Religious Education in Steiner-Waldorf Schools

Religious Education in Steiner-Waldorf Schools: Extracts from Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures and Meetings

A comprehensive collection of Rudolf Steiner’s thoughts and ideas on teaching religion in Steiner-Waldorf schools.

“This careful collection of quotations from Rudolf Steiner’s lectures, together with articles by pioneer religion teachers, documents the beginning and development of the independent religion lessons and the services as an integral part of Waldorf education.” (from the foreword)

Rudolf Steiner suggested that children in the first Waldorf School who did not belong to a particular denomination could have ‘independent Christian religion lessons’ and Sunday Services.

This book is a comprehensive collection of Rudolf Steiner’s thoughts and ideas about teaching religion in Steiner-Waldorf schools and about the Sunday Services for children. Extracts are from his lectures to teachers and faculty meetings.

In addition there are chapters by some of the early Waldorf teachers on how the Sunday Services were inaugurated and practiced in the first decades.

Previously published as Towards Religious Education.

C O N T E N T S:

Foreword to the English Edition by Karla Kiniger

1. Religion in Education
2. The Inauguration of Religion Lessons and Religious Services
3. The Curriculum and Methods for Different Ages
4. Division of the Religion Lessons into Class Groups and Weekly Lessons
5. Selecting Religion Teachers
6. How the Religion Lessons Relate to Denominational Lessons
7. The Sunday Services
8. How the Religion Lessons and Services Relate to The Christian Community

References
Bibliography

About the Author

Helmut von Kügelgen spent thirty years as a teacher at the original Waldorf school in Stuttgart and was a founder of the International Association of Waldorf Kindergartens. He also served as the director of the Waldorf Kindergarten Seminar in Stuttgart.

Tilde von Eiff was a religious education teacher for many years.