According to Luke
The Gospel of Compassion and Love Revealed
Rudolf Steiner
Introduction — Robert McDermott
Translation — Catherine E. Creeger
Copyright © Anthroposophic Press 2001
Contents
Introduction:
Approaching Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on the Gospel of Luke
by Robert A. McDermott
1.The Four Gospels in the Light of Anthroposophy
2.The Luke Gospel as an Expression of Love and Compassion
3.Buddha’s Contribution to Humanity
4.Formation of the Nathan-Jesus Child
5.Contributions to the Nathan Jesus from Buddha and Zarathustra
6.Elijah, John the Baptist, and Zarathustra119
7.Christ, the Great Mystery of Earth Evolution
8.Illness and Healing in Luke and in the Evolution of Consciousness
9.Christ and Maitreya Buddha
10.The Mystery of Golgotha as a New Form of Initiation
A Descriptive Outline of Steiner’s Lectures on the Gospel of Luke
About This Edition
Lecture 1
Basel, September 15, 1909
The Four Gospels in the Light of Anthroposophy
The last time we were together here, we discussed Christian esoteric currents from the perspective of the Gospel according to John.1 We opened our spiritual eyes to mighty images and ideas by immersing ourselves in that document. On that occasion, I stressed several times that studying the John Gospel, which is unique in the religious history of humankind, reveals Christianity’s greatest depths, and I told you that the perspectives acquired through a study of that Gospel are in some respects the most profound possible perspectives. Consequently, many of you who attended either that lecture series or another cycle on the John Gospel may wonder today whether we can augment or deepen those perspectives in any way by considering other Christian documents such as the Gospels according to Luke, Matthew, and Mark. Knowing that we encounter the most profound Christian truths in the John Gospel, those who prefer not to overexert themselves in theoretical matters may question the necessity of further study of the essential nature of Christianity from other perspectives, specifically the perspective of the Luke Gospel, which we may easily believe to be less profound.
However, anyone who thinks they are making a significant statement by expressing such doubt is severely mistaken, not only because the essence of Christianity is infinitely great and can be illuminated from any number of different perspectives, but also because we can learn a great deal from the Luke Gospel that we cannot learn from the John Gospel, in spite of the infinite depths of the latter document. The profound Christian ideas we encountered in the cycle on the John Gospel do not represent the full depths of Christianity, which can indeed be approached from a different standpoint, as we will do in this lecture series by focusing on the Luke Gospel from the perspective of anthroposophical spiritual science.
We will first consider a few preliminary points that will help us understand what we can gain from studying the Luke Gospel even after plumbing the depths of the John Gospel. Our point of departure will be a fact that becomes apparent when we apply anthroposophical perspectives to even a single line of the John Gospel, namely, that the Gospels were written by individuals with an especially penetrating view of the nature of life and existence. Such people, who are able to see into the depths of the cosmos, are called “initiates” and “clairvoyants.” In casual conversation, we use these terms more or less interchangeably, but when we approach deeper layers of spiritual life in our anthroposophical studies, we must distinguish between these two categories of individuals who find their way into suprasensible realms. There is indeed a difference between an initiate and a clairvoyant, although nothing prevents an initiate from also being a clairvoyant, and the reverse is also true, at least to a certain extent. To distinguish precisely between these two types of suprasensible experience, we must recall the three levels of perception that transcend our ordinary perception of the world. These levels are explained in my book How to Know Higher Worlds.2
The type of cognition that is immediately accessible to us can be described by saying that we perceive the world through our senses and apply our reason and our other soul powers to these perceptions to make them our own. In addition, however, the world can be understood on three other levels. The first is the level of so-called imaginative cognition, the second is inspired cognition, and the third can be called intuitive cognition — if we use the word “intuitive” in its true, spiritual scientific sense.
Who possesses imaginative cognition? Individuals whose spiritual eyes perceive a mighty cosmic tableau of images spread out behind the sense-perceptible world. These images are very different from what we call images in ordinary life. The laws of three-dimensional space do not apply to the images of imaginative cognition, which also have other unique qualities that prevent them from being easily compared to anything in the ordinary sense-perceptible world.
