COMMUNITY SEMINAR

Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) was one of the most prolific and original thinkers in modern times.  The initiator of Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, new modalities in medicine, economics, and architecture, and several new forms of art, Steiner is also notoriously difficult to approach as a thinker.  His writings are vast in volume, wildly diverse in content, and sometimes assume familiarity with challenging philosophical or spiritual background information.  It can be hard to know just where to start with Steiner, and it helps to start this exploration as part of a group.

This fall the Thoreau College Community Seminar will give participants a chance to encounter Steiner in an open and welcoming context.  Together we will read and discuss selections from four of Steiner’s most fundamental texts, covering his conceptions of the nature of human beings and of reality, of the process of esoteric initiation, and of how this kind of knowledge might possibly be attained.  This seminar is intended for members of the community who are curious about Steiner, perhaps because they have become involved with Waldorf education, biodynamics, or something else touched by Steiner’s work.  Perhaps you are a seeker, perhaps you are a skeptic, or perhaps you are a bit of both.  Either way, this is a chance to begin to build an informed perspective.  In this seminar there will be no dogma and no off-limits questions.  Any jargon we encounter will be translated into plain English, and we will strive to maintain our sense of humor.

About Jacob Hundt –

Jacob has been studying Rudolf Steiner and trying to explain the parts he has understood for over 25 years, since he was involved with the creation of the Youth Initiative High School as a teenager.  Jacob completed training as a Waldorf high school teacher and was Program Director and Faculty Chair at YIHS for more than 15 years.  Over the years he has participated in and led courses on Steiner, Waldorf education, and biodynamics, and is now Executive Director of Thoreau College, a microcollege initiative striving to apply some of Steiner’s ideas to education for young adults.

COMMUNITY SEMINAR DETAILS 

Schedule:   One Session Per Week – Wednesdays – 4:30-6:00;

Starting on Weds. September 6

Location: Thoreau College Campus – 224 E Highway 56

How to Join: New participants are welcome at any time.  Free will contribution + cost of books

Texts – 

• A Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe’s World Conception – a foundational early philosophical work in which Steiner develops his ideas of the relationship between perception, thinking, and knowledge, based on his close study of the scientific works of the great German poet and playwright Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
• Knowledge of Higher Worlds and Its Attainment which describes the conditions and preparations needed to begin the process of esoteric initiation, the state of being in which it becomes possible to perceive subtle dimensions of reality not accessible to ordinary physical senses.  This is a basic statement of Steiner’s methodology as a researcher of the realms of soul and spirit.
• Theosophy: An Introduction to the Spiritual Processes in Human Life and in the Cosmos, which presents some of Steiner’s most fundamental assertions about the spiritual makeup of the cosmos and of the human being, as well as what happens to us when we go to sleep and when we die.  This text introduces some essential concepts and vocabulary necessary for following Steiner’s discussions of Waldorf pedagogy and most other topics.
• An Outline of Esoteric Science – we will read one later chapter from this lengthy work.  The book as a whole deals with many topics, including Steiner’s vast account of the evolution of the cosmos and of human cultures.  The chapter selected here is another, quite different, statement of his methodology, which he here describes as a form of Rosicrucian visualization.

Copies of these texts will be provided as a printed reader, although participants may also choose to purchase their own copies of the full works in order to follow up with what we have started together.

Reading Schedule –

September 6: Presentation on Steiner’s context and biography

September 13: A Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe’s World Conception – Section D

September 20: Knowledge of Higher Worlds – Chapter 1

September 27: Knowledge of Higher Worlds – Chapter 2

October 4: Knowledge of Higher Worlds – Chapter 3

October 11: Knowledge of Higher Worlds – Chapters 4 & 5

(Thoreau College students on expedition)

October 25: Theosophy – Chapter 1 – (Sections I-III)

Nov. 1: Theosophy – Chapter 1 – (Section IV)

Nov. 8: Theosophy – Chapter 2 

Nov. 15: An Outline of Esoteric Science – Chapter 5

Science and science fiction explorations of bioethics, social organization, and the future development of humanity and nature on Earth from writers of diverse backgrounds and orientations.

Some Possible Texts:

• Wendell Berry, Life is a Miracle
• Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
• Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower
• Ayn Rand, Anthem
• Donna Haraway, Staying with the Trouble
• Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, The Mushroom at the End of the World
• Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake
• Starhawk, The Fifth Sacred Thing
• Paul Kingsnorth, Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist
• Nnedi Okorafor, Lagoon

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Philosophical and literary explorations of the moral and existential challenges and opportunities faced by individuals in the context of society.

January 4: Sophocles, Antigone

January 6: Sophocles, Antigone

January 11: Immanuel Kant, What is Enlightenment?

January 13: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

January 19: Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra (Excerpts)

January 21: Fyodor Doesteovsky, “The Grand Inquisitor” (from The Brothers Karamazov)

(TC Expedition)

February 1: Martin Buber, I and Thou

February 3: Martin Buber, I and Thou

February 8: Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace

February 10: Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace

(Thoreau College Road Trip – 2 weeks)

March 1: Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

March 3: Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

March 8: Rudolf Steiner, The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity (Excerpt)

March 10: Rudolf Steiner, The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity (Excerpt)

(End of Winter Quarter)

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During the fall quarter of 2021, the Thoreau College Community Seminar will delve into the most ancient and profound texts of world civilization.  These are the primordial accounts of the origins of the universe, of human beings, and of human cultures and peoples that have been passed down in oral traditions for centuries until eventually recorded in writing, to be passed down for centuries more, forming the foundation stones of the world’s great civilizations and cultures.

Fall Quarter Texts:

• October 5: The Epic of Gilgamesh
• October 7: The Epic of Gilgamesh
• October 12: Hesiod, Theogony
• October 14: Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda

(TC Expedition)

• October 26: Popol Vuh
• October 28: Popol Vuh
• November 2: The Book of Genesis
• November 4: The Book of Genesis
• November 9: Plato, Timaeus
• November 11: Plato, Timaeus
• November 16: Bhagavad Gita
• November 18: Bhagavad Gita

(Thanksgiving Break)

• November 30: Lucretius, De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things)
• December 2: Lucretius, De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things)
• Dec 7: Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
• Dec 9: Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

(End of Fall Quarter)

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