51. Herder and Theosophy

On December 18, 1903, the anniversary of the death of Johann Gottfried Herder was celebrated throughout the educated world. In connection with this commemoration, the editor of this journal, Dr. Rudolf Steiner, gave a lecture on “Herder and Theosophy” in Weimar on January 15, which was intended to show how a deepening into Herder's creations could be a school for the theosophical worldview, if this spirit is no longer viewed from a merely one-sided literary-historical point of view, but rather from the high perspectives that can be found in it. A report of the lecture (from the Weimar newspaper “Deutschland”) will follow here:

If Theosophy – said the speaker – wants to lay claim to truth and value for people, then it cannot be a spiritual movement that has come to us in recent years as if from the clouds; rather, it must correspond to a comprehensive human need; and it must be possible to prove that the ideals of the spiritual heroes of all times more or less agree with it. Herder is one of those personalities in modern intellectual history whose whole attitude and way of thinking can be called theosophical. From his earliest youth, he did not live in the writings of the Christian faith like someone seeking teachings and dogmas, but like someone who actually wants to connect with the world spirit, who seeks not only intellectual knowledge but also the real development of the soul. But anyone who, like him, seeks not mere science but wisdom is theosophical. In the Age of Enlightenment, during which Herder spent his youth, there was little of such a disposition in the leading circles. It lived only in individuals. In the Magus of the North, in Hamann, whom he encountered in Königsberg, Herder found a companion of his outlook. For the apostle of the Enlightenment, only the personality of the human being and the judgment of reason that comes from the power of this personality applied. For Herder, on the other hand, this personality could only mean something insofar as the general world spirit reveals itself as a genius in it. So it is easy to understand how Herder came to hold the folk song in such high esteem. The man of the Enlightenment says: true poetry can only be produced through the higher education of the personality, for he has no belief in the genius that lies beyond the personality, because he has no conception of the living spirit. For Herder, man was an organ, an instrument of the real, supra-personal spirit; he sought the living folk spirit in the people. It was through this belief that he came to a true understanding of Shakespeare. And it was through this belief that Herder influenced Goethe, whom he met in Strasbourg. For Goethe's great scientific ideas did not arise without inspiration from Herder, and they too arose from a genuine theosophical way of thinking. The lecturer explained in detail how references to the theosophical basic views can be found throughout Herder's most important works. The idea that it is not human arbitrariness but the real, supra-personal spirit that guides the development of humanity is already clearly evident in the essay “A Philosophy of the History of Humanity”. In his work “The Oldest Document of the Human Race,” Herder already understands the Old Testament from the point of view that Theosophy also adopts. For his concept of the “primal revelation” by the spirit is entirely Theosophical. The same must also be said of his position in relation to the New Testament. Because he has recognized the spirit, access has also been opened to him to the most spiritual writings of Christianity, to the Gospel of John and the “Secret Revelation.” And one must return again and again to the greatest work of Herder, his “Ideas for a Philosophy of the History of Humanity,” if one wants to read something that clarifies the universal destiny of the human spirit in an idea-appropriate way. Anyone who understands what Herder says here about the eternal transformation of natural forms and the eternal preservation of spiritual forces stands, with a lofty conception of immortality, directly before the entrance doors of the theosophical world view. For in The Ideas, Herder has transformed a comprehensive scientific insight into genuine gold of wisdom in the truest sense of the word, leading the human soul to where its home is, where it first understands the profound words of Goethe: “The spirit world is not closed; your mind is closed, your heart is dead.” Herder's importance for his time, on which he had an influence that is still far from sufficiently appreciated, lies in his attitude, in his belief in the living spirit; and therein also lies the lasting value of his work for the future.