Editing Rudolf Steiner (section)

== Philosophical ideas==
=== Goethean science <!--linked from 'Goethean science'-->===
{{See also|Goethean science}}
In his commentaries on Goethe's scientific works, written between 1884 and 1897, Steiner presented Goethe's approach to science as essentially [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenological]] in nature, rather than theory or model-based. He developed this conception further in several books, ''The Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World-Conception'' (1886) and ''Goethe's Conception of the World'' (1897), particularly emphasizing the transformation in Goethe's approach from the physical sciences, where experiment played the primary role, to plant biology, where both accurate perception and imagination were required to find the biological archetypes (''Urpflanze''). He postulated that Goethe had sought, but been unable to fully find, the further transformation in scientific thinking necessary to properly interpret and understand the animal kingdom.<ref name="Hemleben">Johannes Hemleben, ''Rudolf Steiner: A documentary biography'', Henry Goulden Ltd, 1975, {{ISBN|0-904822-02-8}}, pp. 37–49 and pp. 96–100 (German edition: Rowohlt Verlag, 1990, {{ISBN|3-499-50079-5}})</ref> Steiner emphasized the role of evolutionary thinking in Goethe's discovery of the [[intermaxillary segment|intermaxillary bone]] in human beings; Goethe expected human anatomy to be an evolutionary transformation of animal anatomy.<ref name=Hemleben/> Steiner defended [[Goethe's theory of color|Goethe's qualitative description of color]] as arising synthetically from the polarity of light and darkness, in contrast to [[Isaac Newton|Newton]]'s particle-based and analytic conception.

{{blockquote|Particular organic forms can be evolved only from universal types, and every organic entity we experience must coincide with some one of these derivative forms of the type. Here the evolutionary method must replace the method of proof. We aim not to show that external conditions act upon one another in a certain way and thereby bring about a definite result, but that a particular form has developed under definite external conditions out of the type. This is the radical difference between inorganic and organic science.|author=Rudolf Steiner|source=''The Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World Conception'', Chapter XVI, "Organic Nature"}}

{{blockquote|1=As noted by Hammer, this means that anthroposophy harbors extensive empirical claims on "the most diverse subjects: matters normally defined as belonging to the domain of science, yet made immune to scientific critique because of Steiner’s radical dichotomy—agronomy, chemistry, pharmacology, physiology, anatomy, developmental psychology, astronomy, physics etc." (Hammer 2004, 227).|2={{harvnb|Hansson|2022}}}}

A variety of authors have termed Goethean science [[pseudoscience]].<ref name="Storr-Einstein" /><ref name="FlynnDawkins2007">{{Cite book |last=Dugan |first=Dan |url=http://www.waldorfcritics.org/articles/Anthroposophy.html |title=The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief |publisher=Prometheus Books, Publishers |year=2007 |isbn=9781615922802 |editor-last=Flynn |editor-first=Tom |pages=74–75 |quote=Anthroposophical pseudoscience is easy to find in Waldorf schools. “Goethean science” is supposed to be based only on observation, without “dogmatic” theory. Because observations make no sense without a relationship to some hypothesis, students are subtly nudged in the direction of Steiner’s explanations of the world. Typical departures from accepted science include the claim that Goethe refuted Newton’s theory of color, Steiner’s unique “threefold” systems in physiology, and the oft-repeated doctrine that “the heart is not a pump” (blood is said to move itself). |editor-last2=Dawkins |editor-first2=Richard |accessdate=21 June 2015}}</ref><ref name="Shermer Linse 2002 p. 32">{{Cite book |last=Dugan |first=Dan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gr4snwg7iaEC&pg=PA32 |title=The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2002 |isbn=978-1-57607-653-8 |editor-last=Shermer |editor-first=Michael |pages=31–33 |quote=In physics, Steiner championed Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s color theory over Isaac Newton, and he called relativity “brilliant nonsense.” In astronomy, he taught that the motions of the planets were caused by the relationships of the spiritual beings that inhabited them. In biology, he preached vitalism and doubted germ theory. |editor-last2=Linse |editor-first2=Pat |issue=v. 1}}</ref> According to Dan Dugan, Steiner was a champion of the following pseudoscientific claims:

#Goethe's [[Theory of Colours]];<ref name="Shermer Linse 2002 p. 32" />
#"he called [[theory of relativity|relativity]] 'brilliant nonsense'";<ref name="Shermer Linse 2002 p. 32" /><ref name="Sven Ove">{{Cite journal |last=Hansson |first=Sven Ove |year=1991 |title=Is Anthroposophy Science? |trans-title=Ist die Anthroposophie eine Wissenschaft? |url=http://www.waldorfcritics.org/articles/Hansson.html |journal=Conceptus: Zeitschrift für Philosophie |volume=XXV |issue=64 |pages=37–49 |issn=0010-5155}}</ref>
#"he taught that the [[Celestial mechanics|motions of the planets]] were caused by the relationships of the spiritual beings that inhabited them";<ref name="Shermer Linse 2002 p. 32" />
#[[vitalism]];<ref name="Shermer Linse 2002 p. 32" />
#doubting [[germ theory]];<ref name="Shermer Linse 2002 p. 32" />
#non-standard approach to physiological systems, including claiming that the heart is not a pump.<ref name="FlynnDawkins2007" />{{sfn|Hammer|2021|p=228 fn. 102}}

