Fourth Lecture

Such a comparison can give rise to a fervent feeling, which we can illustrate with the question: How did Christian culture arise in its original form? I have often pointed out that all such cultural impulses arose in a similar way, namely because the first adherents of such a cultural impulse, the first to join it, were strong enough in their souls to feel this impulse as all-dominant. What would have become of Christianity if the first Christians had not carried the Christian impulses in their souls in an all-dominant way? We know that the dominant culture in the Roman Empire above—in what was, as it were, the physical light of day—was different from the Christian culture that developed below in the darkness of small conventicles, in the catacombs, and then rose up. We know that nothing remained of Roman culture, and that what developed down below in the deepest darkness of the catacombs rose up and became world-dominating. This happened because it was placed in the hearts and souls down below in the catacombs.