Rudolf Steiner: Theosophy

Audience

Steiner’s mature conviction that he should find a way to communicate his supersensory experiences to large audiences accounts for the large number of written volumes and lectures on Anthroposophy, including Theosophy. The majority of Steiner’s books were actually transcriptions of his lectures, which his followers helped collect and publish in order to disseminate Anthroposophy. Steiner had acquired a reputation as an editor, reviewer, and lecturer of philosophy, literature, and pedagogy in Berlin circles by the 1890s. At the turn of the century, he decided to devote his intellectual strengths to Theosophy and subsequently, after the 1913 break with the Theosophical Society, to Anthroposophy. His primary audience was therefore represented by those attending meetings and lectures of the Theosophical Society. Steiner’s ambition was to increase the number of people interested in the subject and to produce a true change of direction in the minds of his contemporaries. He thought that the turn of the century represented the peak in the separation of human thinking and willing from the spirit. Theosophy was designed to contribute to that “turn or reversal of direction in human evolution” that seemed so necessary to the author. Anthroposophy is today a worldwide movement, and Theosophy remains an important point of reference for Steiner’s followers. They are mostly concentrated in Germany, Britain, and the United States.