Redemption: Christ's Resurrection and the Future of Humanity

By Michael Kientzler

Our human consciousness and individuality – and our potential for freedom of choice – is possible because we have a physical body, separate from the spiritual realm. But for human beings to continue to develop, we need to reconnect to the divine world.

The incarnation, death and resurrection of Christ is what makes this reconnection possible. This profound book, a collection of lectures by Christian Community priest Michael Kientzler, discusses this central mystery of Christianity. He explores the nature of resurrection, and how it ultimately leads to human redemption or salvation.

This is a thoughtful, insightful book for those interested in spiritual and inner development.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Floris Books
• Release date: Jan 26, 2023
• ISBN: 9781782508762

Michael Kientzler

Michael Kientzler was born in Hannover, Germany, where he attended the local Waldorf School. After studying at the Christian Community Seminary in Stuttgart for a year, he read biology at Tübingen University and at the University of Pennsylvania. He then returned to the Seminary and was ordained in 1972. After working in as a priest in Stuttgart for twenty-three years, he moved to Vancouver, Canada, and later to Forest Row, England. He lives near Basel, Switzerland.

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Contents

Title Page

Epigraph

1. Evolution and the Development of the Self

2. The Striving for the Higher Self

3. The Incarnation of Christ

4. The Redemption of the Self

Copyright

Biblical quotations are mainly from the New International Version, though some are the author’s own translations.

1. Evolution and the Development of the Self

It is an audacious thing to speak about a theme which, from the beginning, we know won’t have a satisfactory ending. Nevertheless we will try, hoping that it will be complemented by others in the future. Rudolf Steiner spoke about the events of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the Mystery of Golgotha, which means that despite our efforts to understand it, there will always be a gap between our beholding and the spiritual and physical facts of this event.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the central event of Christianity and without it our faith is in vain according to St Paul:

And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith … More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1Cor 15:14–19)

Why is it the body, and not just the soul or the self, that needs to be redeemed and saved at the end of time? Individuality is the achievement of our current human spiritual evolution. This individuality arises from our awareness of the self and ‘I’, which we can only perceive with and through our physical material body. Thus these two belong together, the physical body and the human self. If this body should fall into the abyss or the cosmic graveyard of the ‘death of matter’ at the end of time (or at the heat death of the universe in terms of the second law of thermodynamics) then our self, the achievement of human evolution, will also be lost. This is because the attachment of the self to the body has become too strong over the course of time.

This would also mean that the creation or evolution of the human being and the incredible suffering of all creatures throughout history would be in vain. All striving for the good and all moral behaviour would be meaningless. This is of course the conviction of many atheist contemporaries: it all leads to nothing.

The human self, the pivotal event of physical and spiritual evolution, will only be preserved through the resurrection of the body. This was first achieved by Jesus Christ, and the event that brought it about, the Mystery of Golgotha that culminates in the resurrection, is the very centre of Christianity.

We therefore need to look at both the body and the self. The self or the ‘I’ has a lot do with self-awareness, with the consciousness of ourselves. A self that is not aware of itself is incomplete – it does not really exist.

There are three aspects of the self or individuality that we can discern at this point.

First, there is what I would like to call the ego. This is very much grounded in and connected with the physical-material and life bodies on the one hand and the astral body, the bearer of drives, desires and passions on the other. It is the source of egoism, ego-centrism and separation from the divine-spiritual world. It is also the source of our sense-perceptions. At this point in history it is a kind of over-exposed part of our being.

Second, there is the self or I with its attributes of responsibility, accountability, freedom and love, and the ability to acknowledge the other. With it we are able to make clear decisions and keep to them.

Third, there is what I will call the higher self, which mostly works from the periphery as destiny or from the subconsciousness, bringing us to the place where we have an accident, get a severe illness, or where we meet someone of importance for our life and perhaps vital for our inner development. The Austrian author Robert Menasse wrote, ‘Yes, perhaps every chance encounter is, in reality, an appointment.’ This points to the