Taking a radical departure from the usual comparative study of religion, Pietro Archiati shows that the various religions represent stages in each individual's path of development. In this sense the Great Religions create an absolute unity--not in what they say or teach, but in their contribution to each of us becoming ever more human. Beginning with the Flood of Atlantis, Archiati places the religions in the context of human evolution, taking us through the development of Buddhism, Zarathustrianism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and onwards to the future of religion based on spiritual reality. For example, Archiati considers how the founders of the various religions are working today. Are the Buddha, Krishna, Moses and Zarathustra doing and telling us the same things now as they were in the past, even though humanity has undergone considerable changes since? C O N T E N T S Preface 1. Religion or Religions? 2. Eastern Religions before Christ 3. The Zarathustra Stream and the Buddha Stream 4. The Mission of Judaism 5. The Turning Point of Time--Then and Always 6. The Riddle of Islam and the Christianity of the Past 7. The Future of Religion by Virtue of Spiritual Knowing

Can there be such a thing as spiritual science today? Should faith and spirit remain as purely private concerns - or, as traditionally, preserves of the Church? When Rudolf Steiner founded anthroposophy in the early twentieth century, his intention was to create a fundamentally scientific approach to the spirit. His basic works detail methods for developing spiritual consciousness, allowing the individual to replicate the results of his research. This key aspect distinguishes anthroposophy from the wealth of spiritual teachings, sects, cults and religions within the modern cultural milieu. But did Steiner fail in his endeavour to build a scientific path to spiritual knowledge? Is anthroposophy just another 'theory' based on intellectual thought, to be analysed and dismissed? Up to now, academia has largely ignored Rudolf Steiner's work. In 2013, however, the first volume of a new series - a critical edition of Rudolf Steiner's writings, edited by a professor of the largest religious university in the USA - was published by a respected German academic press.Taking this concrete case as an illustration, Pietro Archiati argues that academia, with its in-built bias towards the atheistic assumptions of materialistic science, will almost inevitably misrepresent Steiner's work. Anthroposophy is a spiritual science, whose metamorphosing nature requires penetration of its essence for true understanding. Presenting a broad exploration of the critical questions outlined above, Archiati's exposition works not only as a critique of a specific new edition of Steiner's works, but also as an introduction to key tenets of anthroposophical methodology and thought. 'When, in the case of a flower, the coloured blossom appears, this does not come as a correction of a faulty green leaf. It is, on the contrary, a further metamorphosis of the plant, which, without the existence of the green leaf, would not have been able to arise. Rudolf Steiner was always comparing the arising of his spiritual science with the evolution of a living organism.' - Pietro Archiati

What we traditionally think of as Christianity is only its cultural form, adopted and developed over the last two thousand years. This represents chiefly human thoughts and dogmas, human institutions, churches, and beliefs: in other words all that human beings have developed as their response to the Christ event. Rudolf Steiner said of Christianity that it "started as a religion but greater than all religions." Taking this as his basis, the author reaches beyond earthly traditions and cultural expressions of Christianity to its true spiritual essence. His survey takes us from the history of actual "all-too-human" Christianity to the history of actual "Christian" Christianity and its future development through a new scientific approach to the spirit. Archiati's warmth of expression and clarity of thought bring to life ideas and concepts that for so long have been the reserve of dry theology. C O N T E N T S Foreword 1. What Is "Christianity"? 2. The History of "All-too-Human" Christianity 3. The History of "Christian" Christianity 4. The Furture of Christianity through the Science of the Spirit