Table of Contents
Rudolf Steiner, read here by Rudolf Steiner Press, continues a series on Europe after the fifteenth century. The nineteenth century, he says, paired materialism with rationalism, and clever logic fastens thought on what is dead. Greek culture is almost another world to modern minds, while the West absorbed Rome more easily than the East did. Latin, he claims, struck Central Europe like an illness. It stopped being an inward experience of the logos and became a cold, exact tool. Scholars lived divided, speaking a living tongue at home and a dead one in their science. Soul and spirit remained in use after the insight behind them was lost, and economic theory inherited that emptiness. When the mysteries reached Rome, an initiation aimed at the Earth’s end and at future strength was renamed as a beginning. To be initiated then meant setting higher life aside for the rest of one’s years on earth. Only a clear look at that deadness, he says, can let spirit grow, and the moment is urgent. These are the lecture’s claims.
Key points
- Steiner ties modern materialism and rationalism to an excessive trust in logical concepts.
- He contrasts a Greek world modern people can barely enter with a Roman inheritance the West digested more readily.
- Latin, in the lecture, deadened Central European thought and split everyday speech from scholarly speech.
- Soul and spirit became words without transmitted insight, and he extends that loss to economics.
- Greek initiation looked toward a future after the Earth, while the Roman form looked back and suspended higher life.
- He says a sober view of that history is what can let spirit become living again.
Topics on this site
Short quotes
substance now today only studying the true reasons for the rise of materialism on the one hand and rationalism on the
Rudolf Steiner, Steiner on Latin and European thought
He says the real task is to study why materialism and rationalism rose together. Watch at 2:17
transmitted they're using words like Soul or Spirit but they don't have any insight into what they
Rudolf Steiner, Steiner on Latin and European thought
Soul and spirit, he argues, are now repeated without any living understanding. Watch at 6:16
was clear but it became cold and sober it became logical if something was expressed in a
Rudolf Steiner, Steiner on Latin and European thought
Latin clarity, in this lecture, made speech cold, sober, and merely logical. Watch at 10:19
as science has developed out of Latin culture most people aren't aware of this
Rudolf Steiner, Steiner on Latin and European thought
He claims modern science grew out of Latin culture without people noticing. Watch at 16:14
in Roman culture being initiated meant abandoning all higher life for the duration of your Earthly life and at
Rudolf Steiner, Steiner on Latin and European thought
Roman initiation, as he defines it, meant giving up higher life for one’s earthly years. Watch at 28:02
Video by Rudolf Steiner Press Audio. Watch on YouTube.