To gain a conception of the imaginative world, consider a plant and imagine extracting its visible element from its solid form, so the plant’s colors then float freely in the air. If we simply extricate color from a plant and allow it to float freely, the result is a dead figure that consists of color. The preparatory exercises clairvoyants practice, however, ensure that such a form does not remain dead to them. Instead, it is enlivened by the plant’s spiritual aspect just as the plant’s material aspect enlivens it in the sense-perceptible world. The resulting free-floating form is not dead but consists of colored light that is inwardly enlivened, glimmering and sparkling in a great variety of ways. Each color then expresses one attribute of a soul-spiritual being that is imperceptible in the sensory world. In other words, to clairvoyants, the colors in a sense-perceptible plant express soul-spiritual beings.
Now imagine a world filled with a myriad of gleaming, constantly changing colored figures. Instead of simply seeing colors, however, as you would if these flickering color reflexes were captured in a painting, you must imagine that they all express soul-spiritual beings. For example, the sudden appearance of a green image indicates the presence of a rational being, while a bright-red image expresses a passionate nature. I could just as easily choose a different example and ask you to imagine a sea of interpenetrating sounds, smells, or tastes, which also express the soul-spiritual beings standing behind them, but for the moment please simply think of the imaginative world as a sea of interpenetrating colors. This world is real and has nothing to do with “imagination” in the ordinary sense of the word. There is nothing illusory about it. It is simply revealed to us through a different mode of perception than the sense-perceptible world.
Within this imaginative world, we encounter everything that underlies the sense-perceptible world and cannot be perceived with our physical senses — entities such as human ether and astral bodies, for example. Imaginative cognition teaches clairvoyants about higher beings from an external perspective, just as you learn about other people from the outside when you pass them on the street. You get to know these people better if you have the opportunity to talk with them. Through their words, they express aspects of themselves that are different from what you see when you simply watch them passing by on the street. For example, you cannot tell whether some of these passersby are filled with pain or pleasure, grief or delight. Their emotional state becomes evident, however, when you speak with them. In the former instance, you experience people from the outside and learn about them without their active participation, while in the latter instance they express themselves to you. The same is true of beings in the supra-sensible world.
Clairvoyants, who learn about such beings through imaginative cognition, recognize soul-spiritual externalities, as it were. Those who ascend from imaginative cognition to the level of inspired cognition, however, truly interact with these same beings and hear them express themselves. From within themselves, these beings communicate who and what they are. Thus inspiration is a higher cognitive level than mere imagination, and teaches us more about the beings of the soul-spiritual world.
The word “intuition,” if used in its true spiritual scientific meaning rather than in the ordinary sense of any unclear thought that occurs to us, signifies a still higher cognitive level. At this level, we do not simply listen in spirit to what beings tell us from within themselves. Instead, we become one with other beings by submerging ourselves in them. This higher level of spiritual cognition requires us to develop such love for all beings that we no longer distinguish between ourselves and the other beings in our spiritual surroundings. Our own essence pours into the spirit that surrounds us and exists inside rather than outside the other beings with whom we interact. Because this can happen only in the divine spiritual world, the term intuition, which means “standing in God,” is fully justified.
Thus imagination, inspiration, and intuition are the three levels of perceiving the suprasensible world. Of course it is possible to acquire all three levels, but an individual may achieve only the level of imagination in one particular incarnation. We call such people clairvoyants, although the spiritual domains that can be reached only through inspiration and intuition remain hidden to them. Nowadays, aspiring eso-tericists are generally not permitted to ascend to the higher levels of suprasensible cognition without first passing through the stage of imagination. Under modern circumstances it is therefore almost impossible for anyone to omit this stage and proceed directly to the level of inspiration or intuition. This would not be the right way to proceed today, but it could and did occur at certain other times in humankind’s evolution. At certain times in human history, the different levels of supra-sensible cognition were distributed among different individuals, who possessed either imagination or inspiration and intuition. In certain mystery centers, people learned to open their spiritual eyes and clairvoyantly perceived the realm of imagination, the world of symbolic images. Having become clairvoyant to this extent, these people renounced any further aspiration to inspiration and intuition. As a result, they learned to perceive clearly and precisely in the imaginative world through more intensive training. They became specialists in imaginative perception, so to speak.
This specialization, however, resulted in a specific need. Anyone who wants to behold the imaginative world while renouncing the possibility of ascending to the worlds of inspiration and intuition lives in a world of uncertainty. If left to its own devices in the boundless, fluid world of imagination, the human soul drifts hither and thither without any specific goal or direction. Inspiration and intuition supply certainty in the spiritual world; they show us where the path leads and where the goal is. Thus, cultures and times in which imaginatively clairvoyant individuals forswore higher levels of cognition always required such individuals to be devotedly attached to a guide who possessed the spiritual-perceptive powers of inspiration and intuition. Without inspired cognition, we cannot know where a path leads or how to reach a goal. Those who cannot acquire such knowledge for themselves must trust in the expert guidance of those who can. That is why so many spiritual paths quite rightly insist that students who have only recently achieved imaginative cognition need an intimate connection to a guru or guide who can supply directions and goals that they cannot provide for themselves.
