Table Of ContentChristianity As Mystical Fact
and the Mysteries of Antiquity
by
Rudolf Steiner
Introduction by The Rev. Alfred HeidenReich, Ph.D.
[Translation from the German and with Notes
by E. A. Frommer, Gabrielle Hess and Peter Kändler (1961)]
As his source for many of the classical quotations include in Christianity as Mystical Fact,
Rudolf Steiner used Otto Willman's Geschichte des Idealismus, History of Idealism.
The present translators have referred to original texts wherever possible for this edition.
CONTENTS
Opening Quotes by Rudolf Steiner
Bibliographical Note
Foreword
Introduction: Rudolf Steiner — A Biographical Sketch
Author's Preface to the Second Edition
Points of View
Mysteries and Mystery Wisdom
Greek Sages Before Plato In the Light of Mystery Wisdom
Plato as a Mystic
Mystery Wisdom and Myth
Egyptian Mystery Wisdom
The Gospels
The Miracle of the Raising of Lazarus
The Apocalypse of John
Jesus and His Historical Background
The Essence of Christianity
Christianity and Pagan Wisdom
Augustine and the Church
Comments By the Author
Translator's Notes
Reference Guide to Principal Themes in Christianity As Mystical Fact,
Based on Other Works by Rudolf Steiner
Christianity as
Mystical Fact
and
The Mysteries of
Antiquity
by
Rudolf Steiner
Translation from the German and with Notes
by
E. A. Frommer, Gabrielle Hess and Peter Kändler
Introduction
by
The Rev. Alfred HeidenReich, Ph.D.
Rudolf Steiner Publications, Inc.
West Nyack, New York
Copyright ã 1961 by Rudolf Steiner Publications, Inc.
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number 61-18165
0-88010-119-9 (cloth)
Cover: Graphic form based on a drawing by Rudolf Steiner.
Title lettering, Peter Stebbing
Opening Quotes by Rudolf Steiner
Christianity is only in the beginning of its activity, and its real
mission will be fulfilled when it is understood in its true
spiritual form.
What Christianity bestows goes with us into all ages of time to
come and will still be one of the essential impulses in humanity
when religion, as we know it, is no longer in existence. Even
when religion as such has been transcended, Christianity will
remain. The fact that it was first of all a religion is connected
with the evolutionary process of humanity. But Christianity as
a world-view is greater than all religions.
— Rudolf Steiner
From lectures given in 1908
Bibliographical Note
Rudolf Steiner's Christianity as Mystical Fact and the Mysteries of
Antiquity (Das Christentum als mystische Tatsache) was first
published by C. A. Schwetschke and Son, Berlin, 1902. It was
dedicated to Count and Countess Brockdorff “and also to my
dear Vienna Friends, Rosa Mayreder and Moritz Zitter.” An
octavo volume, measuring approximately 6 by 9 inches, the book
contained 141 pages of text plus 6 pages of prefatory matter. The
second edition, thoroughly revised and enlarged (strictly
speaking, this edition is the first to carry the sub-title, the
Mysteries of Antiquity), was published by the well-known Leipzig
publishing firm of Max Altmann. This edition, also an octavo
volume like the first, contained 192 pages of text plus 6 pages of
introductory material. The Foreword to this second edition was
dated May, 1910. The 3rd and 4th editions also appeared with the
Altmann imprint in 1910. The 5th edition was published by the
Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag am Goetheanum,
Dornach, Switzerland, 1925, as an octavo volume, containing 164
pages of text and 8 pages of introductory material.
A specially licensed edition appeared in Dresden in 1936. In 1949
under a license agreement, a German edition — the 6th edition
of the book — appeared in Stuttgart. This was one of the
Steiner titles published in post-war Germany to meet a
widespread demand for his books, all of which had been
confiscated and burned by the Gestapo under orders from the
Nazi government. The most recent edition — the 7th — of this
book was published by the Rudolf Steiner-Nachlassverwaltung,
Dornach, Switzerland, in 1959. It is from this edition that the
present translation has been made. In all, thirty one thousand
copies of Das Christentum ak mystische Tatsache have been
published since its first appearance in 1902. Not included in this
total is a pocket book edition which was published early in 1961
in Stuttgart.
