Evil

Evil: Selected Lectures

This selection of lectures offers insights into the complexity of evil as a phe­nomenon that arises when an event or process appears outside its true context. As a result, something that is “good” initially may become “evil” because it occurs in the wrong place.

Steiner tells us that this as an effect of Lucifer and Ahriman, spiritual beings who work as polar forces and hinder human evolution by opposing our appropriate development. Confronting these difficulties, however, ultimately furthers our spiritual development.

C O N T E N T S:

Editor’s Introduction

1. Origin and Nature of Evil

Evil Illuminated through the Science of the Spirit
Good and Evil: Creation and Death

2. All Life Unfolds between the Polarities of Luciferic and Ahrimanic Forces

Christ, Ahriman and Lucifer in Relationship to the Human Being
The Relation of Ahrimanic and Luciferic Beings to Normally Evolved Hierarchies

3. The “Fall”: Consequences and Counterbalance

The Midgard Snake, the Fenris Wolf, and Hel
The Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

4. The Intensification of Evil and the Task of Our Present Consciousness Soul Age

Supersensible Aspects of Historical Research
The Three Streams of Materialistic Civilization

5. “666” and the Future of Humanithy—The Task of Manichaeism

How Do I Find the Christ?
The Future of Human Evolution

About the Author

Rudolf Steiner (b. Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner, 1861–1925) was born in the small village of Kraljevec, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Croatia), where he grew up. As a young man, he lived in Weimar and Berlin, where he became a well-published scientific, literary, and philosophical scholar, known especially for his work with Goethe’s scientific writings. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he began to develop his early philosophical principles into an approach to systematic research into psychological and spiritual phenomena. Formally beginning his spiritual teaching career under the auspices of the Theosophical Society, Steiner came to use the term Anthroposophy (and spiritual science) for his philosophy, spiritual research, and findings. The influence of Steiner’s multifaceted genius has led to innovative and holistic approaches in medicine, various therapies, philosophy, religious renewal, Waldorf education, education for special needs, threefold economics, biodynamic agriculture, Goethean science, architecture, and the arts of drama, speech, and eurythmy. In 1924, Rudolf Steiner founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches throughout the world. He died in Dornach, Switzerland.