All teaching, all pedagogy, all human education, and the whole outer human life must be imbued with spiritual insights in the course of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch (1413-3573). It must be realised that what is today considered science in materialistic circles must gradually disappear with its consequences from the life of the earth.
And all the struggles that will still have to be endured in the fifth post-Atlantic period will only be an outward expression of a spiritual battle, just as the present war is ultimately also an outward expression of the opposition between materialism and the spiritual world view. For however deeply things may be hidden – behind the infinitely sad events of the present time lies the struggle of materialism against the spiritual worldview.
This battle must be fought. It will take different forms, but it will have to be fought because people will have to learn to endure whatever is necessary to acquire the spiritual worldview for the sixth post-Atlantic period.
Source (German): Rudolf Steiner – GA 174 – Zeitgeschichtliche Betrachtungen – Das Karma der Unwahrhaftigkeit – Zweiter Teil – Dornach, 15 January 1917 (page 152)
Translated by Nesta Carsten-Krüger
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