The important article that follows is an updated version of the open letter that appeared in our Steiner & Spirit catalog for 2006. Read it here on this web page or download a PDF version of the original article.
We have a new project, an old dream, whose time, we believe, has come. Beginning in fall 2005, in collaboration with Rudolf Steiner Press in England, we inaugurated The Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner in English translation. All of Rudolf Steiner’s invaluable works will be issued in new, uniform, attractive, professional editions with introductions to place each work in context, and footnotes, and indexes.
The time is right. We do not wish the opportunity to slip away. For the world-transforming potential of Rudolf Steiner’s teaching — Anthroposophy — to become a reality, it is imperative that his work and person become more widely known. We believe that, if this does not happen, Anthroposophy will gradually become an exclusive province, limited to a few scholars of the esoteric and a small school of students. Rudolf Steiner will become as quaint, obscure, and incomprehensible to the wider culture as Paracelsus and Swedenborg are. For the general public, Rudolf Steiner will become a figure of mere historical interest. This is the great danger we seek to counteract.
Publishing The Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner is an ambitious, long-term undertaking. Its successful completion will depend upon the goodwill and support of all those who know and care about Rudolf Steiner, as well as those who may know little or nothing about Steiner but are nevertheless concerned about — and dedicated to — the healthy spiritual evolution of our culture and our world.
Why Steiner?
Rudolf Steiner established himself as a radical, philosopher, thinker, and interpreter of Goethe before the turn of the twentieth century, laying down the framework for a new path of thinking that leads to an ethical, non-dual, “monist” understanding of all worlds. In Goethe — the German poet, novelist, dramatist, and holistic scientist — he found the bases for a renewed, alchemical, participatory science of nature.
In 1902, he chose to leave behind the exoteric world to work for spiritual and cultural renewal. For the next twenty-three years — at first within Theosophy, and then within Anthroposophy, the essence of what he had taught from the beginning — he developed and perfected a method of spiritual research he called “spiritual science.” In numerous written works and more than 6,000 lectures, he laid the foundations for a new science, a new humanity, and a new culture. He brought cosmic thoughts, intelligence, and wisdom into humanly comprehensible form. There is no field of knowledge that he did not plough and reform. The list is well-nigh endless: evolution, history, psychology, angelology, economics, Christology, education, agriculture, medicine, science, art, comparative religion, reincarnation and karma, life after death, social thought — and on and on.
Until his death in 1925, Steiner strove to overcome materialism and replace it with a spiritual understanding of the world and humanity. Born with great spiritual, intellectual, and practical gifts, he transformed modern consciousness into an instrument for the renewal of humanity’s vocation for the spirit. He saw his task as the re-sacralizing human life and culture. He felt that the survival and continuing evolution of our humanity and the Earth depend on it. He understood himself as operating within the largest evolutionary framework. In this sense, Rudolf Steiner saw himself as he was: a world-historical figure.
Born in 1861, Rudolf Steiner is the contemporary of Freud (b.1856) and Jung (b.1875), but he is not nearly as well known as either. We believe he ought to be and we seek to remedy the situation. Freud was fortunate to have to Bloomsbury and the Hogarth Press behind him, while Jung was the beneficiary of the generosity of Paul Mellon, who established the Bollingen Series at Princeton University Press to publish The Collected Works of C. G. Jung. The rest is history.
Rudolf Steiner has not been so fortunate. Because he fought materialism in all its forms and sought to renew humanity’s understanding of its spiritual destiny — anathema in a predominantly secularized, atheistic, fundamentalist, and humanist world — he has been excluded almost without exception from the canon of the acceptable. Notwithstanding this exclusion, Rudolf Steiner was truly a world-historical figure: an initiate. His works should be widely known, studied, and meditated at all levels of culture and society. His teaching should become one of the paradigms of the age into which we are entering.
A World-Historical Figure Needs a Stage
The few who know Steiner’s work recognize its significance. The philosopher Owen Barfield called it “the best kept secret of the twentieth century” and compared it to that of paradigm-creating figures like Aristotle or Aquinas. But for Steiner’s work to have the opportunity to participate in the ongoing evolution of consciousness, it must be made available. It must be known, discussed, researched, read, and reread. But to realize his world-historical potential — as a world initiator or teacher — Rudolf Steiner’s teaching must become world-initiating, world transforming. The world must change and become different as a result of his presence. Rudolf Steiner did not work only for the few. He sought to create a new, universal, spiritual framework for human culture. For this to happen, his work must be widely and fully available.
Everything must be published in English
Until now, publishing Steiner in English has produced only haphazard editions, selected at the discretion of editors (who chose what they were interested in), or in relation to the concerns and needs of the Anthroposophical Society. To realize their full evolutionary and transforming potential — to become part of world culture — all Steiner’s seminal works should be available in accessible, professional, uniform editions, so that readers everywhere can truly claim the essence of what he taught as their own. Readers must be free to make up their own minds, but unless everything is available, their and our vision is inevitably partial.
This is not a new idea. It has been attempted before. But for many reasons the time was not right. Now the time is right. We believe Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy stand on the cusp of breaking through into the culture. A century and the hard work of countless individuals have brought Anthroposophy to the point where it could truly become a contributor to the culture of the future.
It is time to invite the world into Anthroposophy. Only we can do this. Only we, who live today, in the twenty-first century, can help Rudolf Steiner’s work reach its full potential.
Everything is available in German. Anyone who wants to read everything should learn German.
English is the world language. If Steiner is to be a world figure, he must be available in English. Furthermore, as Germans themselves have sometimes remarked, Steiner is much more accessible in English than in his original German, which is difficult and old-fashioned.
Why books at all? Isn’t this a very “intellectual” approach?
