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Crisis in the Anthroposophical Society
And Pathways to the Future
Sergei O. Prokofieff and Peter Selg
Foreword by Sergei O. Prokofieff
Translated by Sergei O. Prokofieff and Willoughby Ann Walshe
Foreword by Sergei O. Prokofieff
Translated by Sergei O. Prokofieff and Willoughby Ann Walshe
Paperback
May 2013
9781906999438
More details
- Publisher
Temple Lodge Publishing - Published
8th May 2013 - ISBN 9781906999438
- Language English
- Pages 136 pp.
- Size 5.5" x 8.5"
$25.00
“The intention of my lecture was to draw attention to the fact that the recent development of the Goetheanum is no longer heading in the right direction; rather, it is heading in a direction that can be considered neither in the spirit intended by Rudolf Steiner, nor of service to anthroposophy. Before it is too late, this direction must be altered.... Otherwise, the Goetheanum is in danger of being degraded to spiritual ‘insignificance,’ and of becoming a mere combination of museum and conference centre.” — Sergei O. Prokofieff
“Why is it so difficult actually to understand and implement the ‘intentions of the Christmas Conference’ [in Steiner’s words], which represent a very concrete answer to the Anthroposophical Society’s identity crisis?” — Peter Selg
More than a hundred years after its founding, the Anthroposophical Society faces serious questions—some of an existential nature—regarding its purpose and tasks in the present day. On March 30, 2012, in the course of the Society’s Annual General Meeting in Dornach, both Prokofieff and Selg gave lectures that addressed difficult issues related to the General Anthroposophical Society and its global headquarters, the Goetheanum in Switzerland. These lectures were met with a mixture of enthusiastic support and stern disapproval. They are reproduced here in full, with supplementary material to help broaden and deepen their themes, so that every interested individual can have access to them.
Originally published in German as two booklets Die Identität der Allgemeinen Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft (by Peter Selg) and Wie stehen wir heute vor Rudolf Steiner? (by Sergei O. Prokofieff) by Verlag des Ita Wegman Instituts.
C O N T E N T S:
PART ONE: THE IDENTITY OF THE GENERAL ANTHROPOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
(Peter Selg)
The New Beginning of the Anthroposophical Society in 1923/24
The Challenges of the Present and the Future
Appendix: The Relation to the School of Spiritual Science
PART TWO: HOW DO WE STAND BEFORE RUDOLF STEINER TODAY?
(Sergei O. Prokofieff)
Preface
On the Anniversary of Rudolf Steiner’s Death
Afterword
Appendix: A Reflection on Peter Selg’s Publication, The Identity of the General Anthroposphical Society
Sergei O. Prokofieff
Sergei O. Prokofieff (1954-2014) was born in Moscow, where he studied fine arts and painting at the Moscow School of Art. At an early age he encountered the work of Rudolf Steiner and quickly realized that his life would be dedicated to the Christian path of esoteric knowledge. He wrote his first book, Rudolf Steiner and the Founding of the New Mysteries, while living in Soviet Russia, and it was published in English in 1994. After the fall of Communism, he helped establish the Anthroposophical Society in Russia. In 2001, he became a member of the Executive Council of the General Anthroposophical Society at the Goetheanum in Switzerland. More than 30 of his books have been translated into English. Sergei Prokofieff passed away in Dornach, Switzerland.
Peter Selg
Peter Selg studied medicine in Witten-Herdecke, Zurich, and Berlin and, until 2000, worked as the head physician of the juvenile psychiatry department of Herdecke Hospital in Germany. Dr. Selg is director of the Ita Wegman Institute for Basic Research into Anthroposophy (Arlesheim, Switzerland), professor of medicine at the Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences (Germany), and co-leader of the General Anthroposophical Section at the Goetheanum. He is the author of numerous books on Rudolf Steiner, anthroposophy, medical ethics, and the development of culture and consciousness.
