Johannine Christianity

"Two directions of Cain and Abel — in John the middle. It is necessary to recognise what comes from the two directions ( Ibid ). For this reason, the mediaeval Rosicrucians called themselves "Johannine Christians" ( GA 112: Lecture of 24th June 1909: "The Gospel of St.John in Relation to the Other Three Gospels" ).

[ Note: The Movement for Religious Renewal or the Christian Community, which was founded out of a purely anthroposophical impulse, represents an important step in the process of the uniting of both streams. One of Rudolf Steiner's pupils gave the following account of what he said during an esoteric Lesson that he gave in Christiania ( Oslo ) in May 1923:

"During the meeting he continued to recount the Temple Legend in a very impressive way. Then he went on to speak of how the sons of Abel found their way to the sons of Cain when the theologians asked him for a New ritual" ( GA 263, p. 419 ). In the sense of these words and the special task of Rudolf Steiner standing behind them ( preparing the way for the uniting of both streams in the consciousness soul epoch ), the fact that Rudolf Steiner gave both groups a cycle of lectures on the Book of Revelation – the anthroposohists in June 1908 ( GA 104 ) and the priests of the Christian Community in September 1924 ( GA 346 ) acquires a special significance.

Moreover, in both cycles — although from different aspects — the need for a spiritual development of the element of will is emphasised. This makes it understandable why Marie Steiner, as she reflected at the end of her life about this important task of Rudolf Steiner, wrote in a letter to a Christian Community priest about the need for combined work between these two streams: 

"In the course of pondering these problems it has occurred to me that the moment might eventually come when both movements will no longer need to compete with one another but the knowledge of anthroposophy will quite naturally be able to unite with a ritual which has become knowledge. Of course, this is an ideal for the future" ( Marie Steiner-von Sievers: "Correspondence and Documents" ).

As we have seen, throughout the whole of his anthroposophical activity Rudolf Steiner constantly worked out of the Johannine-Rosicrucian stream of the middle, to which he himself belonged, towards the union of both tendencies. Thus in speaking about the sources of his supersensible knowledge he used from the outset what are essentially two completely opposite expressions: on the one hand, he used the expression "occult research", referring to the direction from below upwards ( the Cain principle ) and, on the other, he spoke of "spiritual revelation", indicating the direction from above downwards ( the Abel principle ). Especially in the karma lectures of 1924, Rudolf Steiner spoke several times about the results of his own spiritual-scientific research in the realm of karma but also about the spiritual beings who guide the anthroposophical movement in the higher worlds, whose "revelations" became significantly stronger as a result of the Christimas Conference. 

For just as a person needs both hands in order to build an earthly temple, with the right hand being the more active of the two and the left being more concerned with the heart, so for the gradual building of the great spiritual temple of humanity there is a need for the combined activity of both streams, the best representatives of which will gradually unite in the middle stream founded by John, which is represented in our time by anthroposophy. Hence Rudolf Steiner could say with full justice "that through our anthroposophical movement one can penetrate to the very sources of Rosicrucianism" ( GA 131: Lecture of 6th October 1911), that is, to its deepest esoteric tasks.

-Sergei Prokofieff