{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 61/1912-01-25/p015","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"We have characterized this ancient spiritual wisdom concerning The Christ in the above manner, in order that it may be easy of comprehension. In the example previously cited of a special turning-point occurring in the life of a human soul, we have an instance at least in some ways analogous to the Christ-Event expressed in its most elementary form. It is especially difficult for mankind in these modern times to realize that circumstances of fundamental historic significance are directly connected with this outstanding incident, and which are of such momentous import as to form what might be termed the true centre of human evolution. When we compare this gnostical concept with various statements of Spiritual Science brought to your notice during these lectures, we find that it has in truth, no matter how we regard the facts, not only a grand and glorious conception of the Christ-Being, but it also evinces an exalted idea of *man’s* being, for it regards him as involved in an impulse, coming directly from the spiritual realms, and brought to bear upon the actual course of his historic growth and development. It is therefore not to be wondered at that this ancient gnostical conception was unpopular. Anyone who has obtained even a slight insight into the circumstances connected with the progress of mankind during the early centuries of the Christian era and onwards, the existing state of the human soul and the various conditions of social life at different periods, must at once admit that such concepts imply a loftiness of sentiment that was certainly not destined to find favour among the people. In order to appreciate this point we have only to consider the spiritual life of the present day.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"VI. Christ and the 20th Century","site_heading":null,"date":"1912-01-25","location":null,"word_count":286,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/61/1912-01-25/p015","alignment_confidence":"low","alignment_reason":"count_diverges","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Walter F. Knox","identified_edition":"GC1987","book_title":"Turning Points in Spiritual History","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA060/English/GC1987/19120125p03.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/61/1912-01-25/p015"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/61/1912-01-25/p015","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. Unknown is not an assurance of a stenogram: check the edition's own notes before resting an argument on one word.","evidence":null,"evidence_translation":null,"evidence_source":null},"german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1912-01-25","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 61/1912-01-25/p009","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/61/1912-01-25/p009"}],"bead_confidence":"high","pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["reader"],"reader_german":["GA 61/1912-01-25/p009"],"reader_part":true,"length_check":{"de_words":414,"en_words":469,"ratio":1.13,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. The German original passage(s) above are the edition-invariant anchor — fetch them (lang='de') to verify wording before quoting across editions."},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 61/1912-01-25/p009","passage_number":9,"text":"Damit haben wir ungefähr die alte gnostische Vorstellung über den Christus so gegeben, daß wir sie begreifen können, weil sie uns sozusagen in ihren Elementen schon dann vorliegt, wenn ein besonderer Umschwung in einer einzelnen menschlichen Seele vor sich geht. Was nun dem modernen Menschen ganz besonders schwierig zu begreifen sein wird, das ist, daß mit diesem Ereignis, das eben charakterisiert worden ist, etwas verbunden ist, was für die ganze Menschheitsentwickelung eine geschichtliche Bedeutung hat, eine geschichtliche Bedeutung fundamentaler Art, daß damit etwas gegeben ist, was wir den Schwerpunkt der ganzen Menschheitsentwickelung nennen können. Von dieser gnostischen Vorstellung, auch wenn wir sie mit mancherlei vergleichen, was in diesen Vorträgen aus der Geisteswissenschaft hat dargestellt werden können, darf man sagen, daß sie eigentlich — gleichgültig, wie man über die Realität denkt — eine großartige, gewaltige Vorstellung auf der einen Seite von der Christus-Wesenheit, dann aber auch von der Wesenheit des Menschen hat, denn sie stellt den Menschen in eine Entwickelung hinein, in welche ein Impuls aus der geistigen Welt heraus unmittelbar im Laufe des geschichtlichen Werdens eingreift. Es ist daher gar nicht wunderbar, daß diese gnostische Vorstellung nicht irgendwie hat populär werden können. Denn wer sich nur ein wenig die Bedingungen der Menschheitsentwickelung von dem ersten christlichen Jahrhunderte an, die Zustände der menschlichen Seele, die verschiedenen Verhältnisse des sozialen Lebens klar macht, wird ohne weiteres zugeben, daß eine solche Vorstellung von einem Hochsinn getragen war, der ganz gewiß nicht populär wird. Man braucht nur, um sich dies klar zu machen, in das heutige Geistesleben einen Blick zu tun. Wenn von einer solchen Vorstellung, wie sie eben als die gnostische charakterisiert worden ist, die Rede ist,so werden die meisten Menschen sagen: Das ist eine Abstraktion, eine kühne Träumerei. Wir Menschen aber brauchen etwas real Wirkliches, etwas, was uns naheliegt, was unmittelbar in unser reales Leben eingreifen kann. — Wie eine Abstraktion sehen heute die Menschen noch immer das an, was jetzt eben als die gnostische Vorstellung charakterisiert worden ist, denn weit entfernt sind eigentlich heute die Menschen noch davon, die viel größere Gesättigtheit, das wahrhaft Konkrete dessen zu spüren, was in den geistigen Vorstellungen liegt, zu denen wir uns erheben, gegenüber dem, was die meisten Menschen einmal das Anschauliche, das Konkrete und wahrhaft Wirkliche nennen. Wäre das nicht der Fall, so würden die Menschen auch nicht in der Kunst nach dem drängen, was Augen sehen, was Hände greifen können, und als etwas Abstraktes das ablehnen, zu dem man sich im Geiste mit inneren Seelengaben erheben muß.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":414,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/61/1912-01-25/p009"}],"english":["GA 61/1912-01-25/p015","GA 61/1912-01-25/p016"],"method":"reader","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":414,"en_words":469,"ratio":1.13,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["reader"],"reader_german":["GA 61/1912-01-25/p009"],"reader_part":true},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.26,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":10270,"original_word_count":8148,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Walter F. Knox","identified_edition":"GC1987","book_title":"Turning Points in Spiritual History","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA060/English/GC1987/19120125p03.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 61/1912-01-25/p009"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}}