According to Rudolf Steiner, mainstream science is [[Ahriman]]ic.<ref name="Ahrimanic">Sources for 'Ahrimanic':{{Bulleted list|{{Cite book |last=Steiner |first=Rudolf |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tfOUcjMD-WUC&pg=PT34 |title=Karma of Materialism: 9 Lectures, Berlin, July 31–Sept. 25, 1917 (CW 176) |publisher=SteinerBooks |year=1985 |isbn=978-1-62151-025-3 |page=unpaginated |chapter=1. Forgotten Aspects of Cultural Life |quote=The whole content of natural science is ahrimanic and will only lose its ahrimanic nature when it becomes imbued with life. |access-date=15 March 2024 |chapter-url=https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA176/English/AP1985/19170731p01.html}}|{{cite book | last1=Steiner | first1=Rudolf | last2=Meuss | first2=Anna R. | title=The Fall of the Spirits of Darkness | publisher=Rudolf Steiner Press | year=1993 | isbn=978-1-85584-010-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wgc6fjIeFVUC&pg=PA161 | access-date=16 March 2024 | pages=160–161}}|{{cite book | last1=Steiner | first1=Rudolf | last2=Barton | first2=Matthew | title=The Incarnation of Ahriman: The Embodiment of Evil on Earth | publisher=Rudolf Steiner Press | year=2013 | isbn=978-1-85584-278-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qR9FDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA54 | access-date=16 March 2024 | pages=53–54}}|{{cite book | last1=Wachsmuth | first1=Guenther | last2=Garber | first2=Bernard J. | last3=Wannamaker | first3=Olin D. | last4=Raab | first4=Reginald E. | title=The Life and Work of Rudolf Steiner: From the Turn of the Century to His Death | publisher=SteinerBooks | year=1995 | isbn=978-1-62151-053-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UE_Dfrpi4-wC&pg=PT445 | access-date=15 March 2024 | page=unpaginated | quote=and all external science, to the extent that it is not spiritual science, is Ahrimanic.}}|{{cite journal | last=Al-Faruqi | first=Ismail Il Raji | journal=Biosciences Communications | publisher=S. Karger | volume=3 | issue=1 | year=1977 | title=Moral values in medicine and science | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=09hEAAAAYAAJ | access-date=15 March 2024 | pages=56–58 | issn=0302-2781 | quote=Medical science is Ahrimanic in that it treats the body solely as a mechanism, having no knowledge of or concern with the etheric structure, that invisible field of force and energy which all too often is found to be the seat of disease.}}|{{cite book | last=Prokofieff | first=Sergei O. | title=The Case of Valentin Tomberg: Anthroposophy Or Jesuitism? | publisher=Temple Lodge | year=1998 | isbn=978-0-904693-85-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I-9Rq81-xGwC&pg=PA118 | access-date=15 March 2024 | page=118}}|{{cite book | last=Younis | first=Andrei | title=Islam in Relation to the Christ Impulse: A Search for Reconciliation between Christianity and Islam | publisher=SteinerBooks | year=2015 | isbn=978-1-58420-185-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5X95CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT57 | access-date=16 March 2024 | page=unpaginated | quote=Steiner emphasized that, when this deadened wisdom of Gondishapur began to spread in Europe, an ahrimanic, or ahrimanically inspired, natural science began to emerge.}}|{{cite book | last=Selg | first=Peter | title=The Future of Ahriman and the Awakening of Souls: The Spirit-Presence of the Mystery Dramas | publisher=Rudolf Steiner Press | year=2022 | isbn=978-1-912230-92-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ei1qEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 | access-date=16 March 2024 | page=12}}|{{cite journal |last1=Beck |first1=John H. |date=February 2007 |editor1-last=Spiegler |editor1-first=Mado |title=Christ and Sophia: Anthroposophic Meditations on the Old Testament, New Testament, and Apocalypse by Valentin Tomberg SteinerBooks, 2006, 432 pgs. Review by John H. Beck |url=https://cdm16694.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/api/collection/nyrud/id/387/download |journal=Rudolf Steiner Library Newsletter |pages=7–12 |quote=Science is Ahrimanic in so far as it is objective; Christian mysticism is Luciferic in so far as it is subjective.}}}}</ref>

=== Knowledge and freedom ===
{{See also|The Philosophy of Freedom}}
Steiner approached the philosophical questions of [[epistemology|knowledge]] and [[Free will|freedom]] in two stages. In his dissertation, published in expanded form in 1892 as ''Truth and Knowledge'', Steiner suggests that there is an inconsistency between Kant's philosophy, which posits that all knowledge is a representation of an essential verity inaccessible to human consciousness, and modern science, which assumes that all influences can be found in the sensory and mental world to which we have access. Steiner considered Kant's philosophy of an inaccessible beyond ("Jenseits-Philosophy") a stumbling block in achieving a satisfying philosophical viewpoint.{{sfn|Storr|1997|p=72|ps=: "If, however, we regard the sum of all percepts as the one part and contrast with this a second part, namely the things-in-themselves, then we are philosophising into the blue. We are merely playing with concepts."}}

Steiner postulates that the world is essentially an indivisible unity, but that our [[consciousness]] divides it into the [[senses|sense]]-perceptible appearance, on the one hand, and the formal nature accessible to our [[thinking]], on the other. He sees in thinking itself an element that can be strengthened and deepened sufficiently to penetrate all that our senses do not reveal to us. Steiner thus considered what appears to human experience as a division between the spiritual and natural worlds to be a conditioned result of the structure of our consciousness, which separates [[perception]] and thinking. These two faculties give us not two worlds, but two complementary views of the same world; neither has primacy and the two together are necessary and sufficient to arrive at a complete understanding of the world. In thinking about [[perception]] (the path of natural science) and perceiving the process of thinking (the path of [[spirituality|spiritual]] training), it is possible to discover a hidden inner unity between the two poles of our experience.<ref name="Schneider" />{{rp|Chapter 4}} [[Truth]], for Steiner, is paradoxically both an objective discovery and yet "a free creation of the human spirit, that never would exist at all if we did not generate it ourselves. The task of understanding is not to replicate in conceptual form something that already exists, but rather to create a wholly new realm, that together with the world given to our senses constitutes the fullness of reality."<ref>Steiner, Rudolf, ''Truth and Science'', Preface.</ref>

In ''[[The Philosophy of Freedom]]'', Steiner further explores potentials within thinking: freedom, he suggests, can only be approached gradually with the aid of the creative activity of thinking. Thinking can be a free deed; in addition, it can liberate our will from its subservience to our [[instinct]]s and [[motivation|drive]]s. Free deeds, he suggests, are those for which we are fully conscious of the motive for our action; freedom is the spiritual activity of penetrating with consciousness our own nature and that of the world,<ref>"To be conscious of the laws underlying one's actions is to be conscious of one's freedom. The process of knowing ... is the process of development towards freedom." Steiner, GA3, pp. 91f, quoted in Rist and Schneider, p. 134</ref> and the real activity of acting in full consciousness.<ref name="Schneider" />{{rp|133–4}} This includes overcoming influences of both heredity and environment: "To be free is to be capable of thinking one's own thoughts – not the thoughts merely of the body, or of society, but thoughts generated by one's deepest, most original, most essential and spiritual self, one's individuality."<ref name=RAMcD/>

