Rudolf Steiner’s Reading of “Novalis”

“The Evangelist St. Matthew Inspired by the Angel” /  Rembrandt, 1661

Dear Friends,

This is lecture one of a four-part lecture series that I gave for friends and members of the Anthroposophical Society of America in April 2024. I revised it a bit for distribution to a wider public, especially the more than one thousand subscribers (mostly unaffiliated with the Society) with who follow the Section work on the Section YouTube channel. As time permits, I will post the other revised lectures.

In this lecture I discuss the meaning and importance of “Novalis” for Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophy and for the anthroposophical movement as it arose in the modernist first decade of the twentieth century. This is not a lecture on the literary Novalis, the poet Friedrich von Hardenberg (1772 – 1801), although there are many lectures on this website about the literary Novalis . Rather, this is a close look at the “Eternal Individuality Novalis” and how this being is absolutely foundational to Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophy and christology. “Novalis” is the rock on which these are founded, one might argue.

9.20.24