Research ResourceSun at Midnight: The Rudolf Steiner Movement and Gnosis in the West
2nd Edition, © 2009 by Geoffrey Ahern
(Geoffrey Ahern, on his blog, refused to pass any judgement on whether Steiner's belief system could be considered 'crazy'. Instead, Ahern suggests using the bench mark of what, as a layperson, I call honesty/full disclosure.
"So my thinking comes back to transparency as a main criterion of acceptability. Whatever the metaphysical basis of the (Waldorf) education, is this made sufficiently clear? Sufficient explicitness here could be a qualifying condition, it seems to me, along with other more specific educational criteria to do with the quality of the teaching etc. For example, is enough said by Steinerians in their school brochures etc about just what kind of ’science’ Steinerian science would be perceived to be by non-followers?"
Earlier Ahearn did make this distinction between Scientific Method and Steiners form of 'spiritual science':
" Steinerian science clearly is a form of knowledge, however crazy we may find it,
but it is not framed so that it has falsifiable hypotheses."
(
So, thats how we can evaluate TTown or any project: does it have falsifiable hypotheses? And are the organizers up front/transparent about their belief system and financial backing, or do they consider themselves a gnostic elite entitled to keep secrets from us, 'for our own good'.? Corboy)[
www.sun-at-midnight.com]
More About the Book
Extensively revised and updated, the long-awaited second edition of Geoffrey Ahern's definitive classic text on Anthroposophy is now available in stores and for direct order from Lutterworth Press.
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◦Waldorf Schools (also known as Steiner Schools)
◦Camphill Communities (for the disabled)
◦Biodynamic produce and agriculture
◦Weleda medicine
◦Eurythmy
◦Speech Formation
◦The First Class
◦School of Spiritual Science
◦The Christian Community churches
◦Anthroposophy
◦Astrosophy
◦The Triodos Bank
◦The Threefold Commonwealth
Chances are that at least one of these things is familiar to you, whether you're a parent who has looked at the schooling options for your child(ren), or you've seen one or another of these labels on products at your local health food store (or in your chain store's new "healthy choices" section). Or maybe you've seen them as a student of comparative religion, or even of some of the so-called "alternative religions" that seem to be growing in popularity and/or public awareness.
What you may not know is that a single thread runs through all of these diverse practises, and others that may seem even more disparate as well, such as:
◦Theosophy
◦Freemasonry
◦The Order of the Golden Dawn
◦Ordo Templi Orientis
◦and the origins of such religions as Wicca and other neopagan traditions.
That thread is Rudolf Steiner -- whose dedication to sharing his 'spiritual science' with the world led him to found what has become a world-wide movement based upon his teachings.
This has been difficult for outsiders to this movement to fully perceive and understand, because to know Rudolf Steiner in the context of only one of the institutions he founded is to know only a facet of his background, or his teachings. Those who know of him only as the founder of the Waldorf schools, for instance, conceive of him as an educationalist -- they are generally seeking to know only his background in this area, and this is what is presented to them when they inquire about the founder of this "alternative, arts-oriented" form of education.
(quote)
Likewise, many 'green' consumers in shopping for organic foods, have gotten used to seeing biodynamics as just another word for 'organically grown', or at best a certain set of organic production standards.
'Yet, like the Waldorf schools, the entire practise of biodynamic agriculture has a much deeper set of beliefs and practises behind it, far beyond its avoidance of synthetic chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. These too are sourced from Steiner's unifying 'spiritual science', in addition to the invaluable bits of pre-industrial agricultural knowledge that he gathered from the farmers of the rural countryside, and preserved through the height of the Western world's infatuation with the new wonder sprays of chemical agriculture.
Who was Steiner? What were these teachings and beliefs that tie together so many disparate fields, from education to agriculture, from medicine to religion to finance?
(quote)
That thread is Rudolf Steiner -- whose dedication to sharing his 'spiritual science' with the world led him to found what has become a world-wide movement based upon his teachings.
This has been difficult for outsiders to this movement to fully perceive and understand, because to know Rudolf Steiner in the context of only one of the institutions he founded is to know only a facet of his background, or his teachings. Those who know of him only as the founder of the Waldorf schools, for instance, conceive of him as an educationalist -- they are generally seeking to know only his background in this area, and this is what is presented to them when they inquire about the founder of this "alternative, arts-oriented" form of education.
Yet his schools derive as much or more from his other aspects as from his background as a tutor, and the years he spent in his twenties, educating the children of the Specht family. Much of his dedication in those years is shown in the arduous care he devoted to the 'sleeping soul' of one of the boys, who overcame his 'water on the brain' to become a doctor. It is from this experience that he derived many of his beliefs about the potential of 'curative education', which in turn take form in the practise of Eurythmy, and in more specialised form in the Camphill Communities for the disabled, where staff and patients live together as 'co-workers' and 'villagers', with no social dividing line between them. Developed still further, these teachings became the field of Anthroposophical medicine, whose leading brand name of Weleda is now a common sight in health food and natural products stores the world over.
...Likewise, many 'green' consumers, in shopping for organic foods, have gotten used to seeing biodynamics as
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/2010 07:36AM by corboy.