Anthroposophy & Christianity

The gifts of Christianity that will be carried forward into all future times, will, once religion no longer exists, give rise to one of the most important impulses of mankind. Even when humanity has overcome the need for a religious life, Christianity will still remain. The fact that it was originally a religion is connected with human evolution; as a comprehensive world-view, though, it is greater than all religions.

- Rudolf Steiner, May 13th, 1908, GA 102

We can ask ourselves the following: when religion is assumed into knowledge, when religion in its old form - in which the wisdom guiding evolution is gained merely through belief - is no longer available to people, will Christianity exist? No other religion, based solely on belief, will remain; but Christianity will still be there, for although is was originally a religion, it is greater than all religion! This is Rosicrucian wisdom.

The original principle of Christianity was more all-encompassing than that of all other religions. But Christianity is also greater than the very idea of religion itself. When the outer husks of belief fall away, its inner core - the very form of wisdom itself - will appear. It has the innate capacity to shed its outer husks of belief and become a religion of wisdom; the science of the spirit will help prepare humanity for this. Humanity will be able to survive without the old forms of religion and belief, but it will not survive without Christianity, for Christianity is greater than all religion.

Christianity exists to break through all religious forms; the core of Christianity which fills human souls will still be there after they have outgrown all mere religious life.

- Rudolf Steiner, 24th of March, 1908, GA 102

Spiritual Science does not want to usurp the place of Christianity; on the contrary it would like to be instrumental in making Christianity understood. Thus it becomes clear to us through Spiritual Science that the being whom we call Christ is to be recognized as the center of life on earth, that the Christian religion is the ultimate religion for the earth's whole future. Spiritual science shows us particularly that the pre-Christian religions outgrow their one-sidedness and come together in the Christian faith. It is not the desire of Spiritual Science to set something else in the place of Christianity; rather it wants to contribute to a deeper, more heartfelt understanding of Christianity.


Anthroposophy is further reproached for making Christ a cosmic being; however, it only widens our earthly way of looking at things beyond merely terrestrial concerns into the far reaches of the universe. Thus our knowledge can embrace the universe spiritually, just as Copernicus, with his knowledge, embraced the external world. The need Spiritual Science feels to encompass what is most holy to it is simply due to a feeling that is religious and deeply scientific at the same time. Before Copernicus, people determined the movements of the stars on the basis of what they saw. Since Copernicus, they have learned to draw conclusions independent of their sensory perception. Is Spiritual Science to be blamed for doing the same with respect to the spiritual concerns of mankind? Up until now, people regarded Christianity and the life of Christ Jesus in the only way open to them. Spiritual Science would like to widen their view to include cosmic spiritual reality as well. It adds what it has researched to what was known before about the Christ. It recognizes in Christ an eternal Being Who, unlike other human beings, entered once only into a physical body and is henceforth united with all human souls.

May I be allowed to draw attention once again to the fact that Spiritual Science has no desire to found a religion of any kind; rather does it want to set a more religious mood of soul-life and to lead us to the Christ as the Being at the center of religious life. It brings about a deepened religious awareness. 

Anyone who fears that Spiritual Science could destroy his religious awareness resembles a person — if I may use this analogy — who might have approached Columbus before he set sail for America and asked, “What do you want to discover America for? The sun comes up so beautifully here in our good old Europe. How do we know if the sun also rises in America, warming people and shining on the earth?” Anyone familiar with the laws of physical reality would have known that the sun shines on all continents. But anyone fearing for Christianity is like the person described as fearing the discovery of a new continent because he thinks the sun might not shine there. He who truly bears the Christ-Sun in his soul knows that the Christ-Sun shines on every continent. And regardless of what may still be discovered, either in realms of nature or in realms of spirit, the “America of the spirit” will never be discovered unless truly religious life turns with a sense of belonging toward the Christ-Sun as the center of our existence on the earth, unless that Sun shines — warming, illumining, and enkindling our human souls. Only a person whose religious feeling is weak would fear that it could die or waste away because of some new discovery. But a person strong in his genuine feeling for the Christ will not be afraid that knowledge might undermine his faith.

Spiritual Science lives in this conviction. It speaks out of this conviction to contemporary culture. It knows that truly religious thinking and feeling cannot be endangered by research of any kind, but that only weak religious sentiment has anything to fear. Spiritual Science knows that we can trust our sense for truth. Through the shattering events in his soul life which he has experienced objectively, the spiritual researcher knows what lives in the depths of the human soul. Through his investigations he has come to have confidence in the human soul and has seen that it is most intimately related to the truth. As a result, he believes — signs of the times to the contrary — in the ultimate victory of Spiritual Science. And he counts on the truth-loving and genuinely religious life of the human soul to bring about this victory.

-Rudolf Steiner, Anthroposophy & Christianity, Norrköping, July 13th, 1914 GA 155

Anthroposophy has set itself the task of sweeping human souls clean of those strong doubts that have been placed in them by external science. In a true scientific spirit, anthroposophical science has the task of overcoming what external science has the task of overcoming what external science cannot overcome. It will be able to reintroduce genuine religious life into human souls. It will not contribute to the slaying of religious feeling but will reintroduce into human evolution a religious sense for everything. Human beings will gain a new understanding of Christianity when they turn towards the Mystery of Golgotha which anthroposophy alone can help people to understand and accept fully.

Since anthroposophy gives human beings not only a reawakening of old religious understanding but also a new religious sense through knowledge, it can most certainly not be said to be aiming for anything sectarian. It has as little intention in this direction as any other science. 

Anthroposophy does not strive to form sects. It wants to serve the religions that already exist, and in this sense it wants to bring new life into Christianity. It does not want to preserve old religious feelings and help religion press forward in the old way. It wants to contribute to a resurrection of religious life, for this religious life has suffered too much at the hands of modern civilisation. Therefore anthroposophy wants to be a messenger of love. It does not want merely to bring new life to religion in the old sense; it wants to regenerate and reawaken the inner religious life of humanity.

-Rudolf Steiner, Knowledge of Christ through Anthroposophy, London 15th of April, 1922

Those who do not admit that the religions were adapted to particular conditions, but maintain that all religious systems have emanated from one undifferentiated source, can never acquire real knowledge.

To speak only of unity amounts to saying that salt, pepper, paprika and sugar are on the table, but we are not concerned with each of them individually. What we are looking for is the unity that is expressed in these different substances. Of course, one can speak like this, but when it is a question of passing on to practical reality, of using each substance appropriately, the differences between them will certainly be apparent. Nobody who uses these substances will claim that there is no difference, then just put salt or pepper instead of sugar into your coffee or tea, and you will soon find out the truth! Those who make no real distinction between the several religions, but say that they all come from the same source, are making the same kind of blunder. If we wish to know how a living thread runs through the different religions towards a great goal, we must seek to understand this thread, and study and value of each religion for its particular sphere.

- Rudolf Steiner