A Preludium to anthroposophy

From: Anthropologie. Die Lehre von der menschliche Seele. Immanuel Hermann Fichte, 1876; Last Paragraph, 265.

'Anthropology has as its ultimate goal a thorough self-knowledge of the human being, which lies only in the exhaustive recognition of the spirit. Thus it is elevated to 'anthroposophy'. Truly thorough or pervasive, however, as has been proved from all sides, the human spirit cannot recognize itself without also becoming aware of the presence and proof of the divine spirit in itself. The only sufficient standpoint of self-contemplation, therefore, is to let the human self find its truth in God's working in it and going through it. By wanting to grasp himself, the human being can only comprehend himself in God. For that is just the obvious miracle, the manifest mystery of the divine presence in man, that he, a quite finite and sensual being, is capable of being seized by an inspiring power, which elevates him above himself and, destroying him in his sensual self-will, makes his own being a certainty. That God is and that he works in us is not an abstract faded, hypothetical philosophical statement; it is a fact, which confronts every enthusiastic knowing and will that conquers the barriers of selfishness, and which, in the midst of the world of finitude and human weakness, presents us with something more than human. And this is also the pinnacle of philosophical proof; for we have to call that spiritual, sanctifying power in us philosophically: God.

Thus Anthroposophy finally finds its last conclusion and support only in Theosophy. As sure as we are, God is and we are in Him. As surely as we are spirits, God is the supreme Spirit; because we 'spirit' and think in Him. God is the holy Will; for what we want in a holy (perfect) way is His Willpower in us. God is the supreme Love; for we love in Him: each other and Him. But by this means man is not interpreted merely for science, but rather because science has ceased to teach a mere abstraction, intrinsically incomprehensible, he has personally become aware of himself: the restless yearning, the unresolved discord that drives him, misunderstanding, is completely understood and healed. His love, the fundamental impulse of his being, has now received the true, enduring object; his will the right quietness, not to rest in himself without action though, but to strive and accomplish in his selflessness, while carried by divine enthusiasm in contemplation, as well as in action, only of the Eternal. With this he loses the last sensual error: the false love of the temporal and the fear of death. That false sense of time and endless void, which earth-consciousness presents to him, is effectively overcome by this; for from then on he is sure to live in the internally felt and conscious world of the Eternal, without any effusion or unexplained exuberance. ' (Translation by Mieke Mosmuller).


Immanuel Hermann Fichte, Jena, 18th of July 1797 - Stuttgart, 8th of August 1879.A Preludium to anthroposophy by Mieke Mosmuller