposophy.

Originally published in German as Der Vorstand, die Sektionen und die Gesellschaft. Welche Hochschule wollte Rudolf Steiner? by Ita Wegman Institute for Basic Research into Anthroposophy.

Peter Selg was born in 1963 in Stuttgart and studied medicine in Witten-Herdecke, Zurich, and Berlin. Until 2000, he worked as the head physician of the juvenile psychiatry department of Herdecke hospital in Germany. Dr. Selg is now director of the Ita Wegman Institute for Basic Research into Anthro­posophy (Arlesheim, Switzerland) and professor of medicine at the Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences (Germany). He lectures extensively and is the author of numerous books, including Seeing Christ in Sickness and Healing (2005); The Thera­peutic Eye (2008); A Grand Metamorphosis; (2008); The Figure of Christ (2009); Rudolf Steiner as a Spiritual Teacher (2010); and Rudolf Steiner and the Fifth Gospel (2010). He is mar­ried with five children.

Christian von Arnim is the founder and Editor in Chief of News Network Anthroposophy (NNA), "a news agency which covers news and events of interest to anyone wishing to develop a spiritually objective view of the world." He is an experienced radio and print journalist who has worked with news such organizations as the BBC (World Service) and The Scotsman (Foreign Leader Writer). Christian is the founding Editor of NNA. He has translated and contributed to several books, including Eclipses 2005-2017 and Moon Rhythms in Nature.

June 2011; Trans.C von Arnim; SB; 96pp; 14 x 21.5cm; pb;