Steiner affirms [[Charles Darwin|Darwin]]'s and [[Haeckel]]'s [[evolution]]ary perspectives but extended this beyond its [[materialism|materialistic]] consequences; he sees human [[consciousness]], indeed, all human culture, as a product of natural evolution that transcends itself. For Steiner, nature becomes self-conscious in the human being. Steiner's description of the nature of human consciousness thus closely parallels that of [[Vladimir Solovyov (philosopher)|Solovyov]].<ref name="Tarnas">{{Cite book |last=Tarnas |first=Richard |title=The Passion of the Western Mind |date=1996 |publisher=Random House |isbn=0-7126-7332-6 |publication-place=London}} Cf. Solovyov: "In human beings, the absolute subject-object appears ''as such'', i.e. as pure spiritual activity, containing all of its own objectivity, the whole process of its natural manifestation, but containing it totally ideally – in consciousness....The subject knows here only its own activity as an objective activity (sub specie object). Thus, the original identity of subject and object is restored in philosophical knowledge." (''The Crisis of Western Philosophy'', Lindisfarne 1996 pp. 42–3)</ref>

"Steiner was a moral individualist".{{efn-lr|Ethical individualism is the opposite of ethical collectivism (meaning a moral code which is good for everyone).}}<ref name="t661">{{Cite book |last=Ryan |first=Alexandra E. |chapter=Anthroposophy |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DouBAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA34 |title=Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-134-49970-0 |editor-last=Clarke |editor-first=Peter |page=34 |access-date=2024-07-19}}</ref>

=== Spiritual science ===
{{See also|Anthroposophy|Rudolf Steiner's exercises for spiritual development}}
[[File:Steiner Berlin 1900 big.jpg|thumb|upright|Rudolf Steiner 1900]]
In his earliest works, Steiner already spoke of the "natural and spiritual worlds" as a unity.<ref name="GL" /> From 1900 on, he began lecturing about concrete details of the spiritual world(s), culminating in the publication in 1904 of the first of several systematic presentations, his ''Theosophy: An Introduction to the Spiritual Processes in Human Life and in the Cosmos''. As a starting point for the book Steiner took a quotation from Goethe, describing the method of natural scientific observation,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Theosophy: Chapter I: The Nature of Man |url=https://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA009/English/RSP1965/GA009_c01.html |website=wn.rsarchive.org}}</ref> while in the Preface he made clear that the line of thought taken in this book led to the same goal as that in his earlier work, ''The Philosophy of Freedom''.<ref>''Theosophy'',
from the Prefaces to the First, Second, and Third Editions [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA009/English/AP1971/GA009_c01.html]</ref>

In the years 1903–1908 Steiner maintained the magazine ''Lucifer-Gnosis'' and published in it essays on topics such as initiation, reincarnation and karma, and knowledge of the supernatural world.<ref>{{Cite web |last=e.Librarian |first=The |title=Rudolf Steiner Archive: Steiner Articles Bn/GA 34 |url=https://www.rsarchive.org/Articles/GA034/ |website=www.rsarchive.org}}</ref> Some of these were later collected and published as books, such as ''How to Know Higher Worlds'' (1904–5) and ''Cosmic Memory''. The book ''An Outline of Esoteric Science'' was published in 1910. Important themes include:
* the human being as body, [[Soul (spirit)|soul]] and [[Vitalism|spirit]];
* the path of spiritual development;
* spiritual influences on world-evolution and history; and
* [[reincarnation]] and [[karma]].

Steiner emphasized that there is an objective natural and spiritual world that can be known, and that perceptions of the spiritual world and incorporeal beings are, under conditions of training comparable to that required for the natural sciences, including self-discipline, replicable by multiple observers. It is on this basis that [[spiritual science]] is possible, with radically different epistemological foundations than those of natural science. He believed that natural science was correct in its methods but one-sided for exclusively focusing on sensory phenomena, while mysticism was vague in its methods, though seeking to explore the inner and spiritual life. Anthroposophy was meant to apply the systematic methods of the former to the content of the latter<ref>Steiner, ''Christianity as Mystical Fact and the Mysteries of Antiquity'', Anthroposophic Press 2006 {{ISBN|0880104368}}</ref><ref>One of Steiner's teachers, Franz Brentano, had famously declared that "The true method of philosophy can only be the method of natural science" (Walach, Harald, "Criticism of Transpersonal Psychology and Beyond", in The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Transpersonal Psychology, ed. H. L. Friedman and G. Hartelius. P. 45.)</ref>

For Steiner, the cosmos is permeated and continually transformed by the creative activity of non-physical processes and spiritual beings. For the human being to become conscious of the objective reality of these processes and beings, it is necessary to creatively enact and reenact, within, their creative activity. Thus objective spiritual knowledge always entails creative inner activity.<ref name="GL" /> Steiner articulated three stages of any creative deed:<ref name="Schneider" />{{rp|Pt II, Chapter 1}}
* Moral intuition: the ability to discover or, preferably, develop valid ethical principles;
* Moral imagination: the imaginative transformation of such principles into a concrete intention applicable to the particular situation ([[situational ethics]]); and
* Moral technique: the realization of the intended transformation, depending on a mastery of practical skills.

