Freedom and Imperative in Spiritual Practice

Spiritually oriented movements navigate a fundamental tension between an imperative for spiritual knowledge and the necessity for individual freedom in spiritual matters. Waldorf education is reviewed as an example of this fundamental tension. Based on Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual science, anthroposophy, Waldorf pedagogy assumes that educators work from a body of spiritual knowledge.  Founded in 1919 and now a global movement, over time, connections to anthroposophy have become more diffuse, resulting in challenges in a shared sense of belonging, with divisions between those with spiritual authority and knowledge and those without. Waldorf demonstrates questions of the tension between imperative and freedom and whether and how a spiritually based movement can be sustained if it drifts from its core.