Editing Rudolf Steiner (section)

=== 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.