Understanding of the Human Being

This book contains lectures and an address given by Rudolf Steiner as preparation for the opening of the first Waldorf School in Stuttgart in the fall of 1919. This period in Europe, following the end of the First World War, was one of instability and change; it was also a period of potential and possibility. Steiner worked intensively to maximize this potential for change through his work for the renewal of society, the threefold social order.

In this foundational series of lectures, Steiner sought to give to the future teachers of the Waldorf School a full and comprehensive understanding of the human being, one of the most wide-ranging given in any of his lecture cycles. The lectures detail Steiner’s understanding of the human being as comprising body, soul, and spirit and how these three aspects interrelate. They give a rare insight into Steiner himself as a teacher, as an educator of adults.

Rudolf Steiner. The First Teachers’ Course: Anthropological Foundations, Methods of Teaching, Practical Discussions. 364 pages. 30 Euros. Ratayakom. 2021