The first “authorized English translation” of this book
appeared in London under the editorship of the late Harry
Collison in 1914, and in subsequent editions and reprintings in
1922, 1930 and 1938, through the Rudolf Steiner Publishing
Company. A “completely revised, authorized English
translation, copyright by Henry B. Monges” was issued in 1947
by the Anthroposophic Press, New York. The present
translation of Christianity as Mystical Fact is entirely new
having been undertaken especially for the Centennial Edition
of the Written Works of Rudolf Steiner (1861–1961).
Foreword
IN THIS BOOK Rudolf Steiner traces the path leading from the
secret rituals of ancient Mystery sanctuaries to their ultimate
fulfillment in the Mystery of Golgotha, accomplished by Christ
“on the great stage of world history as an external fact.”
Steiner shows how the currents of spiritual experience forming
the science, art and religion of the ancient world, found their
highest expression in the Passion, Death and Resurrection of
Christ — the Mystery of Golgotha. In the latter Steiner saw the
central event in the evolution of cosmos, earth and man, the
culminating point of the prehistorical and historical process,
which began with the divine word, “Let there be light.” In
Christ's Deed of Freedom he recognized the spiritual impulse in
which alone can be found the significance and the destiny of all
created things. Steiner considered “the Logos which became
flesh” as the foundation for all contemporary religious striving,
stating plainly, “Today it is no longer possible to find the
spiritual unless we grasp the Mystery of Golgotha.” This book
is a first step on the way to a truly modern comprehension of
the Mystery of Golgotha — of the events leading up to it, and of
the consequences of it in the early years of our era. It carries
the reader from that time when men still recognized as
concrete, living reality the birth of all things out of the divine
Will, through the central moment of the Death on Golgotha, to
the awakening of new possibilities for creation in the dawning
light of the Spirit.
How Steiner came to this profound insight into the nature and
significance of Christ, how he prepared for it by long and
arduous schooling in natural science, philosophy, and — above
all — in the development of his own inner life is shown in the
introduction to this book. The Rev. Dr. Alfred Heidenreich met
Rudolf Steiner personally and attended a number of his lecture
courses. His impressions of this outstanding thinker of our
time are a valuable contribution to this volume of the
Centennial Edition of the Written Works of Rudolf Steiner.
The present translation of Christianity as Mystical Fact is the
fruit of the joint effort of three students of Steiner's writings —
one of them an active clergyman. The translation, together
with their explanatory and reference notes, bear the marks of
careful scholarship, and will be valued by the serious student.
In his use of the word “mystical” in the title of this volume,
Steiner refers indirectly to a modern spiritual training, leading
to what he termed “exact cognition of the spirit.” Although he
cited numerous writers of the late classical and early Christian
centuries, he depended first of all upon this “exact cognition”
rather than traditional or historical sources From the vantage-
point of his conscious perception of spiritual reality, he saw in
Christianity a “Mystical Fact” of a scope and significance
beyond the powers of ordinary human conception.
In addition to sharing with others the fruits of his own spiritual
perception by means of books such as this, Steiner outlined a
science of the spirit, involving a method of training suited to
the capacities of men and women of today. He indicated how a
person can awaken dormant faculties within himself, can learn
to open his spiritual eyes, thus attaining a clear, conscious
grasp of higher reality.
The first step on this path of spiritual training is to be found in
the injunction of the ancient world: “Know thyself.” From early
times, self-knowledge has been recognized as the indispensable
first goal of spiritual achievement. In an early Christian
century one of the Desert Fathers wrote: “Great is one who can
raise the dead; great is one who can see angels with his physical
eyes; but really great is one who is able to see himself. — Such a
one has his spiritual eyes open.” Rudolf Steiner sets self-
knowledge as the sine qua non for those today who would begin
the pilgrimage out of the darkness, who would strive toward an
opening of their spiritual eyes to a conscious perception of The
Light of the World.
PAUL MARSHALL ALLEN
Alvastra,
South Egremont, Massachusetts
September 1961
