All posts by Lucy

My Experience with Anthroposophy

While discussing McGuire’s preferred categorization of religious organizations, anthroposophy was brought up as an example of a religion with a cultic orientation. Although it would surprise me if any of my fellow classmates were familiar with anthroposophy, the mention of this uncommon lifestyle reminded me of countless memories I accumulated last year while living in Harduf, an anthroposophic kibbutz in Israel. I lived in the community for about five months and spent most of my time teaching in a nearby Arab school and volunteering with the special needs adults who lived on the kibbutz itself. My fellow volunteers and I also participated in anthroposophic theater, and did other exercises that I can only describe as anthroposophic in nature(ha).

Even after five months in this enclave, I have yet to develop a complete understanding or definition of anthroposophy. Until Thursday’s class, I regarded it as simply a spiritual and down-to-earth way of life– never as a religion. This was perhaps because the program I was in was exclusively for Jews, the special needs adults I worked with were Jewish, and I celebrated the high holidays with several community members. These factors indicated to me that anthroposophy coexisted with Judaism in this context, and was not a stand-alone religion.

However, upon further inspection, a lot more of what I observed had anthroposophic roots than I realized. For example, the special needs adults I worked with were sent to the community from all over Israel in an attempt to provide purpose and structure through a variety of jobs that ultimately serve the community. Until Prof. Spickard mentioned the inclusion of those with special needs and elderly in society as an aspect of anthroposophy, I considered the structure of the kibbutz and the spiritual affiliation coincidental.

Perhaps anthroposophy it is more accurate to describe anthroposophy as a quasi-religion, but nonetheless its mention in a religious context surprised and intrigued me. After some reflection, I can say that anthroposophy is a prime example of cultic orientation, as it is very much open-minded to other ways of life, and at tension with modern society.

Church vs. Practice

In Chapter 2 of Religion: The Social Context, McGuire explores the difference between religious belonging and religious belief in a pluralistic society. She writes that “declining community attachment” has contributed more to the decline of church participation than the decay of “traditional belief”. Later in the chapter, she writes that urbanization, greater geographical mobility, mass media, and education have weakened “ties to local community”, and thus commitment to religious institutions in modern societies.

In my life, these theories go hand in hand. After leaving my small Maine town to study in southern California, I have found myself surrounded by not only a more ethnically and politically diverse population, but a population with very different worldviews–as in comprehensive meaning systems–than I have grown up around. This physical separation from the community that shaped my religious credence has not served to strengthen my commitment to religion. Despite and perhaps because of this detachment from the community, I have learned how to practice as an individual, which is a much more introspective and personally meaningful approach to religion. I have found myself studying religious texts and concepts that I didn’t study before because my religious fulfillment came from simply existing in the community. I now have a much deeper understanding of and connection with my religion because I have taken the time I might have otherwise spent in services analyzing which parts of the religion I agree with, and which parts I find outdated or closed-minded. With this understanding I have been able to make my own choices about which commandments and traditions to actively implement in my life.

In short, distance from my religious community awakened dissociation between church and practice, which served to strengthen my relationship with religion.