So how had the writer of John’s gospel originally experienced the observation? What for us is separate and outer, the wind, was presumably merged with what is, for us, inner and integral: spirit. The author appears to be poised between an older sense of being in the world, that is open and porous to things like spirit and wind; and a newer sense of being in the world, that has a subjective, increasingly individual awareness things, and so can begin to sense the inner workings of spirit.
Thursday, May 04, 2017
Spiritual selfhood …
… Barfield, incarnation and the evolution of consciousness – Mark Vernon.
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Really interesting piece, but I have one minor quibble. Barfield identified himself as an Anthroposophist, not a Christian. I went through a Barfield phase as an undergraduate after being introduced to his work on language by the poet Howard Nemerov, a friend and mentor.
ReplyDeleteI think he may have thought of himself as both a Christian and an Anthroposophist. Rudolf Steiner and his group seem to have had some sort of ongoing involvement with Christianity. Steiner was even connected , toward the end of his life, with a group calling itself The Christian Community. Actually, Steiner himself may have thought of himself as a Christian of sorts — he claimed to have had a mystical encounter with Christ. That said, your point is well-taken, because Steiner's thought is absolutely central to Barfield's.
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