‘Development in the science of the spirit will always … involve what we may call developing the inner meaning and inner configuration of our language.’ – Rudolf Steiner Our present-day language cannot easily convey spiritual concepts. Rudolf Steiner’s search for the words and style to bring to expression a contemporary spiritual worldview epitomises this. In seven organically developing chapters, this little book presents Martina Maria Sam’s long-standing research into this subject. As a writer, editor and lecturer she observed the increasing difficulty that many people – particularly those with an academic training – have with Steiner’s style. However, this style was something that Rudolf Steiner developed very deliberately. As she states: ‘What was most important for me in this was to point out Rudolf Steiner’s intentions in his specific and often original linguistic forms and, consequently, to create the introductory basis for a deeper understanding.’ Gaining such understanding, she says, can in turn enable us to develop insight into the spirit. Sam begins by quoting some of Steiner’s contemporaries, who criticized his ‘grating’ style. She describes why he had to create new forms of expression and examines the specific character of his lectures. She considers two comprehensive stylistic principles that permeate Steiner’s entire body of work, and his special handling of the pictorial element in language. Close attention is paid to Rudolf Steiner’s construction of meditative verses and mantras, and the development of an artistic, linguistically-creative element that will only be possible in the future.

This text offers a metacognitive approach that develops an awareness of students' thought processes, study strategies, attitudes, and habits. It discusses how students can learn more in less time and with greater ease and confidence, and the book's modular format accommodates the emerging needs of any learning environment.
Practice exercises are keyed to two new text excerpts. Together with an array of study-reading techniques, the authors introduce proven strategies for vocabulary building, memory improvement, test-taking skills, and library research strategies. The book incorporates the latest research in learning theory and features an array of optional strategies, resulting in great flexibility of presentation and application for instructors.
The authors consider student goals, lifestyles, and learning styles as factors that affect student understanding. Students take brief diagnostic surveys followed by guided practice in strategies to improve performance on certain tasks.
The Third Edition offers the following additional improvements:
* A new chapter that covers the stages of researching and writing a term paper.
* A new glossary section.
* A new chapter for creating a personal study profile.
* A revised section for finding sources in the library, including suggestions for efficient online searches.
* A journal entry at the end of each chapter.

In two related studies, Peter Selg tracks the groundbreaking of first Goetheanum from September 20, 1913, in the context of the so-called Michael movement, the primary active pulse brought by Rudolf Steiner in 1924 that explicitly indicates the anthroposophic movement and its formal society. The author shows the fundamental importance of this beginning in Dornach. He illuminates the fateful goal of the "School of Spiritual Science" with Rudolf Steiner's karma lectures, not only providentially in sense that it involved individualities, but also with regard to the future progress of human civilization. This monograph builds on Peter Selg's book Rudolf Steiner's Foundation Stone Meditation: And the Destruction of the Twentieth Century and Sergei O. Prokofieff's Rudolf Steiner's Sculptural Group: A Revelation of the Spiritual Purpose of Humanity and the Earth. Originally published in German as Grundstein zur Zukunft. Vom Schicksal der Michael-Gemeinschaft by Verlag des Ita Wegman Instituts, 2013.