John Stirling Walker - The Spiritual Science of Rudolf Steiner

In the rich history of Western mysticism, few figures stand taller than the late-nineteenth-century Austrian literary critic and philosopher Rudolf Steiner. Steiner may be most famous today as the founder of anthroposophy, the Waldorf schools, and biodynamic agriculture (a precursor to the organic farming movement). But his complex and highly sophisticated philosophy of spiritual evolution, which he called spiritual science, is much less well known—and rarely deeply understood.

In this EnlightenNext interview, independent spiritual philosopher John Walker, who has been heavily influenced by Steiner, translates and unpacks the powerful and subtle philosophy of this pioneering Western mystic. Speaking with EnlightenNext’s director of education, Jeff Carreira, Walker also explores the larger historical development of Western esoteric thought as a reaction to the emergence of scientific materialism in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe. Covering a broad range of topics including Steiner's split with the theosophical movement (over conflicting ideas about J. Krishnamurti) to his radical views on the ultimate nature of mind and consciousness, Walker takes us on an inside tour of the life and times of this often underappreciated spiritual revolutionary.

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