Steiner termed his work from this period onwards ''[[Anthroposophy]]''. He emphasized that the spiritual path he articulated builds upon and supports individual freedom and independent [[judgment]]; for the results of spiritual research to be appropriately presented in a modern context they must be in a form accessible to [[logic]]al understanding, so that those who do not have access to the spiritual experiences underlying anthroposophical research can make independent evaluations of the latter's results.<ref name="Schneider">Peter Schneider, ''Einführung in die Waldorfpädagogik'', {{ISBN|3-608-93006-X}}</ref> Spiritual training is to support what Steiner considered the overall purpose of human evolution, the development of the mutually interdependent qualities of love and [[free will|freedom]].<ref name="RAMcD">{{Cite book |last=McDermott |first=Robert A. |title=Modern Esoteric Spirituality |date=1995 |publisher=Crossroad Publishing |isbn=978-0-8245-1444-0 |editor-last=Faivre |editor-first=Antoine |publication-place=New York |pages=299–301; 288ff |chapter=Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy |editor-last2=Needleman |editor-first2=Jacob |editor-last3=Voss |editor-first3=Karen}}</ref>

=== Steiner and Christianity ===
Steiner appreciated the ritual of the mass he experienced while serving as an altar boy from school age until he was ten years old, and this experience remained memorable for him as a genuinely spiritual one, contrasting with his irreligious family life.<ref name="Steiner 1982 pp. 31-32">{{Cite book |last1=Steiner |first1=Rudolf |url=https://archive.org/details/rudolf-steiner-ga-028/page/n30/mode/1up |title=Mein Lebensgang : eine nicht vollendete autobiographie, mit einem nachwort |last2=Steiner |first2=Marie |publisher=Rudolf Steiner |year=1982 |isbn=9783727402807 |location=Dornach, Schweiz |pages=31–32 |language=de |oclc=11145259 |orig-year=1925}}</ref> As a young adult, Steiner had no formal connection to organized religion. In 1899, he experienced what he described as a life-transforming inner encounter with the being of Christ. Steiner was then 38, and the experience of meeting Christ occurred after a tremendous inner struggle. To use Steiner's own words, the "experience culminated in my standing in the spiritual presence of the Mystery of [[Calvary|Golgotha]] in a most profound and solemn festival of knowledge."<ref>Autobiography, Chapters in the Course of My Life: 18611907, Rudolf Steiner, SteinerBooks, 2006</ref> His relationship to Christianity thereafter remained entirely founded upon personal experience, and thus both non-denominational and strikingly different from conventional religious forms.<ref name=RAMcD/>

==== Christ and human evolution ====
Steiner describes Christ as the unique pivot and meaning of earth's evolutionary processes and human history, redeeming [[The Fall of Man|the Fall]] from [[Paradise]].<ref name="Willmann">{{Cite journal |last=Willmann |first=Carlo |year=2001 |title=Waldorfpädagogik: Theologische und religionspädagogische Befunde |journal=Kölner Veröffentlichungen zur Religionsgeschichte |language=de |publisher=Böhlau |publication-place=Köln Weimar Wien |volume=27 |isbn=978-3-412-16700-4 |issn=0030-9230 |postscript=Especially chapters 1.3, 1.4.}}</ref> He understood the Christ as a being that unifies and inspires all religions, not belonging to a particular religious faith. To be "Christian" is, for Steiner, a search for balance between polarizing extremes<ref name="Willmann" />{{rp|102–3}} and the ability to manifest love in freedom.<ref name=RAMcD/>

Central principles of his understanding include:
*The being of Christ is central to ''all'' religions, though called by different names by each.
*Every religion is valid and true for the time and cultural context in which it was born.
*Historical forms of Christianity need to be transformed in our times in order to meet the ongoing evolution of humanity.

In Steiner's [[esoteric cosmology]], the spiritual development of humanity is interwoven in and inseparable from the cosmological development of the universe. Continuing the evolution that led to humanity being born out of the natural world, the Christ being brings an impulse enabling human consciousness of the forces that act creatively, but unconsciously, in nature.<ref>An Outline of Esoteric Science, Anthroposophic, SteinerBooks, 1997</ref>

==== Divergence from conventional Christian thought ====
Steiner's views of Christianity diverge from conventional Christian thought in key places, and include [[gnostic]] elements.<ref name=Hemleben/> However, unlike many gnostics, Steiner affirms the unique and actual physical Incarnation of Christ in Jesus at the beginning of the Christian era.

One of the central points of divergence with conventional Christian thought is found in [[Anthroposophy#Nature of the human being|Steiner's views on reincarnation and karma]].

Steiner also posited two different Jesus children involved in the Incarnation of the Christ: one child descended from [[Solomon]], as described in the [[Gospel of Matthew]]; the other child from [[Nathan (son of David)|Nathan]], as described in the [[Gospel of Luke]].<ref name="Essential" /><ref name="aspremthesis" /><ref name="x337">{{Cite book |last=Johnson |first=Marshall D. |title=The Purpose of the Biblical Genealogies with Special Reference to the Setting of the Genealogies of Jesus |date=1969 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-07317-2 |editor-last=Black |editor-first=Matthew |publication-place=London |page=144}}</ref> He references in this regard the fact that the [[genealogy|genealogies]] in these two gospels list twenty-six (Luke) to forty-one (Matthew) completely different ancestors for the generations from [[King David|David]] to Jesus.

Steiner's view of the [[second coming]] of Christ is also unusual. He suggested that this would not be a physical reappearance, but rather, meant that the Christ being would become manifest in non-physical form, in the "[[Etheric plane|etheric]] realm" – i.e. visible to spiritual vision and apparent in community life – for increasing numbers of people, beginning around the year 1933. He emphasized that the future would require humanity to recognize this Spirit of Love in all its genuine forms, regardless of how this is named. He also warned that the traditional name, "Christ", might be used, yet the true essence of this Being of Love be ignored.<ref name=Hemleben/>

