The College of Teachers of Religion at Waldorf Schools addressed an interested general audience during this year’s conference at the beginning of June, with the theme “Religious Culture as a Force for the Future”.
The Anthroposophical Society was on board as organizer. “Thus anthroposophy everywhere begins with science, enlivens its ideas artistically, and ends in religious deepening.” For the spiritual deepening of the work Rudolf Steiner gave instructions, ritual forms and practices in connection with the Anthroposophical Society. The conference spoke of these and the spiritual current to which Steiner is connected. Between 1919 and 1923, Rudolf Steiner gave the Waldorf School four ritual acts to accompany religious education. He gave the offering ceremony for adults 100 years ago. It leads to the path of self-education. 100 years points to a rhythm of 3 times 33 1/3 years. This is significant for the life and shaping of an impulse: after 33 1/3 years, that which once entered the world through thinking knowledge, and was animated and actively carried on by its successors, is threatened by solidification in tradition. Everything must be seized again by cognition and be animated with enthusiasm.
This conference was intended to serve this work of cognition and re-invigoration. It was addressed to all people who are interested in the ritual forms that Rudolf Steiner gave within the framework of anthroposophical work. Looking at different spiritual currents helps to understand this field of religious culture, which is not easily accessible today. Everything that concerns the development of the human being is about evolutionary secrets, in the sense of the spirit of the time.
Painting by Sylvia Schumann, from the event flyer
Translation Gilda Bartel, Laura Liska
