Persephone − Natura
Alanus ab Insulis hears the words of Natura: ‘Hear how in this universe, as in a great city, order is established by the control of a majestic government. In the heavens, as in the citadel of a human city, resides imperially the everlasting Ruler. From Him eternally has gone forth the command that every individual […]
Natura speaks
‘I am she who have fashioned the form and eminence of man into the likeness of the original mundane mechanism, that in him, as in a mirror of the world itself, combined nature may appear. For just as, of the four elements, the concordant discord, the single plurality, the dissonant consonance, the dissenting agreement, produce […]
Augustine and the exoteric christianity
Here follows a quote from the work of Rudolf Steiner about the meaning of Augustine for the church. I am finishing my reflections about Augustine with this quote. Augustine’s method of thinking told him that since the Christ event other conditions had begun for souls seeking the spirit in place of those which had existed […]
Augustine in the history of thinking
Here I quote from Rudolf Steiner’s ‘The riddles of Philosophy’:A foreshadowing of a new element produced by thought life itself emerges in St. Augustine (354 – 430). This element soon vanishes from the surface, however, to continue unnoticeably under the cover of religious conception, becoming distinctly discernible again only in the later Middle Ages. In […]
A still deeper reform of Augustine
In the tenth book Augustine gives a wonderful description of his investigations both of the outer world and into the inner life, resulting in considerations of pure thinking. After that he inquires into his memory and this results at last in a deeper reform. The descriptions are too long to quote here, but are worth […]
The reform of Augustine
This and the coming week I will quote two moments of reform in the life of Augustine, as he himself describes in his ‘Confessions’. Book 8, chapter XII28. Now when deep reflection had drawn up out of the secret depths of my soul all my misery and had heaped it up before the sight of […]
Augustine meets Faustus
In these ‘philosophical reflections’ I am sharing the thoughts of others, which doesn’t necessarily mean that I recognise them as right. Here I quote from the Confessions of Augustine, because it is intriguing to share in the thoughts of this great church father. From: Augustine, Confessions, Book five. CHAPTER VI ‘For almost the whole of […]
Augustine and Manicheism III
In a lecture in 1914 (GA 156, Occult Reading and Occult Hearing) Rudolf Steiner speaks about Manicheism. He says that the power of clairvoyance diminished in the period after the Mystery of Golgotha, and while diminishing it became ever more difficult to see the full significance of this mystery and the full being of Christ […]
Augustine and Manichaeism II
Apart from the book ‘Confessions’ of Augustine, there exists the book ‘Contra Faustum’. In this book Augustine rejects the learnings and convictions of a Manichean bishop called Faustus. It consists of 33 Chapters, each of them beginning with a statement by Faustus, followed by the refutations of Augustine, who had been a Manichean for ten […]
Augustine and Manichaeism
Manichaeism was well known throughout the ages, by the descriptions of its opponents. One important source dealing with the struggle of the Catholic Church against the heretics, is the book ‘Confessions’ of St. Augustine. He was a member of the community of the Manicheans for ten years, but we don’t have a picture of how […]