The teachings of Anthroposophy got called [[Christianity|Christian]] [[Gnosticism]].<ref name="Christian Gnosticism" /> Indeed, according to the official stance of the Catholic Church, Anthroposophy is "a neognostic heresy".<ref name="Diener Hipolito 2013 p. 77" /><ref name="k531">See also {{Cite book |last=DWB |title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church |publisher=OUP Oxford |year=2022 |isbn=978-0-19-263815-1 |editor-last=Louth |editor-first=Andrew |edition=4th |pages=76–77 |chapter=anthroposophy |access-date=18 May 2024 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3CNeEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT591 |orig-year=2005}}</ref> Other heresiologists agree.<ref name="Ellwood Partin 2016 p. " /> The Lutheran (Missouri Sinod) apologist and heresiologist Eldon K. Winker quoted Ron Rhodes that Steiner had the same Christology as [[Cerinthus]].<ref name="Winker 1994 p. ">Sources for 'Christology':{{Bulleted list|{{Cite book |last=Winker |first=Eldon K. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W90QAQAAIAAJ |title=The New Age is Lying to You |publisher=Concordia Publishing House |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-570-04637-0 |series=Concordia scholarship today |page=34 |quote=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.{{sup|12}} |access-date=6 March 2023}}|{{cite book | last=Rhodes | first=Ron | title=The Counterfeit Christ of the New Age Movement | publisher=Baker Book House | series=Christian Research Institute Series | year=1990 | isbn=978-0-8010-7757-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QwtBPQAACAAJ | access-date=26 October 2023 | page=19}}}}</ref> Indeed, Steiner thought that Jesus and Christ were two separated beings, who got fused at a certain point in time,<ref name="Cees Christ" /> which can be construed as Gnostic but not as [[docetism|Docetic]],<ref name="Cees Christ">{{Cite book |last=Leijenhorst |first=Cees |author-link=Cees Leijenhorst |title=Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism |publisher=Brill |year=2006b |editor-last=Hanegraaff |editor-first=Wouter J. |editor-link=Wouter Hanegraaff |location=Leiden / Boston |page=84 |chapter=Antroposophy |quote=Nevertheless, he made a distinction between the human person Jesus, and Christ as the divine Logos.|editor-last2=Faivre |editor-first2=Antoine |editor-last3=Broek |editor-first3=Roelof van den |editor-last4=Brach |editor-first4=Jean-Pierre}}</ref> since "they do not believe the Christ departed from Jesus prior to the crucfixion".<ref name="Winker 1994 p."/> "Steiner's Christology is discussed as a central element of his thought in Johannes Hemleben, ''Rudolf Steiner: A Documentary Biography,'' trans. Leo Twyman (East Grinstead, Sussex: Henry Goulden, 1975), pp. 96-100. From the perspective of orthodox Christianity, it may be said that Steiner combined a docetic understanding of Christ's nature with the Adoptionist heresy."<ref name="g483">{{Cite book |last=Etter |first=Brian K. |title=From Classicism to Modernism: Western Musical Culture and the Metaphysics of Order |publisher=Routledge |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-315-18576-7 |page=unpaginated. fn. 80 |chapter=Chapter Six The New Music and the Influence of Theosophy |orig-year=2001}}</ref> Older scholarship says Steiner's Christology is [[Nestorianism|Nestorian]].<ref name="k343">{{Cite book |last=Sanders |first=John Oswald |title=Cults and isms: Ancient and Modern |publisher=Zondervan |year=1962 |isbn=978-0-551-00458-0 |publication-place=Grand Rapids, Michigan |page=165 |chapter=Anthroposophy |oclc=3910997 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XPZOAQAAMAAJ |orig-year=1948}}</ref> According to Egil Asprem, "Steiner’s Christology was, however, quite heterodox, and hardly compatible with official church doctrine."<ref name="aspremthesis">{{Bulleted list|{{Cite thesis |last=Asprem |first=Egil |title=The problem of disenchantment: scientific naturalism and esoteric discourse, 1900-1939. |date=2013 |degree=dr. |publisher=University of Amsterdam |url=https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/2010817/117215_thesis.pdf |page=507}}|{{Cite book |last=Asprem |first=Egil |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2e9dDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA493 |title=The Problem of Disenchantment: Scientific Naturalism and Esoteric Discourse, 1900-1939 |publisher=State University of New York Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-4384-6992-8 |editor-last=Appelbaum |editor-first=David |series=SUNY series in Western Esoteric Traditions |page=493 |access-date=18 May 2024 |orig-year=2014}}}}</ref>

Two German scholars have called Anthroposophy "the most successful form of 'alternative' religion in the [twentieth] century."{{sfn|Schnurbein|Ulbricht|2001|p=38}} Other scholars stated that Anthroposophy is "aspiring to the status of religious dogma".{{sfn|Diener|Hipolito|2013|p=78}} According to Maria Carlson, anthroposophy is a "positivistic religion" "offering a seemingly logical theology based on pseudoscience."{{sfn|Carlson|2015|p=136}}

