Rudolf Steiner begins these three lectures of 1920 by painting the back- ground of early Christian thought out of which the scholastic philosophers arose. He then focuses on the "unanswered question" of the scholastic movement: "How can human thinking be made Christ-like and develop itself upward to a vision of the spiritual world?"

A study of subsequent European thought, especially Kant, leads to the possibility of a deepening of the scientific thinking developed from scholas- ticism into direct supersensible perception. This, explains Steiner, is the true Christianity of the twentieth century.

The Austrian-born Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) was a respected and well- published scientific, literary, and philosophical scholar when just after the turn of the century he surprised his academic colleagues by turning toward the esoteric spirituality of the Theosophical Society. In 1913 he founded his own Anthroposophical Society, under the aegis of which he continued research out of his methodically trained seership for social renewal in a wide variety of fields.

Steiner's multi-faceted genius led to radically new, "holistic" approaches in medicine, scientific research, education (Waldorf schools), special educa- tion, religion, phliosophy, economics, history, agriculture (Bio-Dynamic method), architecture, drama, the new art of eurythmy, and the other fine arts.