The Return of Rudolf Steiner and the Renewal of Anthroposophy

THE PREMATURE DEATH in 1925 of Austrian philosopher and esotericist―Rudolf Steiner―at the age of 64, was a devastating "body-blow" to the newly-constituted General Anthroposophical Society and to its world-wide members.Even though Steiner had been seriously ill, and often bed-ridden for six months prior to his death, everyone expected that this extraordinarily-gifted individual would fully recover. After all, Steiner was widely recognized as a highly-developed Christian initiate with demonstrated supernatural abilities.Besides that, throughout his worsening illness, Steiner himself talked and acted as though he expected to fully recover. Not only had he assumed the presidency of the Society and taken up the leadership of the School of Spiritual Science just nine months before becoming ill; but even after becoming seriously afflicted, he continued to dictate letters, to record new supersensible research, to work on his autobiography, to write weekly essays for the newsletter Das Goetheanum, and to provide personal counseling for a constant flow of members and non-members. Hardly the funerary activities of a man who was preparing to die. The shock, surprise, disbelief and despair that anthroposophists experienced with the death of Rudolf Steiner similarly echoed that of the apostles and disciples of Christ-Jesus immediately after his own premature death at 33 years of age. No one expected that the Messiah, with his demonstrated divine power, would be cruelly put to death by Roman execution (despite his repeated prophetic indications that this would occur). In the case of Christ-Jesus, his unwavering compassion to rescue fallen humanity was placed far above personal concerns for his own physical safety. For this reason, he willingly sacrificed his own physical life despite the enormous spiritual power at his command. Nevertheless, notwithstanding his untimely death, he positively left behind the strong foundation for a future universal church, and the promise that he would one day return to earth.In Rudolf Steiner's case, as a devoted follower of Christ-Jesus, he similarly minimized and disregarded the seriousness of his own physical health in order to compassionately continue to assist those around him, and to help struggling humanity in general. Unfortunately, this too resulted in his own sacrificial death. And similar to Our Saviour, Rudolf Steiner positively left behind the foundation for a world-wide esoteric society; and the indication that he would return to earth in less than a hundred years. Also noteworthy in both cases―with Christ-Jesus and Rudolf Steiner―their predicted return to earth was not what was generally expected to occur; but something that was quite different in fact. While briefly touching on the unique earthly return of Christ-Jesus that occurred in the twentieth century, this publication―The Return of Rudolf Steiner and the Renewal of Anthroposophy―will focus on explaining and understanding the predicted return to earth of Rudolf Steiner that quietly (but profoundly) occurred at the beginning of the twenty-first century; and the positive impact this will have on future anthroposophy.