Conversely, at certain times it proved useful to allow certain other people to omit the stage of imaginative cognition and proceed directly to inspired or even intuitive cognition. Such people renounced the ability to perceive imaginative images of the spiritual world around them and devoted themselves exclusively to impressions of the spiritual world that flow from within spiritual beings. With ears of spirit, they listened as the beings of the spiritual world spoke. This situation can be compared to being unable to see a person you hear speaking from behind a wall. Individuals can indeed renounce spiritual vision in order to proceed more quickly to spiritual hearing, which permits them to know what other spiritual beings express. Regardless of a person’s ability or inability to see the imaginative world, if that person’s spirit ear hears what beings in the suprasensible world have to say about themselves, we say that such a person is gifted with the “inner word,” in contrast to the outer word exchanged by human beings in the physical world. It is quite possible for some people who cannot see the imaginative world to possess the inner word, to hear and convey what spiritual beings express.
At certain times in human evolution, these two types of suprasensible experience worked together in the mysteries. By renouncing one type of perception, seers of both sorts were able to enhance both the clarity and precision of their own abilities and the quality of their interaction in the mysteries. Imaginative clairvoyants were specially trained in seeing the world of images, while others bypassed the world of imagination and underwent intensive training in perceiving the inner word through inspiration. The experiences that resulted from specialized training could then be conveyed by seers of one type to the others. This was possible in times when interpersonal trust was cultivated to a degree that our modern evolution prohibits. Today’s human beings do not trust each other enough to be satisfied with hearing others describe images of the imaginative world and subsequently adding what they themselves have learned from inspiration. Our faith in the accuracy of other people’s depictions is not strong enough. Although the practice was quite common at certain times in the past, very few modern individuals would be content with developing imagination one-sidedly. At our present stage of development, individuals must be led gradually through all three stages of higher cognition without omitting any of them.
At all levels of suprasensible cognition, we encounter great mysteries related to the so-called Christ event. Imaginative cognition, inspired cognition, and intuitive cognition each have much to say about this central event. Bearing this in mind as we consider the four Gospels, we can conclude that the John Gospel was written from the viewpoint of an initiate who perceived the suprasensible world on all levels of cognition, including intuition. If we look closely at the unique features of the John Gospel, however, we see — as we shall also see in this lecture cyclethat it describes events especially clearly from the perspectives of inspiration and intuition, while its imaginative images are pale and unclear. Leaving aside the lesser imaginative content of this Gospel, we can say that its author conveyed all aspects of the Christ that are revealed to those who possess the inner word and intuition. Because the John Gospel is based on inspired and intuitive cognition, its author essentially describes the mysteries of Christ’s kingdom as imbued with the inner word, or logos.
The other three Gospels are different. Of these three authors, Luke expresses himself most clearly. The Luke Gospel begins with a strange little preface saying, in effect, that after many attempts by earlier writers to compile and recount all the stories circulating about events in Palestine, the Gospel writer in his turn has decided to attempt to recount — and these are significant words — the knowledge of those who from the very beginning had been the “eyewitnesses and ministers of the word,” to quote the usual translation of Luke 1:1-2.3 That is, the author of the Luke Gospel intends to convey the statements of eyewitnesses (the term would be better translated as “independent seers”) and ministers, or servants, of the word. In the Luke Gospel, the term “independent seers” means people who possess imaginative cognition and therefore have access to the world of images, where they perceive the Christ event. Thus the Luke Gospel is based on the accounts of individuals who were not only specially trained in imagination and able to perceive clearly and exactly, but who were also “servants of the word.” This term is significant. Rather than saying “possessors” of the word (that is, of inspired cognition), Luke says “servants” of the word, servants of those with access to the pronouncements of the inspired world but no direct personal access to imaginations. Inspired teachers convey their perception to the servants, who are then able to proclaim it. The servants themselves, however, do not possess the word. Thus the Luke Gospel is based on the accounts of independent seers, of individuals capable of direct personal experience in the imaginative worlds, who have also become “servants of the word” by applying the resources of their inspired teachers to expressing their own visions.