new religious movement[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]
- ^ Robertson, David G. (2021). Gnosticism and the History of Religions. Scientific Studies of Religion: Inquiry and Explanation. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 57. ISBN 978-1-350-13770-7. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
Theosophy, together with its continental sister, Anthroposophy... are pure Gnosticism in Hindu dress...
- ^ Gilmer, Jane (2021). The Alchemical Actor. Consciousness, Literature and the Arts. Brill. p. 41. ISBN 978-90-04-44942-8. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
Jung and Steiner were both versed in ancient gnosis and both envisioned a paradigmatic shift in the way it was delivered.
- ^ Quispel, Gilles (1980). Layton, Bentley (ed.). The Rediscovery of Gnosticism: The school of Valentinus. Studies in the history of religions : Supplements to Numen. E.J. Brill. p. 123. ISBN 978-90-04-06176-7. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
After all, Theosophy is a pagan, Anthroposophy a Christian form of modern Gnosis.
- ^ Quispel, Gilles; van Oort, Johannes (2008). Gnostica, Judaica, Catholica. Collected Essays of Gilles Quispel. Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies. Brill. p. 370. ISBN 978-90-474-4182-3. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
- ^ Carlson, Maria (2018). "Petersburg and Modern Occultism". In Livak, Leonid (ed.). A Reader's Guide to Andrei Bely's "petersburg. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 58. ISBN 978-0-299-31930-4. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
Theosophy and Anthroposophy are fundamentally Gnostic systems in that they posit the dualism of Spirit and Matter.
- ^ McL. Wilson, Robert (1993). "Gnosticism". In Metzger, Bruce M.; Coogan, Michael D. (eds.). The Oxford Companion to the Bible. Oxford Companions. Oxford University Press. p. 256. ISBN 978-0-19-974391-9. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
Gnosticism has often been regarded as bizarre and outlandish, and certainly it is not easily understood until it is examined in its contemporary setting. It was, however, no mere playing with words and ideas, but a serious attempt to resolve real problems: the nature and destiny of the human race, the problem of *evil, the human predicament. To a gnostic it brought a release and joy and hope, as if awakening from a nightmare. One later offshoot, Manicheism, became for a time a world religion, reaching as far as China, and there are at least elements of gnosticism in such medieval movements as those of the Bogomiles and the Cathari. Gnostic influence has been seen in various works of modern literature, such as those of William Blake and W. B. Yeats, and is also to be found in the Theosophy of Madame Blavatsky and the Anthroposophy of Rudolph Steiner. Gnosticism was of lifelong interest to the psychologist C. G. *Jung, and one of the Nag Hammadi codices (the Jung Codex) was for a time in the Jung Institute in Zurich.
- ^ Diener, Astrid; Hipolito, Jane (2013) [2002]. The Role of Imagination in Culture and Society: Owen Barfield's Early Work. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 77. ISBN 978-1-7252-3320-1. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
- ^ Gardner, Martin (1957) [1952]. Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science. Dover Books on the Occult. Dover Publications. pp. 169, 224f. ISBN 978-0-486-20394-2. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
The late Rudolf Steiner, founder of the Anthroposophical Society, the fastest growing cult in post-war Germany... Closely related to the organic farming movement is the German anthroposophical cult founded by Rudolf Steiner, whom we met earlier in connection with his writings on Atlantis and Lemuria. ... In essence, the anthroposophists' approach to the soil is like their approach to the human body—a variation of homeopathy. (See Steiner's An Outline of Anthroposophical Medical Research, English translation, 1939, for an explanation of how mistletoe, when properly prepared, will cure cancer by absorbing "etheric forces" and strengthening the "astral body.") They believe the soil can be made more "dynamic" by adding to it certain mysterious preparations which, like the medicines of homeopathic "purists," are so diluted that nothing material of the compound remains.
- ^ McDermott, Robert A. (1987). "Anthroposophy". In Eliade, Mircea (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Religion. New York: Macmillan Reference USA. p. 320. ISBN 0-02-909700-2.
- ^ Steiner, Rudolf; Seddon, Richard; Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas (2004). Rudolf Steiner. Western Esoteric Masters. North Atlantic Books. p. 7. ISBN 978-1-55643-490-7. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
blended modern Theosophy with a Gnostic form of Christianity, Rosicrucianism, and German Naturphilosophie
- ^ Swartz, Karen; Hammer, Olav (14 June 2022). "Soft charisma as an impediment to fundamentalist discourse: The case of the Anthroposophical Society in Sweden". Approaching Religion. 12 (2): 18–37. doi:10.30664/ar.113383. ISSN 1799-3121.
