Into the Heart's Land: A Century of Rudolf Steiner's Work in North America - Paperback

by Henry Barnes (Author)

"The actual victor is the being of the Anglo-American peoples, and, as a result of forces that I have often described here, this being of the Anglo-American peoples is destined to dominate the world in the future.... The transfer of external dominion will take place with the relentlessness of a force of nature.... Already inscribed in the book of human destiny is the question: Will there be a sufficient number among those impelled to assume external dominion, as though by a force from outside, who feel a responsibility for inserting into this entirely external, materialistic dominion--for that is what it will be, make no mistake--an impetus for spiritual life?" -- Rudolf Steiner (Dec. 14, 1919)

Henry Barnes presents a comprehensive view of the development of the anthroposophic movement in North America. During its initial phase in the early 1900s, Americans began to return from Europe with word of an individual who spoke about the spiritual world from direct experience. The first spritual-scientific initiatives began in New York in the 1930s and spread across the prairies to the West Coast and beyond--to Canada, Mexico, and Hawaii--taking root in the hearts and minds of the "new world."

This is the story of those adventurous spirits who took responsibility for bringing the work of Rudolf Steiner to North America--in the form of study groups, lecture tours, a library, publishing ventures, artistic renewal, anthroposophically extended medicine, biodynamic agriculture, threefold social initiatives, Waldorf schools, The Christian Community, Camphill villages, and more.

In broad sweeps and intimate details, Into the Heart's Land covers--in three, thirty-three-year phases--the movement's first impulse and building the foundations (1900-1933); making roots (1933-1967); and new growth and bearing fruit (1967-2000).

The last part of the book takes up enduring themes at the heart of the anthroposophic movement, current initiatives, and, finally, includes a section on looking toward the future of Anthroposophy in North America.

Throughout this volume, these questions always hover: How has Anthroposophy fared in the New World? To what extent has it recognized the reality of the spirit and the essential role of a truly free and independent spiritual and cultural life?