Editing Anthroposophy (section)

===Religious nature===

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" /> 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 [[Helena Blavatsky|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> According to Helmut Zander, Steiner's clairvoyant insights always developed according to the same pattern. He took revised texts from theosophical literature and then passed them off as his own higher insights. Because he did not want to be an occult storyteller, but a (spiritual) scientist, he adapted his reading, which he had seen supernaturally in the world's memory, to the current state of technology. When, for example, the [[Wright brothers]] began flying with gliders and eventually with motorized aircraft in 1903, Steiner transformed the ponderous gondola airships of his Atlantis story into airplanes with elevators and rudders in 1904.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zander |first=Helmut |title=Rudolf Steiner: Die Biografie |date=2011 |publisher=Piper |isbn=978-3-492-05448-5 |publication-place=München Zürich |pages=191ff |language=de}}</ref>

As an explicitly spiritual movement, anthroposophy has sometimes been called a religious philosophy.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=anthroposophy definition – Dictionary – MSN Encarta |url=http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_561500913/anthroposophy.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091125142135/http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_561500913/anthroposophy.html |archive-date=2009-11-25}}</ref> In 1998 [[PLANS (Non-profit)|People for Legal and Non-Sectarian Schools (PLANS)]] started a lawsuit alleging that anthroposophy is a religion for [[Establishment Clause]] purposes and therefore several California school districts should not be chartering Waldorf schools; the lawsuit was dismissed in 2012 for failure to show anthroposophy was a religion.<ref>{{cite court |litigants= PLANS, Inc. v. Sacramento City Unified School District|vol= |reporter= |opinion=2:98-cv-00266-FCD-EFB|pinpoint= |court=United States District Court Eastern District of California|date=November 5, 2010|url=http://waldorfanswers.org/351MemorandumAndOrder4November2010.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://waldorfanswers.org/351MemorandumAndOrder4November2010.pdf <!--|archive-date=2022-10-09--> |url-status=live |quote=}}</ref>{{Primary source inline|reason=Original research based upon court documents, find a better source.|date=April 2024}} A 2012 paper in legal science reports this verdict as being provisional, and disagrees with its result, i.e. anthroposophy was declared "not a religion" due to an outdated legal framework.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rhea |first=Michael |year=2012 |title=Denying and Defining Religion Under the First Amendment: Waldorf Education as a Lens for Advocating a Broad Definitional Approach |url=https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3075&context=lalrev |journal=Louisiana Law Review |issue=72 |issn=0024-6859}}</ref> In 2000, a French court ruled that a government minister's description of anthroposophy as a cult was defamatory.<ref>[[United States Department of State]], [https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6aa9918.html ''U.S. Department of State Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2000 – France''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191213092132/https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6aa9918.html |date=2019-12-13 }}, 26 Feb. 2001</ref> The French governmental anti-cults agency [[MIVILUDES]] reported that it remains vigilant about Anthroposophy, especially because of its deviant medical applications and its work with underage persons, and that the works of Grégoire Perra which lambast anthroposophical medicine do not constitute defamation.<ref name="miviludes">{{Cite web |last=Mission interministérielle de vigilance et de lutte contre les dérives sectaires |author-link=MIVILUDES |date=28 April 2023 |title=Rapport d'activité 2021 |url=https://www.miviludes.interieur.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/publications/francais/MIVILUDES-RAPPORT2021_web_%2027_04_2023%20_0.pdf |pages=72–74 |language=fr |accessdate=2024-07-19 |archive-date=2024-07-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240721001825/https://www.miviludes.interieur.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/publications/francais/MIVILUDES-RAPPORT2021_web_%2027_04_2023%20_0.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref> Anthroposophical MDs think diseases are caused primarily by karma and demons, rather than materialistic causes.<ref name="miviludes" /> The [[Gospel of Luke]] is their main handbook of medical science; this makes them believe they have magical powers, and that medicine is essentially a form of magic.<ref name="miviludes" /> The professional French organization of Anthroposophic MDs have sued Mr. Perra for such claims; they have been condemned to pay 25,000 Euros damages for abusively suing him.<ref name="miviludes" />

Scholars state that Anthroposophy is influenced by [[Christianity|Christian]] [[Gnosticism]].<ref>Sources for 'Christian Gnosticism':{{Bulleted list|{{harvnb|Robertson|2021|p=57}}|{{harvnb|Gilmer|2021|p=41}}|{{harvnb|Quispel|1980}}|{{harvnb|Quispel|Oort|2008|p=1}}|{{harvnb|Carlson|2018|p=58}}|{{harvnb|McL. Wilson|1993|p=256}}}}</ref> The Catholic Church did in 1919 issue an edict classifying Anthroposophy as "a neognostic heresy" despite the fact that Steiner "very well respected the distinctions on which Catholic dogma insists".<ref name="Diener Hipolito 2013 p. 77">{{Cite book |last1=Diener |first1=Astrid |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2kf7DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA77 |title=The Role of Imagination in Culture and Society: Owen Barfield's Early Work |last2=Hipolito |first2=Jane |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-7252-3320-1 |page=77 |access-date=6 March 2023 |orig-date=2002}}</ref><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> The secular scholar Joan Braune agrees that Anthroposophy is Gnosticism.<ref name="d182">{{cite book | last=Braune | first=Joan | title=Erich Fromm's Revolutionary Hope: Prophetic Messianism as a Critical Theory of the Future | publisher=SensePublishers | series=Imagination and Praxis: Criticality and Creativity in Education and Educational Research | year=2014 | isbn=978-94-6209-812-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TfibBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA52 | access-date=17 November 2024 | page=52}}</ref>

Some Baptist and mainstream academical heresiologists still appear inclined to agree with the more narrow prior edict of 1919<ref name="Ellwood Partin 2016 p.">{{Cite book |last1=Ellwood |first1=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oWN4DQAAQBAJ |title=Religious and Spiritual Groups in Modern America |last2=Partin |first2=Harry |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-315-50723-1 |edition=2nd |page=unpaginated |quote=On the one hand, there are what might be called the Western groups, which reject the alleged extravagance and orientalism of evolved Theosophy, in favor of a serious emphasis on its metaphysics and especially its recovery of the Gnostic and Hermetic heritage. These groups feel that the love of India and its mysteries which grew up after Isis Unveiled was unfortunate for a Western group. In this category there are several Neo-Gnostic and Neo-Rosicrucian groups. The Anthroposophy of Rudolf Steiner is also in this category. On the other hand, there are what may be termed "new revelation" Theosophical schisms, generally based on new revelations from the Masters not accepted by the main traditions. In this set would be Alice Bailey's groups, "I Am," and in a sense Max Heindel's Rosicrucianism. |access-date=6 March 2023 |orig-date=1988, 1973}}</ref> on dogma and the Lutheran (Missouri Sinod) apologist and heresiologist Eldon K. Winker quoted Ron Rhodes that Steiner's Christology is very similar to [[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> Steiner did perceive "a distinction between the human person Jesus, and Christ as the divine Logos",<ref name="Cees Christ">{{Cite book |last=Leijenhorst |first=Cees |author-link=Cees Leijenhorst |title=Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism |publisher=Brill |year=2006 |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> which could be construed as Gnostic but not [[docetism|Docetic]],<ref name="Cees Christ" /> 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>