please find below some updates for this summer. This includes the publication on August 4th of
Perspectives and Initiatives in the Times of Coronavirus,
the eulogy for long time member Hella Kurth and announcements from the Economics Conference Goetheanum and Tri-Fold books.
Sincerely,
Jef
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The School of Spiritual Science
Edited by Ueli Hurter and Justus Wittich
Perspectives and Initiatives
in the Times of Coronavirus
The School of Spiritual Science, with its headquarters at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland, has eleven sections that are active worldwide in research, development, teaching and the practical implementation of research results. During the early stages of the Corona pandemic of 2020, the sections of the School made individual contributions to the crisis in the form of sixteen essays that offer insights, perspectives and approaches to tackling the challenges of Coronavirus through spiritual-scientific knowledge and practice.
The work of each of the School’s sections seeks to develop anthroposophy – as founded by Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) – in a contemporary context through the core disciplines of general anthroposophy, medicine, agriculture, pedagogy, natural science, mathematics and astronomy, literary and visual arts and humanities, performing arts and youth work.
The featured essays include: Creating Spaces of Inner Freedom – Training Approaches in Times of Uncertainty and Fear; The Hidden Sun – Reality, Language and Art in Corona Times; Consequences of COVID-19 – Perspectives of Anthroposophic Medicine; Aspects of Epidemic Infectious Diseases in Rudolf Steiner’s Work; Challenges and Perspectives of the Corona Crisis in the Agricultural and Food Industry; Corona and Biodynamic Agriculture; Our Relationship with Animals; The Part and the Whole –
On the Cognitive Approach of Anthroposophical Natural Science; Comparing the Constellations of the Corona Pandemic and the Spanish Flu; Aspects of Dealing with the Corona Crisis for Youth; ‘Crisis Implies that it’s Unclear ... as to What, How, Why and by Whom Things Need to be Done’; Education in Times of Corona; Understanding History from the Future – Crisis as Opportunity; Social Challenges and Impulses of the COVID-19 Pandemic; Consequences of COVID-19 – The Perspective of Anthroposophic Curative Education, Social Pedagogy, Social Therapy and Inclusive Social Development; A Medicalized Society?
TO ORDER : UK Contact Booksource—Tel. 0845 370 0063
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Dear members of the School of Spiritual Science in Canada.
The two Volumes of Sergej O. Prokofieff’s books for members of the School of Spiritual Science only are now available:
The First Class, The Esoteric Path Through the 19 Lessons, Volume I, $ 85.00 and
The First Class Volume II $69.00 in English or German.
Now available through Tri-Fold Books after confirmation of current membership of the School of Spiritual Science.
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Eulogy for Hella Kurth: September 17, 1922 - July 17, 2020
by Rev. Susan Locey
Hella Kurth was born on September 17
th
1922 (the day after the founding of The Christian Community!) in Templin, a suburb of Berlin. She was baptised Hella Emma Elisabeth Dunkel, a name which remarkably expressed the work of her life, to live with the dynamic of light and dark: “hell” means light in German, and “dunkel” means dark! Her brother Gunther was born two years later. Hella’s parents were from very different backgrounds, the mother an only child of a cultured family where the father taught art and music at the Gymnasium, and the father grew up one of many siblings in an impoverished labourer’s family, who joined the army when World War I began. After marriage he struggled to support the family working as a physical education teacher in the village school.
Hella learned the enthusiasm and love of Nature, led by her father, rejoicing in walks together in the forest. She wrote of their relationship: “I could ask any question and Vati would always find a way to answer that met my question and my ability to understand. In later years I could go to him with worries and problems, and he would listen carefully and comfort me. Don’t worry, he would tell me, wait a few days. Just like a great storm passes and the sun comes out again, let’s see if this situation doesn’t look quite different in a few days. Let’s talk again tomorrow.”
Hella’s mother, on the other hand, had little patience for Hella’s many questions, though Hella’s maternal grandparents welcomed the opportunity to share their peaceful, music-filled home with the little girl. Because the grandfather was a teacher, Hella was allowed to go to middle school in the Gymnasium, which was a school for boys. It was here that she caught the eye of an older student, Achim (later called “John”), who found opportunities to meet with her. Otherwise, Hella enjoyed being on her own, playing with dolls, reading, and swimming. Soon her gift for idealism was nurtured into patriotism in the well-organised Nazi girls’ club.
When party members took over as teachers and administrators in the Gymnasium, Hella’s grandfather retired, she left the school to learn business skills in Berlin, living with her grandparents. Achim went to study at the Schulpforte until he could volunteer as a paratrooper. He had meanwhile continued to meet with Hella in Berlin, and they decided to marry in May 1942 before he left for the war. It was clear that Achim might not return from the war.
Reinhild was born in March 1943, and on a day-pass Achim met his first-born and bought a coupon for Hella, who was expecting again, and Reinhild to take a train to their planned meeting place on the farm of the family of his valet, outside of Hamburg. He entrusted Hella with a pistol and instructions what to do if enemy troops invaded Berlin. Hella planned to be at a special birthing centre near Hamburg for
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Economics Conference of the Goetheanum
(Part of the Social Sciences Section)
Announcement / July 2020
The work of the Economics Conference of the Goetheanum has quickened in the past few months, as different initiatives explore the interface between associative and conventional economics. The Centre for Associative Economics has launched a new online Bookstore
(www.cfae.biz
) giving access to 17 titles by various colleagues, together with 11 from Christopher Houghton Budd’s archive of writings since the early 1970s. A further 40 titles are in prospect, as the Bookstore is part of a platform for commissioned research in the field of finance and economics. For example, the beginning of accounting with Gilgamesh and the link some early US presidents had to bookkeeping.
In research, how to make concrete the idea of the Anthroposophical Society as the earthly (and therefore financial) vehicle of the School of Spiritual Science, the Economics Conference operates worldwide funding arrangements that allow excess capital to fund researchers according to the researchers’ needs and budgets. A technical paper on this,
The Circulation of Capital and Beyond
, written by Christopher Houghton Budd with advice and input from Stephen Vallus, can be found at:
https://economics.goetheanum.org/fileadmin/economics/Articles_and_Papers/ECPaper2020_CHB_SV_Circulating_Capital.pdf
In Brazil in June, Xavier Andrillon was awarded a doctorate in economic development for his thesis, True Price as a Condition of Sustainability, in which he examines how Rudolf Steiner's concept of true price can give ‘teeth’ to today’s understanding of sustainability. His cases were coffee growers around the world and farmers on deforestation fronts in the Brazilian Amazon. Both are highly critical and highly topical, but the study is readily made general to economic life as a whole because it shows how anyone can use true price via the balance sheet to ensure the sustainability both of his or her own activity and the context in which it operates. An introduction entitled ‘Beyond Brundtland’ can be found here:
For more information on the Economics Conference of the Goetheanum visit economics.goetheanum.ch or contact the Administrator, Kim Chotzen, at
economics@goetheanum.ch
.
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