Rudolf Steiner's Path of Initiation and the Mystery of the Ego and The Foundations of Anthroposophical Methodology : Two Lectures in Bologna: on 31 March 2011 During the International Conference to Mark the Centenary of Rudolf Steiner's Lecture in Bologna

by Rudolf Steiner, Sergei O. Prokofieff

Overview

A special conference took place in Bologna in Spring 2011, marking the hundredth anniversary of a unique lecture Rudolf Steiner delivered to a philosophically-trained audience in the same city. In his key exposition, Steiner had given a concise description of the spiritual-scientific theory of knowledge as well as a brief outline of the anthroposophical path of schooling. In his contribution to the 2011 congress, Sergéi O. Prokofieff tackles two principal aspects. On the one hand, he describes how Steiner's Bologna lecture contained the essential foundations for a new 'science of the human ego'. On the other hand, Prokofieff states that Rudolf Steiner was the first person to transform this same theory into a practical path of knowledge, following it to its very conclusion. Thus, the words of Rudolf Steiner's lecture were based entirely on personal experience. Together with a transcript of Rudolf Steiner's full Bologna lecture, Sergei O. Prokofieff's own lecture is reproduced here in an expanded version. In addition, this volume features Rudolf Steiner's important 'summaries of essential points', in which he develops and connects some of his key thoughts with further aspects of anthroposophy, especially in relation to their Christological foundations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781906999551
Publisher:	Rudolf Steiner Pr
Publication date:	09/30/2013
Pages:	62
Product dimensions:	6.18(w) x 9.35(h) x 0.27(d)

About the Author

Rudolf Steiner (b. Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner, 1861-1925) was born in the small village of Kraljevec, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Croatia), where he grew up. As a young man, he lived in Weimar and Berlin, where he became a well-published scientific, literary, and philosophical scholar, known especially for his work with Goethe's scientific writings. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he began to develop his early philosophical principles into an approach to systematic research into psychological and spiritual phenomena. Formally beginning his spiritual teaching career under the auspices of the Theosophical Society, Steiner came to use the term Anthroposophy (and spiritual science) for his philosophy, spiritual research, and findings. The influence of Steiner's multifaceted genius has led to innovative and holistic approaches in medicine, various therapies, philosophy, religious renewal, Waldorf education, education for special needs, threefold economics, biodynamic agriculture, Goethean science, architecture, and the arts of drama, speech, and eurythmy. In 1924, Rudolf Steiner founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches throughout the world. He died in Dornach, Switzerland.

Sergei O. Prokofieff (1954-2014) was born in Moscow, where he studied fine arts and painting at the Moscow School of Art. At an early age he encountered the work of Rudolf Steiner and quickly realized that his life would be dedicated to the Christian path of esoteric knowledge. He wrote his first book, Rudolf Steiner and the Founding of the New Mysteries, while living in Soviet Russia, and it was published in English in 1994. After the fall of Communism, he helped establish the Anthroposophical Society in Russia. In 2001, he became a member of the Executive Council of the General Anthroposophical Society at the Goetheanum in Switzerland. More than 30 of his books have been translated into English. Sergei Prokofieff passed away in Dornach, Switzerland.

Olin D. Wannamaker (1875-1974) was born in Bamberg, South Carolina in the aftermath of the Civil War. One of eleven children, he received an M.A. at Vanderbilt University in Nashville and completed a year of postgraduate work at Harvard, focusing on philosophy and German and Greek languages. Having accepted an educational post in China, in 1902 he founded a high school near Canton that eventually became a university. He also oversaw the construction of roads and bridges while in China. He soon met and married Katherine Hume. A year later, they returned to the U.S., where he joined the faculty of the Auburn Polytechnic Institute in 1912. During World War I, he edited a newspaper for American soldiers in Italy, where he and his family lived for several years. In the Early 1920s, he became interested in Anthroposophy and joined the Society in 1923, enrolling is daughter of eleven in a Waldorf school and moved to Dornach, Switzerland. Olin Wannamaker soon became involved in the spiritual life at the Goetheanum, publishing the American Newsletter. After returning to the U.S., he served as chair of the Anthroposophical Society in America from 1958 to 1962. After a busy period of lecturing and writing, he died on Easter Sunday at the age of 98.

Table of Contents

Foreword Sergei O. Prokofieff 1

Part I Sergei O. Prokofieff

Rudolf Steiner's Path of Initiation and the Mystery of the Ego

Lecture held in Bologna on 31 March 2011 during the International Conference to mark the Centenary of Rudolf Steiner's Lecture in Bologna 7

Part II Rudolf Steiner

The Foundations of Anthroposophical Methodology

1 Lecture held in Bologna on 8 April 1911 at the Fourth International Philosophy Conference 27

The Psychological Foundations of Anthroposophy and its Standpoint in Relation to the Theory of Knowledge 27

A Spirited-Scientific Mode of Perception Based upon Potential Psychological Facts 29

The Experiences of the Spiritual Researcher and the- Theory of Knowledge 42

2 Two Summaries of Essential Points from the Lecture in Bologna 48

Theosophy and Modern Cultural Life 48

A Statement about Theosophy at the Fourth International Philosophy Conference 51

Notes 55