The New Spirituality

The constitution of the human soul has undergone a profound transformation in recent centuries. With the rise of ‘I’-consciousness, individuality and intellectual thought have moved to the foreground, opening a path toward freedom and self-determination. Yet this gain has come with a loss: the vivid, instinctive spiritual perception of earlier epochs has faded. In this unique series of lecture, Rudolf Steiner traces this decisive shift in consciousness and situates it within a wide panorama of world history. Central to our time is the question of Christ’s continuing presence. Steiner follows the changing perception of Christ, from early Gnosis through the formation of Church doctrine to the modern age, indicating a renewed mode of spiritual perception – Imagination – through which Christ may again be experienced as a living reality. This reappearance, not in physical form but within the etheric realm, marks a decisive threshold for contemporary humanity. Through a ‘symptomatic’