According to Swartz, Brandt, Hammer, and Hansson, Anthroposophy ''is'' a religion.<ref name="religion">Sources for 'religion':{{Bulleted list|{{Cite book |last1=Schnurbein |first1=Stefanie von |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xHNhQgAACAAJ |title=Völkische Religion und Krisen der Moderne: Entwürfe "arteigener" Glaubenssysteme seit der Jahrhundertwende |last2=Ulbricht |first2=Justus H. |publisher=Königshausen & Neumann |year=2001 |isbn=978-3-8260-2160-2 |page=38 |language=de |access-date=8 February 2024}} apud {{cite journal | last=Staudenmaier | first=Peter | title=Race and Redemption: Racial and Ethnic Evolution in Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy | journal=Nova Religio | publisher=University of California Press | volume=11 | issue=3 | date=1 February 2008 | issn=1092-6690 | doi=10.1525/nr.2008.11.3.4 | pages=4–36| url=https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1078&context=hist_fac }}|{{cite journal | last1=Swartz | first1=Karen | last2=Hammer | first2=Olav | title=Soft charisma as an impediment to fundamentalist discourse: The case of the Anthroposophical Society in Sweden | journal=Approaching Religion | volume=12 | issue=2 | date=14 June 2022 | issn=1799-3121 | doi=10.30664/ar.113383 | pages=18–37 | quote=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.| doi-access=free }}|{{cite book | last1=Hammer | first1=Olav | last2=Swartz-Hammer | first2=Karen | title=New Religious Movements and Comparative Religion | publisher=Cambridge University Press | series=Elements in New Religious Movements | year=2024 | isbn=978-1-009-03402-9 | chapter=NRMs in Comparative Perspective | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lkn8EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA62 | access-date=2024-07-19 | page=62}}|{{cite book | last1=Brandt | first1=Katharina | last2=Hammer | first2=Olav | editor-last1=Hammer | editor-first1=Olav | editor-last2=Rothstein | editor-first2=Mikael | title=Handbook of the Theosophical Current | publisher=Brill | series=Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion | year=2013 | isbn=978-90-04-23597-7 | chapter=Rudolf Steiner and Theosophy| chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0VozAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA113 | access-date=23 January 2024 | page=113 fn. 1 | quote=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.}}|{{cite book | last1=Hammer | first1=Olav | editor-last1=Geertz | editor-first1=Armin | editor-last2=Warburg | editor-first2=Margit | title=New Religions and Globalization | publisher=Aarhus University Press | series=Renner Studies On New Religions | year=2008 | isbn=978-87-7934-681-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XdsKEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA69 | access-date=23 January 2024 | page=69 | quote=Anthroposophy is thus from an emic point of view emphatically not a religion. }}|{{cite journal | last=Hansson | first=Sven Ove | title=Anthroposophical Climate Science Denial | journal=Critical Research on Religion | publisher=SAGE Publications | volume=10 | issue=3 | date=1 July 2022 | issn=2050-3032 | doi=10.1177/20503032221075382 | pages=281–297| doi-access=free | quote=Anthroposophy has characteristics usually associated with religions, not least a belief in a large number of spiritual beings (Toncheva 2015, 73–81, 134–135). However, its adherents emphatically reject that it is a religion, claiming instead that it is a spiritual science, Geisteswissenschaft (Zander 2007, 1:867).}}|{{cite book | last1=Zander | first1=Helmut | editor-last1=Hoheisel | editor-first1=Karl | editor-last2=Hutter | editor-first2=Manfred | editor-last3=Klein | editor-first3=Wolfgang Wassilios | editor-last4=Vollmer | editor-first4=Ulrich | title=Hairesis: Festschrift für Karl Hoheisel zum 65. Geburtstag | publisher=Aschendorff | series=Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum | year=2002 | isbn=978-3-402-08120-4 | chapter=Die Anthroposophie &mdash; Eine Religion? | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ZrYAAAAMAAJ | language=de | access-date=2 January 2024 | page=537}}|See also {{cite book | author=International Bureau of Education | title=Organization of Special Education for Mentally Deficient Children: A Study in Comparative Education | publisher=UNESCO | issue=v. 214-220 | year=1960 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c8MpAQAAMAAJ | access-date=9 February 2024 | page=15 | quote=anthroposophy - a religion based upon the philosophical and scientific knowledge of man}}|See also {{cite book | author=International Bureau of Education | title=Bulletin of the International Bureau of Education | publisher=International Bureau of Education | issue=v. 31, nr. 122 -v. 34, nr. 137 | year=1957 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IM6uEoh_XpcC | access-date=9 February 2024 | page=36 | quote=anthroposophy - a religion based upon the philosophical and scientific knowledge of man}}}}</ref> They also call it "settled new religious movement",{{sfn|Swartz|Hammer|2022|pp=18–37}} while [[Martin Gardner]] called it a [[cult]].<ref>Sources for 'cult' or 'sect':{{Bulleted list|{{harvnb|Gardner|1957|pp=169, 224–225}}|{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=Candy Gunther |title=Debating Yoga and Mindfulness in Public Schools |date=6 May 2019 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-1-4696-4848-4 |pages=229–254 |chapter=Waldorf Methods |doi=10.5149/northcarolina/9781469648484.003.0012 |quote=premised on anthroposophy, a religious sect founded by Steiner; |s2cid=241945146}}}}</ref> Another scholar also calls it a new religious movement or a new spiritual movement.{{sfn|Toncheva|2013|pp=81–89}} Already in 1924 Anthroposophy got labeled "new religious movement" and "occultist movement".{{sfn|Clemen|1924|pp=281–292}} Other scholars agree it is a new religious movement.<ref name="newreli">Sources for 'new religious movement':{{Bulleted list|{{Cite book |last=Norman |first=Alex |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5aRyJ-vbrJsC&pg=PA213 |title=Handbook of New Religions and Cultural Production |publisher=Brill |year=2012 |isbn=978-90-04-22187-1 |editor-last=Cusack |editor-first=Carole M. |series=Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion |page=213 |quote=[...] continue to have influence beyond the institutional reach of Anthropospophy, the new religious movement he founded. |access-date=1 January 2024 |editor-last2=Norman |editor-first2=Alex}}|{{cite book | first1=Liselotte | last1=Frisk | editor-last1=Cusack | editor-first1=Carole M. | editor-last2=Norman | editor-first2=Alex | title=Handbook of New Religions and Cultural Production | publisher=Brill | series=Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion | year=2012 | isbn=978-90-04-22187-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5aRyJ-vbrJsC&pg=PA204 | access-date=1 January 2024 | page=204 fn. 10, 208 | quote=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.}}|{{cite book | first1=Carole M. | last1=Cusack | editor-last1=Cusack | editor-first1=Carole M. | editor-last2=Norman | editor-first2=Alex | title=Handbook of New Religions and Cultural Production | publisher=Brill | series=Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion | year=2012 | isbn=978-90-04-22187-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5aRyJ-vbrJsC&pg=PA190 | access-date=1 January 2024 | page=190 | quote=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.}}|{{cite book | first1=Sælid | last1=Gilhus | editor-last1=Bogdan | editor-first1=Henrik | editor-last2=Hammer | editor-first2=Olav | title=Western Esotericism in Scandinavia | publisher=Brill | series=Brill Esotericism Reference Library | year=2016 | isbn=978-90-04-32596-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rGpyDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA56 | access-date=6 February 2024 | page=56}}|{{cite journal | last=Ahlbäck | first=Tore | title=Rudolf Steiner as a religious authority | journal=Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis | volume=20 | year=2008 | issn=2343-4937 | doi=10.30674/scripta.67323 | page=| doi-access=free }}|{{cite journal | last=Toncheva | first=Svetoslava | title=Anthroposophy as religious syncretism | journal=SOTER: Journal of Religious Science | volume=48 | issue=48 | date=2013 | doi=10.7220/1392-7450.48(76).5 | pages=81–89| url=http://vddb.library.lt/fedora/get/LT-eLABa-0001:J.04~2013~ISSN_1392-7450.N_48_76.PG_81-89/DS.002.1.01.ARTIC | issn = 1392-7450 }}|{{cite book | last=Toncheva | first=Svetoslava | title=Out of the New Spirituality of the Twentieth Century: The Dawn of Anthroposophy, the White Brotherhood and the Unified Teaching | publisher=Frank & Timme GmbH | publication-place=Berlin | year=2015 | isbn=978-3-7329-0132-6 | pages=13, 17 | issn=2196-3312 | url=https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9783732998463_A34278232/preview-9783732998463_A34278232.pdf}}|{{cite journal | last=Clemen | first=Carl | title=Anthroposophy | journal=The Journal of Religion | volume=4 | issue=3 | date=1924 | issn=0022-4189 | doi=10.1086/480431 | pages=281–292| s2cid=222446655 }}}}</ref> According to {{ill|Helmut Zander|de}}, both the theory and practice of Anthroposophy display characteristics of religion, and, according to Zander, Rudolf Steiner would plead no contest.{{sfn|Zander|2002|p=537}} According to Zander, Steiner's book ''Geheimwissenschaft'' [''Occult Science''] contains Steiner's [[mythology]] about [[cosmogenesis]].{{sfn|Zander|2002|p=528}} Hammer notices that Anthroposophy is a synthesis which does include occultism.<ref name="Lewis Tøllefsen 2015 p. 57">{{Cite book |last=Hammer |first=Olav |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3tfaCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA57 |title=Handbook of Nordic New Religions |publisher=Brill |year=2015 |isbn=978-90-04-29246-8 |editor-last=Lewis |editor-first=James R. |series=Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion |pages=56–57 |access-date=6 February 2024 |editor-last2=Tøllefsen |editor-first2=Inga Bårdsen}}</ref> Hammer also notices that Steiner's occult doctrines bear a strong resemblance to post-Blavatskyan Theosophy (e.g. [[Annie Besant]] and [[Charles Webster Leadbeater]]).<ref name="Partridge 2014 p. 350">{{Cite book |last=Hammer |first=Olav |title=The Occult World |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-317-59676-9 |editor-last=Partridge |editor-first=Christopher |series=Routledge Worlds |page=350 |chapter=The Theosophical Current in the Twentieth Century |access-date=6 February 2024 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_E-2BQAAQBAJ&pg=PA350}}</ref>

