Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy
Born in Croatia on February 25, 1861, Rudolf Steiner became a citizen of the world more than of any particular country.
Asking us not simply to believe what he was teaching, but to test everything against our own logic, inner resonance and sensibilities, Rudolf Steiner made available to the public, a spiritual world view which had formerly been held secret in mystery centers located throughout the world. This, he called spiritual science.
Students of spiritual science and Waldorf Education generally find deep common ground that gathers multi national and multi ethnic interests into what has become an active world movement for social and cultural renewal, and world peace and freedom. More about the details of his life can be found in his autobiography The Story of My Life, available online through the Rudolf Steiner Archive.
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The first Waldorf School was founded by Steiner in 1919 in Stuttgart, Germany. ​Through Waldorf Education, Rudolf Steiner hoped that young people would develop the capacities of soul and intellect and the strength of will that would prepare them to meet the challenges of their own time. Much of Steiner's detailed psychology of child development is now supported by modern research in education and
neuro psychology.
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Rudolf Steiner's writings and lectures are today available in some 325 volumes on a wide range of subjects. His universal genius gives a rejuvenating impulse to many fields of knowledge and endeavors of life including work done in the medical realm, in bio-dynamic farming and beekeeping, in architectural design, new forms of banking, issues of the social realm, and in the Arts and Sciences.
Anthroposophy
Anthroposophy, or anthroposophical spiritual science, as described in his many books and lectures, culminates for its students in a living path leading modern souls toward self and world knowledge. The path of developing the soul's capacities, otherwise left dormant in a materialistic world mindset, comes to life within the inclusive spiritual world view offered to us from Rudolf Steiner's life work. He describes a method which allows all striving human beings, in their own time, to experience spiritual realities as the underlying, vital counterpart of the visible world. Anthroposophy naturally appeals to those who have carried about in their souls a persistent desire to affirm a spiritual world view.