The Gospel of Hellas - Research Institute for Waldorf Education

XII
H E L L A S A N D C H R I S T I A N I T Y
1. THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONSCIENCE
AND PAUL IN ATHENS
The spirit of Hellas’ culture must
rise again, but from within.
Then the path to the Mysteries
will be found once more, and in
like manner the path to Christ.
– rudolf steiner
Hellenic philosophy revealed its deepest significance in the discovery of
the supreme godhead. unlike the Hebrews, whose monotheism sprang from
faith in God and from obedience to his Law, the Hellenes developed their idea
of the deity in order to explain man and universe.
The Hellenes arrived at their idea of a supreme divine principle in a
twofold way. In discovering the principles of human ethics they found through
Socrates the daimonion which developed later into the concept of conscience.
In explaining the development of nature the Hellenes conceived the idea of
the Logos.
Thus we turn at first to the phenomenon of conscience. In the introductory
chapter of this book it was pointed out that the development of conscience
marked the ultimate stage of the life of the Greek psyche. The word for
conscience was purely Hellenic in origin. The Hellenic word synesis and the
later Hellenistic syneidesis came to the world of Christianity as a genuine Greek
heritage.
It was Rudolf Steiner who pointed out that the unfolding of conscience
was a particular task of the Occidental world. 200 The external understanding of
the descent of the divine into the human and its incarnation was prepared in
the Oriental soul. The inner experience of the divine element within the human
soul was the new impulse of the Western world which started with Hellas.