Youth and the Etheric Heart

Addresses, Essays, Discussions, and Reports, 1920 -1924 (CW 217a)

"All knowledge, even purely scholarly knowledge, must merge into pure artistry" (Rudolf Steiner, February 14, 1923). Youth and the Etheric Heart, which comes to twenty-first-century readers in the somewhat deceptive wrapping of a historical document of Rudolf Stiener's addresses to young people during 1920 to 1924, is (at least for those concerned with the future of Anthroposophy or with the future of spiritual life in general) one of the most extraordinary and prophetic volumes in the collected works.

This book is intended by its editors to be supplementary to the central turning point of the movement, the 1922 "Pedagogical Youth Course," published as Becoming the Archangel Michael's Companions. Together, they present Steiner's vision for Anthroposophy as he hoped it would permeate culture through young people able to take it up as a spiritual, intellectual, and socially transforming path.

The task, which underlies the whole volume and to which we, too, are called by service to the Archangel Michael, is to open to the etheric heart in humanity. This becomes clear in Rudolf Steiner's final address to the young people attending a teachers' conference in Arnheim on July 20, 1924: What is needed is not thinking about what should happen. People should feel that the spirit outside of us speaks in the flames of nature. The sunrise has changed.

But also our heart has changed; we no longer bear the same heart in our chest. Our physical heart has grown harder, and our etheric heart more mobile. We must find access to our suprasensory hearts. This is the way we must understand spiritual science.... In this respect, young people have hearts ideally suited to feeling when something is right. It simply requires courage to really think it. It is in the light of "our suprasensory heart" that we should approach this volume, and indeed Anthroposophy as a whole.

- - -

CONTENTS:

Introduction by Christopher Bamford

ADDRESSES GIVEN IN 1920/1921

- TOWARD INDEPENDENT SCHOLARLY WORK: Address during the First Anthroposophical Higher-Education Course, Dornach, October 1, 1920

- HUMANIZING ACADEMIC LIFE: Address on the Last Day of the First Anthroposophical Higher-Education Course, Dornach, October 16, 1920

- ON THE YOUTH MOVEMENT: Discussion and Question-and-Answer Session during an Independent Anthroposophical Higher-Education Course, Stuttgart, March 20, 1921

- HOW CAN ANTHROPOSOPHICAL WORK BE ESTABLISHED AT UNIVERSITIES? Concluding Words at a Student Gathering during the Second Anthroposophical Higher-Education Course, Dornach, April 9, 1921

- ANTHROPOSOPHY AND THE YOUTH MOVEMENT: Discussion and Question-and-Answer Session during an Independent Anthroposophical Higher-Education Course, Stuttgart, September 8, 1921

ADDRESSES GIVEN IN 1923

- THE COGNITIVE TASK OF ACADEMIC YOUTH: Address Given after the Burning of the Goetheanum on New Year's Eve, 1922/23, Dornach, January 6, 1923

- RESTRUCTURING THE ANTHROPOSOPHICAL SOCIETY: Address and Discussion in Preparation for the Delegates' Assembly, Stuttgart, February 8, 1923

- THREE MAIN QUESTIONS FOR THE ANTHROPOSOPHICAL YOUTH MOVEMENT: Address and Question-and-Answer Session in Stuttgart, February 14, 1923

ESSAYS ON THE YOUTH SECTION OF THE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL OF SPIRITUAL SCIENCE

- ANNOUNCING A SECTION FOR YOUTH: Newsletter, February 24, 1924

- ON THE YOUTH SECTION OF THE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL OF SPIRITUAL SCIENCE:

ON THE YOUTH SECTION OF THE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL OF SPIRITUAL SCIENCE

- THE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL OF SPIRITUAL SCIENCE: In the school of spiritual science, the immediate human element must come into its own, Newsletter, April 6, 1

ADDRESSES GIVEN IN 1924

- THE NATURE AND AIMS OF THE YOUTH MOVEMENT: From Rudolf Steiner's Report in the Weekly Newsletter, What Is Happening in the Anthroposophical Society: News for Members, vol. 1, no. 24, June 22, 1924

- - -

Youth and the Etheric Heart is a great companion volume to Becoming the Archangel Michael's Companions (CW 217). During the early 1920s, following the disaster of World War I, the youth of Europe faced many hardships and questions about their destiny in the world. The situation today is certainly different, but the questions are no less urgent.

This volume is the first complete English translation from the German of Die Erkenntnis-Aufgabe der Jugend (GA 217a).