Adam Bittleston

Adam Bittleston: His Life, Work, and Thought

Adam Bittleston (1911–1989) was an ordained priest of The Christian Community, a movement for religious renewal founded in 1922 with the help of Rudolf Steiner, philosopher and the founder of Anthroposophy. This book is the first biography of a fascinating and influential individual, presented alongside a selection of his writings, including all his articles on Shakespeare.

From his student days in Oxford, Bittleston was a close friend of William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies and an unpublished journal, on which this book draws. Bittleston was also gifted with the written word, as well as being a much sought after spiritual counselor. His wife, Gisela, once wrote that his “main interest was to help people sort out their destiny.” His knowledge of Shakespeare was equal to that of any academic or writer of his time, and most of his books and articles draw deeply on Shakespeare’s work.

Essays in other sections of the book were selected to reflect Bittleston’s broad reading and deep knowledge of language, history, and the “spirit” of the English people, as well as religion and the Gospels. He was also recognized as one of the foremost theologians of The Christian Community in Britain.

He was able to translate spiritual ideas into modern life and was the author of several books, including Meditative Prayers for Today (1953), Human Needs and Cosmic Answers: The Spirit of the Circling Stars (1975), Our Spiritual Companions (1983), The Seven Planets (1985), From Loneliness to Connection (1987), and Counselling and Spiritual Development (1988).

About the Author

Kenneth Gibson is a lecturer at the University of Derby, UK, and specializes in adult education and seventeenth-century ecclesiastical history.