Formerly entitled The Study of Man this lecture course, newly translated for this series, contains some of the most remarkable and significant lectures ever given by Rudolf Steiner.

With this seminar for teachers, given just before the opening of the first Waldorf school in September 1919, Rudolf Steiner miraculously succeeds in bringing together, clarifying, and synthesizing the insights of a lifetime's study into the reality of human nature. Unfortunately, however, because these lectures were given to teachers, they have suffered under the misconception that they are meant only for teachers. Of course, a functional understanding of their contents is necessary for any teacher desiring to teach in a way that encompasses the needs and essence of the whole child, but this understanding is also necessary for parents, counselors, and indeed anyone seeking to practice the injunction of the Delphic oracle, "Know thyself!"

In addition, because in these lectures Steiner gives his most concise and detailed account of the nature of the human being, they are absolutely central to anyone seeking to understand anthroposophy and the anthroposophical view of the world. Anyone, therefore, who is willing to work through these lectures will discover in them a new, powerful, convincing and profoundly phenomenological "anthropology" or human psychology -- a view of the spiritual-physical foundations of the human being and human experience.

On the other hand, for anyone wishing to study Waldorf education, this is the primary text. These are the lectures in which, for the first time, and with the full excitement of the new venture, Rudolf Steiner set forth the principles upon which the art of teaching could be renewed.

These dazzling, radical lectures were given one month before the opening of the first Waldorf School-following two years of intense preoccupation with the social situation in Germany as World War I ended and society sought to rebuild itself. Well aware of the dangerous tendencies present in modern culture that undermine a true social life-such as psychic torpor and boredom, universal mechanization, and a growing cynicism-Steiner recognized that any solution must address not only economic and legal issues but also that of a free spiritual life. Steiner also saw the need to properly nurture in children the virtues of imitation, reverence, and love at the appropriate stages of development in order to create mature adults who are inwardly prepared to fulfill the demands of a truly healthy society-adults who are able to assume the responsibilities of freedom, equality, and brotherhood. Relating these themes to an understanding of the human as a threefold being of thought, feeling, and volition, and against the background of historical forces at work in human consciousness, Steiner lays the ground for a profound revolution in the ways we think about education. Also included here are three lectures on the social basis of education, a lecture to public school teachers, and a lecture to the workers of the Waldorf Astoria Cigarette Company, after which they asked him to form a school for their children.

Part one, ?A Way of Self-Knowledge, ? contains eight meditations that take the reader on a journey through human experience. Beginning with ordinary experience, Steiner offers ways to imagine and understand the physical body, the elemental (or etheric) body, the elemental world, the Guardian of the Threshold, the astral body, the I-body (or thought body), the nature of experience in suprasensory worlds, and ways of perceiving previous earthly lives. Part two, ?The Threshold of the Spiritual World, ? contains sixteen short chapters in which Steiner provides aphoristic thoughts on trusting one's thinking? cognition of the spiritual world? karma and reincarnation? the astral body and luciferic beings? how to recognize suprasensory consciousness; the true nature of love; and more.

Following a lecture of November 27, 1919, requested by the Basel Department of Education, sixty members of the audience invited Rudolf Steiner to return and deliver a complete lecture course on his approach to education. These lectures are the result.

Rudolf Steiner begins by outlining the gradual development of the child with the help of spiritual forces and enlightened educational practices, which form the basis for Steiner's approach to education. He describes the problems that modern educators face and provides practical solutions. Steiner explains the effects of morality on real freedom and how the development of a child's will leads to a free, flexible ability to think. He describes the lifelong effects that teachers have on children through the ways they teach in the early grades.

The subjects of these lectures cover a broad range, from the threefold nature of the human being to the teacher's responsibility toward their students' future; from arts such as music and eurythmy to the problems involved in training teachers; from zoology and botany to language, geography, and history.

Like many of Steiner's lectures to public audiences, these are accessible and practical and provide a real overview to his ideas for renewing modern education.