an alternative introduction to Steiner's: Antroposophy - a fragment. Not satisfied with the current introduction, I decided to write one of my own.
A
commentary on Scott E. Hicks' remarkable essay: Spiritual
Beings Dwell in the Ground of Propositions:
Brentano, Husserl, and Steiner on the content of thought.
**What
is American Anthroposophy? (Michaelmas 2005) - an
essay that was originally written specifically for the
European magazine Info3. [the correspondent who was
to introduce this work to Info3 was unable to complete his
mission] Since this never happened, it has been
expanded and adapted for a wider audience. The
impulse for this was that Rudolf Steiner had said that
Americans had an original form of Anthroposophy, and that
we should look to Emerson to appreciate it. This
essay considers not only what social phenomena reveal the
nature of this "natural"
Anthroposphy, but also many of its heretofore unsuspected
dimensions. [It is currently under
construction.]
**American
Culture - a first look.
A examination of the relationship between Western
Civilization (which is dying), the emerging new
civilization (which is American), and the understanding of
human evolution within Spiritual Science.
**Waldorf
Charter Schools in America: some social observations
- an essay about some characteristics
of the American Soul that explain why Waldorf Charter
Schools are a sound anthroposophical impulse.
**The
Social -Spiritual Organism
of a Waldorf School Community: - (spring 1999) an
essay asked for by a Waldorf Parent after I mentioned some
ideas of mine in conversation. This essay explores the
role of a vital parent body in the Waldorf social
organism.
**The
Law and the Spirit - (fall
2004) some remarks in support of our considerations of the
issues of the amicus brief, the problem of opposing
defamation, and the constitutional question - an essay
concerning the Summer 2004 Newsletter of the
Anthroposophical Society in America about legal matters
before the Society.
**Listening
to the World Song: (the original, summer-fall 1999)
a report on the Experience of an Idea: the general social
realities of modern humanity.
**Waking the Sleeping Giant: the Mission of Anthroposophy in America : The above essay considers the general social conditions of modern times, and the relationship of the Mystery of America to these conditions.
The Future of Anthroposophy in the
21st Century (the week before Christmas 2006) -
Concerns missing, but significantly needed, elements of
the spiritual background of America, that anthroposophists
very much need to practice and to understand - matters
embedded deeply in the reality of the spiritual/social
present.
**The least read, most important book, Steiner ever wrote" (spring 2005) An essay about the significance of the book A Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World Conception.
**Concerning
the Renewal of Anthroposophy - rediscovering the true
meaning of the New Mysterys: an essay on
the significance of the Philosophy of Freedom and
the Reverse Cultus, as a means for bring alive the
New Mysteries in the Group and Branch work.
This essay, and the one next below on the Law, were
given away free at the Annual General Meeting of the
Anthroposophical Society, in Detroit in 2004.
**pragmatic moral psychology: an early look at my own practice, from 1997
**The Three Wishes: written out of and somewhat about the Ann Arbor Conference of 2005.(winter-spring 1998) an essay on moral inner development submitted to the Journal for Anthroposophy in May of 1997 (along with a bit of verse - Speech ); no reply was been received.
**Listening to the World Song (part one) A brief Application of the Principles of Goetheanistic Thinking to the Problems of Human Social and Political Existence; and, Listening to the World Song (part two) Macro and micro aspects of the Mystery of Evil in Modern Times, as these play themselves out in the social-political organism of humanity (spring 2005)
The True Foundations for the New (living) Thinking and the New Mysteries (mid-summer, 2007) A discussion of such matters as the intellectualization of Michaelic Cosmic Intelligence in the Anthroposophical Society during the 20th Century.
**Wendt
on
Usher on Prokofieff on Tomberg on Steiner: a little
piece written for the News for Members in 2005.
Didn't expect them to print it. [egads! they did -
without telling me of course, and then they followed it up
with an intensely polemical response by Usher - about
which they also did not tell me - ohmygod, sandbagged by
the News for Members!?! Are we surprised?]