[[Robert A. McDermott]] says Anthroposophy belongs to Christian [[Rosicrucianism]].<ref name="Eliade 1987 p. ">{{Cite book |last=McDermott |first=Robert A. |title=The Encyclopedia of Religion |date=1987 |publisher=Macmillan Reference USA |isbn=0-02-909700-2 |editor-last=Eliade |editor-first=Mircea |publication-place=New York |page=320 |chapter=Anthroposophy}}</ref> According to [[Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke]], Rudolf Steiner "blended modern Theosophy with a Gnostic form of Christianity, Rosicrucianism, and German Naturphilosophie".<ref name="Steiner Seddon Goodrick-Clarke 2004 p. 7">{{Cite book |last1=Steiner |first1=Rudolf |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dkw96EUVPfwC&pg=PA7 |title=Rudolf Steiner |last2=Seddon |first2=Richard |last3=Goodrick-Clarke |first3=Nicholas |publisher=North Atlantic Books |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-55643-490-7 |series=Western Esoteric Masters |page=7 |language=en |quote="blended modern Theosophy with a Gnostic form of Christianity, Rosicrucianism, and German Naturphilosophie" |access-date=2 January 2024}}</ref> He also described Anthroposophy as a [modern] offshoot of Ancient Gnosticism, especially of "the aeons of the Valentinian pleroma".<ref name="b670">{{cite book | first=Nicholas | last=Goodrick-Clarke | editor-last=Hammer | editor-first=Olav | editor-last2=Rothstein | editor-first2=Mikael | title=Handbook of the Theosophical Current | publisher=Brill | series=Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion | year=2013 | isbn=978-90-04-23597-7 | chapter=Western Esoteric Traditions and Theosophy | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0VozAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA301 | access-date=17 November 2024 | page=301}}</ref>

According to McDermott, "Rudolf Steiner was an esoteric teacher in the Rosicrucian-Christian tradition [...]".<ref name="g904">{{cite book | last=McDermott | first=Robert A. | editor-last1=Faivre | editor-first1=Antoine | editor-last2=Needleman | editor-first2=Jacob | editor-last3=Voss | editor-first3=Karen | title=Modern Esoteric Spirituality | publisher=Crossroad Publishing | publication-place=New York | date=1992 | isbn=0-8245-1145-X | page=288 | chapter=Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy | quote=Rudolf Steiner was an esoteric teacher in the Rosicrucian-Christian tradition who delineated a comprehensive and detailed account of the evolution of consciousness as a background to his plea for the transformation of thinking, feeling, and willing in the present century. }}</ref>

Geoffrey Ahern states that Anthroposophy belongs to neo-gnosticism broadly conceived, which he identifies with [[Western esotericism]] and [[occultism]].<ref name="Ahern 2009 p. 11">{{Cite book |last=Ahern |first=Geoffrey |title=Sun at Midnight |publisher=James Clarke Company |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-227-17293-3 |publication-place=Cambridge |page=11 |orig-year=1984}}</ref>

