{"product_id":"the-culture-of-selflessness-rudolf-steiner-the-fifth-gospel-and-the-time-of-extremes-9781621480112","title":"The Culture of Selflessness: Rudolf Steiner, the Fifth Gospel, and the Time of Extremes","description":"\"People will have to exchange the spirit of mere thinking for the spirit of direct vision, of direct compassion and shared experience of the Christ who is spiritually alive and walks at the side of all human souls...\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"We must first become selfless. That is the task of culture today for the future. Humanity must become more and more selfless; therein lies the future of right moral life deeds, the future of all acts of love that can occur through earthly humanity\" (Rudolf Steiner, \u003ci\u003eApproaching the Mystery of Golgotha, \u003c\/i\u003e CW 152).\u003cp\u003eIn a lecture eight weeks before the outbreak of World War I, Rudolf Steiner, conscious of developments to come, coined the phrase \"culture of selflessness\" to describe the culture that would develop in the future. The far-reaching social implications of his primarily Christological lectures on the Fifth Gospel, given in 1913\/14 under the same political circumstances, were foreign to many of Steiner's contemporary audiences, who largely failed to understand his dramatic accounts drawn from the Fifth Gospel (or that gospel itself) as a \"source of comfort\" for the future, or (as Rudolf Steiner said of them) as \"needed\" for future work.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe subsequent catastrophes of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, however, have sensitized us to Steiner's central themes and contents of 1913\/14. He spoke of spiritual development and self-preservation in the face of great suffering; of truly participating in the misfortunes of others; and of acquiring \"true selflessness\" that takes the human \"I\" fully into account. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDuring the 1930s, during the National Socialist reign of violence, a few of Rudolf Steiner's pupils took this path of moral resistance and all-embracing therapeutic action. One example is described in the second chapter of this volume. Many other destinies are less well-known; by now, they can no longer be saved completely from oblivion. They include the great life work of Maria Krehbiel-Darmstädter, an anthroposophist of Jewish origin who was murdered in Auschwitz in 1943 (see Peter Selg's biography, \u003ci\u003eFrom Gurs to Auschwitz: The Inner Journey of Maria Krehbiel-Darmstädter\u003c\/i\u003e). \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHowever, both now and in the future, in a world that must find humane ways to endure continued calamities of tremendous magnitude, the task Rudolf Steiner described remains relevant in all cultures and all parts of the globe. \"A single great community covers the earth. Its name is suffering and strength.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\"Selflessness is essential to true anthroposophy.\" (Rudolf Steiner, CW 220)\u003cp\u003eThis book is a translation of \u003ci\u003eDie Kultur der Selbstlosigkeit. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eRudolf Steiner, das Funfte Evangelium und das Zeitalter der Extreme\u003c\/i\u003e (Verlag am Goetheanum, Dornach, 2006).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSelg, Peter:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eBorn 1963\u003c\/b\u003e, Stuttgart.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e1986-1993\u003c\/b\u003e Study of human medicine at the University of Witten\/Herdecke, in Berlin and Zurich. Doctoral thesis: Attempt to systematize Rudolf Steiner's human physiological ideas. An analysis of the entire lecture and written work (Witten\/Herdecke 1995).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e1993-2000\u003c\/b\u003e Further training as a specialist in child and adolescent psychiatry and psychotherapy. Senior physician in the psychiatric department for adolescents and young adults at the Herdecke Community Hospital.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e2000-2002\u003c\/b\u003e Research associate at the Institute for Applied Epistemology and Medical Methodology (Freiburg).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e2002-2006\u003c\/b\u003e Head physician at the Ita Wegman Clinic Arlesheim (adolescent psychiatry and psychotherapy); since 2006 establishment and management of the Ita Wegman Institute for Basic Anthroposophical Research\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSince 2007\u003c\/b\u003e professorship for medical anthropology and ethics at the Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences (Alfter near Bonn); teaching in the Studium fundamentale and in the accompanying studies in anthroposophic medicine at the University\/Witten-Herdecke\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSince 2020, \u003c\/b\u003eco-leader of the Executive Council of the General Anthroposophical Section of the School of Spiritual Science (Goetheanum)\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Steiner Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50360904352018,"sku":"9781621480112","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_bb145368-0144-4f43-ab0c-1403ef38a443.jpg?v=1728367237","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-culture-of-selflessness-rudolf-steiner-the-fifth-gospel-and-the-time-of-extremes-9781621480112","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}