I know a place where the sun is like gold,
And the cherry blooms burst with snow,
And down underneath is the loveliest nook,
Where the four-leaf clovers grow.
One leaf is for hope, and one is for faith,
And one is for love, you know,
And God put another in for luck—
If you search, you will find where they grow.
But you must have hope, and you must have faith,
You must love and be strong—and so—
If you work, if you wait, you will find the place
Where the four-leaf clovers grow.
—Ella Higginson, “Four-Leaf Clover”
New Release
The Four Gospels
Their Essence and Spiritual Background
Christoph Rau
Could a deeper cause of today’s myriad human troubles be related to a dwindling or even nonexistent familiarity with the four New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? This is the view of Christoph Rau, for whom today’s prevailing approach to theological research is, if anything, a contributing factor in our modern alienation from the spirit.
In this book, Rau presents the results of five decades of research, demonstrating the independent structure of each of the four canonical Gospels. Through clear analyses, he illumines the distinctive stylistic features of each composition, revealing the design principles through which the meaning and goal of each Gospel can be understood.
Also of interest
From the Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner
Christ and the Human Soul
The Meaning of Life – The Spiritual Foundation of Morality – Anthroposophy and Christianity
10 Lectures in Copenhagen and Norrköping, May 23–30, 1912,
July 12–16, 1914 (CW 155)
READ MORE | CONTENTS | INTRODUCTION
The New Testament has been written down; the New Testament stands there as a record—spread out, one might say—for humanity, but it will require the whole of the earth’s evolution to run its course before this New Testament will be fully understood. In the future, people will acquire much knowledge of the external world, and they will acquire much knowledge even of the spiritual world; and all of it will contribute to an understanding of the New Testament—if it is viewed in the right light.
The understanding comes about gradually. The New Testament is written in a simple form so that it can be absorbed and then gradually be understood at a later time. Permeating ourselves with the truth contained in the New Testament is not without significance, even if we cannot yet understand this truth in its innermost depths. Later on, truth becomes a cognition-force, but it is already a life-force when it is absorbed in, one could say, a more or less childlike form. And if the questions we began to consider yesterday are to be understood in the sense in which they are communicated in the New Testament, then we need a knowledge that goes ever deeper, a growing insight into the spiritual world and its secrets.
—Rudolf Steiner, lecture four of “Christ and the Human Soul,” in Christ and the Human Soul: The Meaning of Life – The Spiritual Foundation of Morality – Anthroposophy and Christianity (CW 155)
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