2. It can be noted that insiders routinely deny that Anthroposophy is a religion and prefer to characterise it as, for example, a philosophical perspective or a form of science. From a scholarly perspective, however, Anthroposophy has all the elements that one typically associates with a religion, for example, a charismatic founder whose status is based on claims of having direct insight into a normally invisible spiritual dimension of existence, a plethora of culturally postulated suprahuman beings that are said to influence our lives, concepts of an afterlife, canonical texts and rituals. Religions whose members deny that the movement they belong to has anything to do with religion are not uncommon in the modern age, but the reason for this is a matter that goes beyond the confines of this article.
- ^ Brandt, Katharina; Hammer, Olav (2013). "Rudolf Steiner and Theosophy". In Hammer, Olav; Rothstein, Mikael (eds.). Handbook of the Theosophical Current. Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion. Brill. p. 113 fn. 1. ISBN 978-90-04-23597-7. Retrieved 23 January 2024.
From a scholar's point of view, Anthroposophy presents characteristics typically associated with religion, and in particular concepts of suprahuman agents (such as angels), a charismatic founder with postulated insight into the suprahuman realm (Steiner himself), rituals (for instance, eurythmy), and canonical texts (Steiner's writings). From an insider's perspective, however, "anthroposophy is not a religion, nor is it meant to be a substitute for religion. While its insights may support, illuminate or complement religious practice, it provides no belief system" (from the Waldorf school website www.waldorfanswers.com/ NotReligion1.htm, accessed 9 October 2011). The contrast between a scholarly and an insiders' perspective on what constitutes religion is highlighted by the clinching warrant for this assertion. Although the website argues that Anthroposophy is not a religion by stating that there are no spiritual teachers and no beliefs, it does so by adding a reference to a text by Steiner, who thus functions as an unquestioned authority figure.
- ^ Hammer, Olav (2008). Geertz, Armin; Warburg, Margit (eds.). New Religions and Globalization. Renner Studies On New Religions. Aarhus University Press. p. 69. ISBN 978-87-7934-681-9. Retrieved 23 January 2024.
Anthroposophy is thus from an emic point of view emphatically not a religion.
- ^ Toncheva, Svetoslava (2013). "Anthroposophy as religious syncretism". SOTER: Journal of Religious Science. 48 (48): 81–89. doi:10.7220/1392-7450.48(76).5.
- ^ Clemen, Carl (1924). "Anthroposophy". The Journal of Religion. 4 (3): 281–292. doi:10.1086/480431. ISSN 0022-4189. S2CID 222446655.
- ^
- Norman, Alex (2012). Cusack, Carole M.; Norman, Alex (eds.). Handbook of New Religions and Cultural Production. Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion. Brill. p. 213. ISBN 978-90-04-22187-1. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
- Frisk, Liselotte (2012). Cusack, Carole M.; Norman, Alex (eds.). Handbook of New Religions and Cultural Production. Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion. Brill. p. 204 fn. 10, 208. ISBN 978-90-04-22187-1. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
Thus my conclusion is that it is quite uncontroversial to see Anthroposophy as a whole as a religious movement, in the conventional use of the term, although it is not an emic term used by Anthroposophists themselves.
- Cusack, Carole M. (2012). Cusack, Carole M.; Norman, Alex (eds.). Handbook of New Religions and Cultural Production. Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion. Brill. p. 190. ISBN 978-90-04-22187-1. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
Steiner, of all esoteric and new religious teachers of the early twentieth century, was acutely aware of the peculiar value of cultural production, an activity with which he engaged with tireless energy, and considerable (amateur and professional) skill and achievement.