Without the books, all the potent and potentially culturally healing “applications” of Steiner’s work (Waldorf education, biodynamics, anthroposophical medicine, threefold social renewal, and so on) are without ground and legitimacy. Without the books, Anthroposophy and its movements become an oral “cult.”
Books are also a lifeline and transforming balm for those who have no other access to Steiner than through books. If books are not accessible and widely available, Anthroposophy becomes a private “cult.” Without the enrichment and transformation of reading books in the privacy of one’s own place and heart, the transformative community Steiner sought to create cannot be realized.
And finally, despite the anti-intellectual bias of many spiritual seekers, Rudolf Steiner — though always concrete, existential, and ever exhorting his students and readers to make Anthroposophy live on Earth in the activities of everyday life — was a philosopher who believed that Anthroposophy could reach people through ideas and books.
The task ahead
As publishers of Rudolf Steiner, we are faced with several problems. First, there is the vastness of the task: 360 volumes in the collected works in German.
Second, there is the fact that Steiner is not easy to read. To present Rudolf Steiner in an accessible way requires a “research” approach. We can no longer assume that we know what he meant. We need to translate with an open mind, and seek to discover over and over again what he taught — what Anthroposophy is.
Third, there is the reality that, although his works are as vital and important now as they were when he wrote and spoke, Rudolf Steiner did so did so more than a hundred years ago. What he said was often framed in the context of his time. He gave many cycles of lectures — lecture courses — and, equally, many unique lectures. He rarely repeated himself. Each lecture was an opportunity for fresh spiritual research. What he has to say is always profound and builds on what he has said before. He always does so, however, in a context and with a particular audience in mind. In fact, many of his most significant lectures were given to very small groups with specific interests, predispositions, and knowledge. Therefore, his works require critical, informative, explanatory introductions, as well as copious notes, and indexes.
How much of Steiner’s work is currently available in English?
Since 1910, perhaps 350 different Steiner books have been published, many of which are collections of lectures taken from already published courses. At present, only about 180 titles by Steiner are available from SteinerBooks and Rudolf Steiner Press combined, many of which, again, are only selections (not potential volumes in the Collected Works). Less than half of Steiner’s work is currently published in English.
The Collected Works Project
The task is twofold: First, to reedit and publish — with new introductions, notes, indexes, and so on — all viable existing volumes of Rudolf Steiner’s works. Second, to translate and publish all the previously unavailable volumes of Rudolf Steiner’s works with introductions, notes, indexes, and so on.
For the first few years, both tasks will run parallel, but very quickly the first task will be completed, and we will focus entirely on translating and publishing new works.
Respect
It may seem like a small thing, but, if the books we publish do not communicate respect for Rudolf Steiner, we cannot expect our readers to respect or take him seriously. In preparing the Collected Works, therefore, we are committed to producing texts that communicate not only our seriousness in undertaking the project and our understanding of its significance, but also our deep respect for its subject.
2005-2006
During the first twelve months, we planned to publish twenty to twenty-five volumes in our new, high quality, uniform, trade edition of the Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner. Each volume will be 6 x 9 inches and will contain an introduction, a biography of Steiner, notes, indexes. Thus far, we have published or are in the process of publishing more than two dozen editions. The publication process of The Collected Works Project means long, hard work, along with some difficulties and delays, but we feel that the results have been well worth the effort. (To see what we've done so far, visit the "Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner") page, which lists the collection so far. These high-quality volumes will provide resources for Anthroposophic spiritual study and research for many years to come.
How you can help
This is clearly not a project we can do alone. We need the help of all those who care about Rudolf Steiner’s legacy. We believe that the kind of world we will bequeath to future generations depends upon that legacy assuming its rightful position as an indispensable contributor to human cultural evolution. For that reason, we are dedicated to bringing Rudolf Steiner’s work into the cultural mainstream by establishing a serious, respectful, professional edition of his Collected Works.
You can support the project financially through a tax-deductible gift. There are many different ways of giving:
- You can send a contribution to Collected Works project.
- You can choose a specific title to sponsor.
- You can help establish the Rudolf Steiner endowment fund, the income from which would support the SteinerBooks Collected Works project.
- You can make a bequest, remembering the SteinerBooks Collected Works project in your will.
- You can create a Charitable Remainder Trust, providing for and maintaining two sets of beneficiaries: yourself as income beneficiary and SteinerBooks as beneficiary when you pass away.
- You can make a gift of real or personal property. A residence or other property may be given as an outright gift, or you may prefer to give your home and retain the right to occupy it for life. Personal property such as paintings, library books, or musical instruments also make useful gifts.
- You can support SteinerBooks for a term of years or for your lifetime by creating a Charitable Lead Trust. Income will then be paid to the Press each year during the life of the trust. When the trust terminates, the assets in the trust revert to you or to whomever you wish to benefit.
- You can take out Life Insurance naming us as beneficiary: the present cash surrender value of the policy is deductible as a charitable contribution. If you continue to pay the premiums after the gift, they are also deductible.
Besides giving, you can let us know what interests you. You can pass on this catalog on to a friend. Communicate with us!
The Time is Now!
We stand at a critical juncture. We must make the name and work of Rudolf Steiner better known. People will listen, but they must have the opportunity to hear. We need your help and support.
Write to us — we want to hear from you :
SteinerBooks
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Fax: 413.528.8826
Email:
Christopher Bamford, Editor in Chief: cbamford@cris.com
Andrew Flaxman, Director of Development and Fund Raising: flaxman@bcn.net
Mary Giddens, Editorial and Artistic Director: mary@steinerbooks.org
Gene Gollogly, CEO and President of SteinerBooks: gene@steinerbooks.org
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