**Open
Letter
to the Anthroposophical Society, in America, as well as
the World: about
the need to change from a third epoch hierarchical social
form, to a fifth epoch (modern) social form.
Guest
Writer:
Stephen
Clarke - up close and personal. The
deepest essays on the Mysteries of the Americas that
I know.
**Die and
Become: the future of Anthroposophy in America: an
essay offering some insight to the American
Anthroposophical Society concerning its current concerns
over leadership change processes.
**Initiation, Goetheanism and the New Bogeyman: an
essay on the importance of developing a goetheanistic
social understanding in order for the anthroposophical
impulse to be fully incarnated in the social world.
**The World in the Light of the Human "I am": an essay, originally written for the Journal Trans-Intelligence Internationalle, but which was rightly rejected owing to this Journal's wish to remain outside arguments internal to the anthroposophical movement. The theme of the essay concerns an expansion of an idea in Listening to the World Song, concerning the problem of "how" anthroposophically inspired material should be presented to the wider world.
**Anthroposophy in the Light of
America: - what the American Soul needs
from the Anthroposophical Movement. Some notes and
recollections of a talk I gave on the shadow side of the
Anthroposophical Movement and the Mystery of America.
**scenes
from the eye of the heart: a meditation on: - Dan
Dugan, PLANS, Waldorf Education, and the battle for the
future of the soul.
**Threshold Problems in Thinking the
Threefold Social Order :
an essay on my initial
investigations on how to "think" the threefold social
order - which ultimately lead to an attempt to approach
social investigation in a "goethean" manner. Some
results of that work - after a few years practice, are
part of the next essay. The above was submitted to both
the Journal for Anthroposophy and the Threefold Review,
in 1992, with no reply (other than an acknowledgment of
receipt from the latter).
**On the Practice of Communicating
the Ideal to the American Soul :
an essay on the dis-harmonious relationship between the
Central European Soul and the American Soul in
anthroposophical work in America, and what might be done
about it. Submitted to the Newsletter of the
Anthroposophical Society in America, just recently.
Rejected 8/5/97, for being too long, which I suppose
means the Newsletter will no longer publish multi part
articles.
Guest Essay: Work on
what has been spoiled: It is the fall of 1915, and some members
of the anthroposophical society are expelled. The
problem of "sex" is raised. In this deep and warm essay
Catherine MacCoun examines these events and discovers
remarkable meaning, for our time, in this unusual event.
(This essay became the object of
much controversy, because of its views of Rudolf
Steiner. The most aggressive critic was offered an
opportunity to place his criticism along side the essay
on my website, but did not take up this offer.
Even so, the reader should realize that some individuals
find this essay to contain a very incorrect assessment
of Dr. Steiner's character.)
Response
to Guest Essay, received in June 2005 - this response, received
7 years after the fact, nonetheless is cogent enough
to be added here. Although, nothing written in
this response, by John Stirling Walker, is by my
placing it here to be seen to have my approval or
disapproval.
**Outlaw Anthroposophy - the journal: This is the original journal passed out at the Ann Arbor conference in the summer of 1997. Two essays: The Study of Rudolf Steiners Lecture Cycles and the Problem of Cognition: musings on the epistemological swampland of the Anthroposophical Movement; and The Anthroposophical Society: is it a living social form?; as well as, a Readers Poll asking the 25 questions you have always wanted to be asked about the anthroposophical movement. These two essays were later translated into German by Lorenzo Ravagli, at his request, and published in the journal: Jahrbuck fur anthroposophische Kritick 1998. The Lecture Cycle essay concerns a specific problem, namely whether the reading of a text is knowledge, in the senses of the epistemology (science of knowing) upon which Anthroposophy is founded. My conclusion is that, in general, reading is not "knowledge", from which certain conclusions, about whether Anthroposophy in any way "lives" in Study Groups, follow. The social form essay concerns the obvious, and in concluding that the Society is not "living", explores how that has come to be.