{{blockquote|1=Was Steiner a Gnostic? Yes and no. Yes, from the point of view that he offered insights and methods for a personal experience of Christ. I have formulated this aspect of his work as his hermeneutical key: ‘not I, but Christ in me’. No, from the point of view that he was not trying to reestablish Gnosticism's practices into a neo-gnostic tradition. Steiner was, in his times, well aware of concerns articulated more recently by Pope Francis about the two subtle enemies of holiness, contemporary Gnosticism and contemporary Pelagianism.<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Samson |first=Martin |title=The Christology of Rudolf Steiner |date=2023 |degree=PhD |publisher=Flinders University |url=https://flex.flinders.edu.au/items/4cb1a804-963e-4a75-8b02-69bcfaa63110/1/?.vi=file&attachment.uuid=c450e767-a595-4981-a4b7-546ae735f46b |page=180}}</ref>|2={{harvnb|Samson|2023|p=180}}}}

{{blockquote|1=Granted that Steiner included Gnostic elements in his cosmological reinterpretation of Christianity, many of them from the ''Pistis Sophia,'' Steiner was not a Gnostic in the sense of someone who held that the world was ruled by a demiurge, that matter was evil, or that it was possible to escape from this fallen universe by acquiring secret spiritual knowledge. To characterize the structure of his thought as derived from Syrio-Egyptian gnosis (Ahern 2010) may be too strong and plays down the fact that he was critical of early Gnostic Christianity as having no adequate idea of Jesus as a man of flesh and blood.<ref name="v029">{{Cite book |last=Hudson |first=Wayne |title=The gnostic world |date=2019 |publisher=Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group |isbn=978-1-315-56160-8 |editor-last=Trompf |editor-first=Garry W. |publication-place=London; New York |page=510 |chapter=Rudolf Steiner: Multiple bodies |editor-last2=Mikkelsen |editor-first2=Gunner B. |editor-last3=Johnston |editor-first3=Jay}} apud {{harvnb|Samson|2023|p=56}}</ref>|2={{harvnb|Hudson|2019|p=510}}}}

According to Catholic scholars Anthroposophy belongs to the [[New Age]].<ref name="q189">{{Cite journal |last1=G.K. Chesterton Society |last2=G.K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture |date=February–May 2000 |title=A conference on ''New Age'' and Christian spirituality |url=http://www.cultura.va/content/dam/cultura/docs/pdf/Rivista/2001-2.pdf |journal=The Chesterton Review |publisher=G.K. Chesterton Society, 1974- G.K. Chesterton Institute for Faith & Culture |publication-place=Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; South Orange, New Jersey |volume=XXVI |issue=1&2 |issn=0317-0500 |oclc=2247651 |quote=One needs to recognise several things in New Age in order not to over-react: it is not monolithic; it is not a den of demons; nor is it a den of fools. Three main currents need to be taken very seriously, even if they reject being included in the broad term New Age. They are René Guénon’s tariqa or school of intellectual Sufism, Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophy and 'the Work', devised by Georges Ivanovitch Gurdjieff.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Pontifical Council for Culture |last2=Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue |title=Jesus Christ the bearer of the water of life. A Christian reflection on the "New Age" |url=https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/interelg/documents/rc_pc_interelg_doc_20030203_new-age_en.html |access-date=18 May 2024 |website=vatican.va |publisher=The Catholic Church |quote=The Age of Aquarius has such a high profile in the ''New Age'' movement largely because of the influence of theosophy, spiritualism and anthroposophy, and their esoteric antecedents. |location=The State of Vatican}}</ref>

Between 1903 and 1910 Steiner published multiple Gnostic texts, while that publishing house was having intention of subverting orthodox Christianity.<ref name="u610">{{cite book | last=Grimstad | first=Kirsten J. | title=The Modern Revival of Gnosticism and Thomas Mann's Doktor Faustus | publisher=Camden House | series=Studies in German Literature L | year=2002 | isbn=978-1-57113-193-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lo8NqC8HBvoC&pg=PA21 | access-date=17 November 2024 | page=21}}</ref>

Elizabeth Dipple stated that Rudolf Steiner's system was a "neo-Platonic, semi-Gnostic, occult anthroposophical system [...] with its allegiance to mystical Christianity, Rosicrucianism and certain versions of spiritualism [...]".<ref name="y640">{{cite book | last=Dipple | first=Elizabeth | title=The Unresolvable Plot: Reading Contemporary Fiction | publisher=Taylor & Francis | series=Routledge Library Editions: Modern Fiction | year=2019 | isbn=978-1-000-63913-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MyGzDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT328 | access-date=17 November 2024 | page=unpaginated}}</ref>

Carl Abrahamsson stated that Steiner posited a gnostic Christ.<ref name="a836">{{cite book | last1=Abrahamsson | first1=Carl | last2=Lachman | first2=Gary | title=Occulture: The Unseen Forces That Drive Culture Forward | publisher=Inner Traditions/Bear | year=2018 | isbn=978-1-62055-704-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dt0zDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT82 | access-date=17 November 2024 | page=unpaginated | quote=This gnostic Christ principle balances the ungrounded [...]}}</ref>

Steiner's theology is "redemption through sin", he accuses good Christians of killing the spirit of Christianity.{{sfn|Lazier|2008|p=208 fn. 6}}

==== The Christian Community ====
In the 1920s, Steiner was approached by [[Friedrich Rittelmeyer]], a [[Lutheran]] pastor with a congregation in Berlin, who asked if it was possible to create a more modern form of Christianity. Soon others joined Rittelmeyer – mostly Protestant pastors and theology students, but including several Roman Catholic priests. Steiner offered counsel on renewing the spiritual potency of the sacraments while emphasizing [[freedom of thought]] and a personal relationship to religious life. He envisioned a new synthesis of Catholic and Protestant approaches to religious life, terming this "modern, [[Johannine Christianity]]".<ref name="Essential" />

The resulting movement for religious renewal became known as "[[The Christian Community]]". Its work is based on a free relationship to Christ without dogma or policies. Its priesthood, which is open to both men and women, is free to preach out of their own spiritual insights and creativity.

Steiner emphasized that the resulting movement for the renewal of Christianity was a personal gesture of help to a movement founded by Rittelmeyer and others independently of his anthroposophical work.<ref name="Essential" /> The distinction was important to Steiner because he sought with Anthroposophy to create a scientific, not [[faith]]-based, spirituality.<ref name="Willmann" /> He recognized that for those who wished to find more traditional forms, however, a renewal of the traditional religions was also a vital need of the times.