A friend recently sent me this teaching from German mystic and philosopher Rudolf Steiner addressing a group of priests shortly before he died in late 1924.
Steiner wrote: Will the priests be capable of representing the spiritual world in its full reality rather than in the sentimental manner that has come into fashion over the last few centuries, so that as soon as one talks of the spirit one feels disinclined to include the power of evil? The question is whether their energy will be sufficient to represent the reality of the spirit. This, dear friends, is absolutely the main thing.
Notice his insistence that the spiritual world “in its full reality” must resist sentimentalism which has marked religion “over the last few centuries” and that the “full reality” of the spiritual world includes talking about the power of evil. Nine years later Hitler took over the German state.
I find this warning so important. This is one reason I wrote what I consider one of the most important articles of my life and included it as the “Conclusion” to my book on Wrestling with the Prophets: Essays on Creation Spirituality and Everyday Life. That article, “Desentimentalizing Spirituality” was essentially an interaction with Ann Douglas’s brilliant study of sentimentalism, The Feminization of American Culture,where she defines sentimentalism as “rancid political consciousness” that dares not speak of justice, injustice and Evil.
Steiner’s question helps me grasp the reluctance of religious journals and retreat centers in our time to take up the matter of evil and to review my book on the Antichrist, the traditional archetype of Evil in Christianity. This timidity and fear in today’s religion strikes me as one more nail in the coffin of organized religion, a sign that something new is needed other than lectures on guilt, shame and sex.
People seek a declaration of the importance of the Sacred and how to spread it when it is lost, since the Sacred is the opposite of Evil and empowers one to take on Evil.
Without a sense of the Sacred, humanity is lost. Lost to the billionaires and materialists whose only goal in life is to own more and rule over more and cheer on the killing of billions via climate change in order to pick up the pieces for cheap.
This is not hyperbole; check out the work of Gil Durán, Naomi Klein, and Susan Neiman. Check out the real meaning of the antichrist as archetype of evil and the record of the current MAGA government, its enablers and profiteers.
Steiner dares to ask whether the energy in current day religion is sufficient to represent the reality of the spirit, telling us, “this, dear friends, is absolutely the main thing.” Strong language. For a fierce historical moment.
Eco-prophet Thomas Berry told us what humanity must do to regain a sense of the Sacred once it is lost. We must return to nature, the sacred cosmos, energized by a new creation story from science. Thus ingest and practice a creation spirituality.
He says we recover our sense of the sacred only if we appreciate the universe beyond ourselves as a revelatory experience of that numinous presence whence all things come into being. Indeed, the universe is the primary sacred reality. We become sacred by our participation in this more sublime dimension of the world about us.
Douglas UCC, Saugatuck/Douglas, Michigan) connects religion with spirituality in “The Spirit of the Cosmos.”
We also need to acknowledge the evil religion has fostered over the centuries: Inquisitions, crusades, witch-burnings, colonizing and efforts to wipe out indigenous religions, killing of prophets and canonizing of pseudo (but wealthy) fascist church leaders such as Opus Dei founder Josemaría Escrivá and Junipero Serra, and other such scandals.
It is little wonder that a growing majority of the world are saying, “I am spiritual but not religious.”
*Steiner, Rudolf. The Book of Revelation: and the Work of the Priest (The Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner 346), pp. 215-216, Kindle Edition.
Banner Image: Misogyny, racism, and scapegoating that led to thousands of deaths: the Devil gives wax poppets to witches, from The History of Witches and Wizards, 1720. Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
Is it your experience that organized religion is often afraid to speak of the power of evil when talking about spirit? And that a sense of the Sacred is paramount in standing up to evil? And that, as Carl Jung teaches, sentimentalism and violence go together?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
“On Desentimentalizing Spirituality,” in Fox, Wrestling with the Prophets: Essays on Creation Spirituality and Everyday Life, pp 297-315
Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations, p. 361
Trump & the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: Recognizing the Archetype of Evil in Our Time
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
The Pope’s War: How Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet
Charles Burack, ed., Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality
Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation
