100 Years Rudolf Steiner Conference

Harvard’s Program for the Evolution of Spirituality was delighted to host a conference marking the centennial of the death of spiritual teacher Rudolf Steiner. The conference was held at Harvard Divinity School on December 15 and 16,  with local and national anthroposophical organizations hosting related events nearby on December 14 and the morning of December 17.

This conference marked the centenary anniversary of Rudolf Steiner’s death. The driving force behind the esoteric and social reform movement of anthroposophy, Steiner left behind a complicated and transregional legacy. Considering the small number of participants in the movement's first decades, there are few spiritual currents of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that have attracted as much public attention as anthroposophy—and few spiritual leaders who have been subject to as much scrutiny, both critical and sympathetic, especially in the German-language context. 

Following a twenty-year period that has seen a huge increase in the quality and the quantity of the scholarship on Steiner and anthroposophy, the centennial of Steiner's death in 1925 offered a perfect opportunity for scholars, practitioners in areas of “applied anthroposophy,” such as Steiner education and biodynamic agriculture, and interested members of the public to come together to debate major issues. Our conference goal was to offer new perspectives on Steiner and critical approaches to his legacy, which has been extremely fruitful in multiple fields, from education and organic farming to modern art and architecture. By bringing together a diverse range of scholars and researchers, we hoped to shed new light on this legacy and provide a forum to explore complex issues.