- ^ Zander, Helmut (2002). "Die Anthroposophie — Eine Religion?". In Hoheisel, Karl; Hutter, Manfred; Klein, Wolfgang Wassilios; Vollmer, Ulrich (eds.). Hairesis: Festschrift für Karl Hoheisel zum 65. Geburtstag. Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum (in German). Aschendorff. p. 537. ISBN 978-3-402-08120-4. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
- ^ Ellwood, Robert; Partin, Harry (2016) [1988, 1973]. Religious and Spiritual Groups in Modern America (2nd ed.). Taylor & Francis. p. unpaginated. ISBN 978-1-315-50723-1. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
On the one hand, there are what might be called the Western groups, which reject the alleged extravagance and orientalism of evolved Theosophy, in favor of a serious emphasis on its metaphysics and especially its recovery of the Gnostic and Hermetic heritage. These groups feel that the love of India and its mysteries which grew up after Isis Unveiled was unfortunate for a Western group. In this category there are several Neo-Gnostic and Neo-Rosicrucian groups. The Anthroposophy of Rudolf Steiner is also in this category. On the other hand, there are what may be termed "new revelation" Theosophical schisms, generally based on new revelations from the Masters not accepted by the main traditions. In this set would be Alice Bailey's groups, "I Am," and in a sense Max Heindel's Rosicrucianism.
- ^ Winker, Eldon K. (1994). The New Age is Lying to You. Concordia scholarship today. Concordia Publishing House. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-570-04637-0. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
The Christology of Cerinthus is notably similar to that of Rudolf Steiner (who founded the Anthroposophical Society in 1912) and contemporary New Age writers such as David Spangler and George Trevelyan. These individuals all say the Christ descended on the human Jesus at his baptism. But they differ with Cerinthus in that they do not believe the Christ departed from Jesus prior to the crucfixion.12
- ^ Rhodes, Ron (1990). The Counterfeit Christ of the New Age Movement. Christian Research Institute Series. Baker Book House. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-8010-7757-9. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
- ^ Hammer, Olav (2015). Lewis, James R.; Tøllefsen, Inga Bårdsen (eds.). Handbook of Nordic New Religions. Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion. Brill. pp. 56–57. ISBN 978-90-04-29246-8. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
- ^ Gilhus, Sælid (2016). Bogdan, Henrik; Hammer, Olav (eds.). Western Esotericism in Scandinavia. Brill Esotericism Reference Library. Brill. p. 56. ISBN 978-90-04-32596-8. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
- ^ Hammer, Olav (2014). Partridge, Christopher (ed.). The Occult World. Routledge Worlds. Taylor & Francis. p. 350. ISBN 978-1-317-59676-9. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
- ^ Ahlbäck, Tore (2008-01-01). "Rudolf Steiner as a religious authority". Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis. 20. doi:10.30674/scripta.67323. ISSN 2343-4937.
- ^ Schnurbein, Stefanie von; Ulbricht, Justus H. (2001). Völkische Religion und Krisen der Moderne: Entwürfe "arteigener" Glaubenssysteme seit der Jahrhundertwende (in German). Königshausen & Neumann. p. 38. ISBN 978-3-8260-2160-2. Retrieved 8 February 2024. apud Staudenmaier, Peter (1 February 2008). "Race and Redemption: Racial and Ethnic Evolution in Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy". Nova Religio. 11 (3). University of California Press: 4–36. doi:10.1525/nr.2008.11.3.4. ISSN 1092-6690.
- ^ See also International Bureau of Education (1960). Organization of Special Education for Mentally Deficient Children: A Study in Comparative Education. UNESCO. p. 15. Retrieved 9 February 2024.
anthroposophy - a religion based upon the philosophical and scientific knowledge of man
- ^ See also International Bureau of Education (1957). Bulletin of the International Bureau of Education. International Bureau of Education. p. 36. Retrieved 9 February 2024.
anthroposophy - a religion based upon the philosophical and scientific knowledge of man
- ^ Hansson, Sven Ove (1 July 2022). "Anthroposophical Climate Science Denial". Critical Research on Religion. 10 (3). SAGE Publications: 281–297. doi:10.1177/20503032221075382. ISSN 2050-3032.
- ^ Ahern, Geoffrey (2009). Sun at Midnight. Cambridge: James Clarke Company. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-227-17293-3.
- ^ See also Brown, Candy Gunther (6 May 2019). "Waldorf Methods". Debating Yoga and Mindfulness in Public Schools. University of North Carolina Press. pp. 229–254. doi:10.5149/northcarolina/9781469648484.003.0012. ISBN 978-1-4696-4848-4. S2CID 241945146.
premised on anthroposophy, a religious sect founded by Steiner;
- ^ Toncheva, Svetoslava (2015). Out of the New Spirituality of the Twentieth Century (PDF). Berlin: Frank & Timme GmbH. pp. 13, 17. ISBN 978-3-7329-0132-6. ISSN 2196-3312.