Editing Rudolf Steiner (section)

==== 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.