Erich Gutkind : as prophet of the New Age

Mitrinovié recognised Erich Gutkind as the prophet of the Third Revelation, and in doing so gave him profounder recognition than did any other of his distinguished contemporaries; and it is in this context that I am going to speak about him. Some aspects of this Third Revelation were described in the Foundation Lecture on Max Stirner and also in that on John Cowper Powys, but in order to bring out the essential differences between this and the other two revelations I am first going to compare Gutkind with two other men, both of whom lived in the second half of the nineteenth century, whom Mitrinovié considered as the best exponents for modern times of these other revelations. Rudolf Steiner, who also lived into the twentieth century, can be taken as the best exponent for modern times of the ancient wisdom, and Vladimir Solovyov of the Christian revelation. One reason for choosing these two is the breadth of their vision. The whole spirit of the ancient wisdom, not just one aspect of it, speaks to modern man through Rudolf Steiner, and Vladimir Solovyov thought of himself as a member of the Christian Church in a universal sense, in which Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant with all their diversity, were equally included.

In many respects what Steiner, Solovyov and Gutkind are saying is the same, but it is in their emphasis that they differ. Yet each one gave due weight to the other two revelations. Both Solovyov and Gutkind spoke in terms of an organic cosmological development which is derived from the ancient wisdom, but it was Steiner who gave most emphasis to this approach and described most fully the whole process of the evolution of the world and of man. Steiner in describing the evolution of man gave unique and central significance to Jesus Christ, both as a cosmological and as a historic event, and Gutkind in Siderische Geburt gave full recognition to the revelation of Christianity and to the unique deed of Christ in consecrating all men as sons of God. And finally both Steiner and Solovyov looked forward to a future age. The higher worlds to which Steiner saw that man must by his own free-will attain, and Sophia, which was Solovyov’s vision of mankind perfected—the age of the Holy Spirit—these are both comparable with the new age of which Gutkind speaks, and which he describes as being attained in sidereal birth ‘starlike above all stars’.

But the emphasis of Rudolf Steiner is on the continuity of

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