Part One / Rudolf Steiner's Reading of "Novalis" / "the Novalis problem"

Lecture One of a two-part series in which I discuss the meaning and importance of 'Novalis" for Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy. This is not a lecture series about the literary Novalis, Friedrich von Hardenberg (1778 - 1801). It is a close look at Rudolf Steiner's reading of the Karmic Biography of the Eternal Individuality "Novalis" and the importance of that reading of "Novalis" to the development of the anthroposophical movement in the early modernist decades of the 20th century.
Lecture One of the two-part series focuses on Rudolf Steiner's clairvoyant reading of the Eternal Individuality known in anthroposophy as "Novalis." In this lecture I define and contextualize the so-called "Novalis problem" in respect to the historical and literary modernist moment in early 20th Europe -- the moment when Rudolf Steiner distinguished Central European Anthroposophy from the Anglo-American Theosophical Society. Rudolf Steiner's "reading of Novalis" is critical to this important foundational moment in the history of Anthroposophy. I explain why this is so.
Lecture Two of the two-part series focuses on Rudolf Steiner's "Last Address" and the challenge that this last public lecture by Rudolf Steiner posed and poses for anthroposophy. In this last public statement, Rudolf Steiner emphasized the foundational importance of the "Novalis Individuality." As Rudolf Steiner explained: "Novalis" is the cornerstone of the anthroposophical movement and a key to an understanding of the movement's present moment and future destiny.
"May the viewer flourish!"