Hermann Beckh – författare

Many people who are drawn to Buddhism today are seeking for spiritual knowledge as opposed to simple faith or sectarian belief. Hermann Beckh had a profound personal connection to the Buddhist path and the noble truths it contains, yet he was also dedicated to a radical renewal of Christianity. Assimilating the groundbreaking research of Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), Beckh's comprehension of Buddhism was neither limited to historical documents nor scholarly research in philology. Rather, from his inner meditation and spiritual understanding, he saw the earlier great world religions as waymarks for humanity's evolving consciousness. In the modern world, the apprehension of Christianity needed to be grounded firmly in a universally-valid, inner cognition and experience: `In this light, knowledge becomes life.'Hermann Beckh - Professor of Tibetan Studies and Sanskrit in Berlin, subsequently a founding priest of The Christian Community - first published this mature study in 1925. Having already produced the comprehensive Buddha's Life and Teaching in 1916, Beckh's sweeping perspectives combined with his extensive academic knowledge provided a unique grounding for authoring this work. As he notes, From Buddha to Christ follows a path of development, `both of method and goal'. Thus, studying this book is itself a path of knowledge and potential initiation. Beckh's universal insights remain relevant - and if anything have gained in value - to twenty-first century readers.This edition features an additional essay, `Steiner and Buddha: Neo-Buddhist Spiritual Streams and Anthroposophy' (1931), in which Beckh, for the first and last time, explains his lifelong personal connection to the Buddhist path.`Christianizing the Buddha's impulse at the same time broadens the Christian horizon...' - Hermann Beckh

As a practising Christian priest, Hermann Beckh was profoundly aware that the mystery of substance – its transmutation in the cosmos and the human being – was a mystical fact to be approached with the greatest reverence, requiring at once ever-deepening scholarship and meditation. He viewed chemistry as a worthy but materialistic science devoid of spirit, while the fullness of spiritual-physical nature could be approached by what he preferred to call ‘chymistry’ or ‘alchymy’, thereby taking in millennia of spiritual tradition. In consequence, Beckh’s Alchymy, The Mystery of the Material World is not limited to the conventional workings of Western alchemy, nor to what can be found in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation – although he does unveil hidden riches there. Neither should Beckh be considered only as a learned Professor with impeccable academic qualifications and European-wide recognition. Beckh writes about such topics as ‘Isis’, ‘the Golden Fleece’, traditional fairy-stories and Wagner’s Parsifal in a way that enables the reader to catch glimpses of the Mystery of Substance; to share the writer’s authentic experience of the divine substantia – the living reality – of Christ in the world.Beckh’s Alchymy set an entirely new standard, and went on to become his most popular publication. This is the first time that it has been translated into English, along with updated footnotes, making his ideas and insights accessible to a wide readership. In addition, this edition features translations of Beckh’s ‘The New Jerusalem’, where theology could best be expressed in verse; his exemplary essay on ‘Snow-white’; observations on ‘Allerleirauh’, and a substantial excerpt from Gundhild Kačer-Bock’s biography of Beckh.

Hermann Beckh's lectures on language - published here in English for the first time - offer a unique and penetrating discussion of the origins and evolution of speech. Based on his professional knowledge of Tibetan, Sanskrit and Pali - and complete fluency in at least six other ancient languages, not to count nine modern languages - and accompanied by a heartfelt understanding of anthroposophy, the lectures comprise an unparalleled marriage of academic and meditative insights. Further, they give a valuable introduction to the author's later works on music, the stars and the Gospels of Mark and John. The Source of Speech features Beckh's complete series of articles on the subject that were developed during the early, 'seeding' period of his life and work. These include: 'Rudolf Steiner and the East', an unprecedented study of Steiner's relationship to Sanskrit and Buddhist spirituality; 'Let There be Light', Beckh's exploration of the six Hebrew words forming Genesis 1:3; articles devoted to the origins of language, Indian philosophies and the names of the Divine in sacred texts; and essays published in Das Goetheanum which examine speech sounds, especially those of Sanskrit and Classical Hebrew. Also included are contemporaneous reviews of Beckh's articles by Albert Steffen and Eugen Kolisko and a lecture on academia, materialism and the undisciplined enthusiasm for Indian spirituality, held at the University of Berlin. Nearly one hundred years on, Beckh's perspectives and themes remain as exciting, relevant and fresh as ever.

Lost for decades, the manuscript of Hermann Beckh's final lectures on the subject of music present fundamentally new insights into its cosmic origins. Beckh characterises the qualities of musical development, examines select musical works (that represent for him the peak of human ingenuity), and throws new light on the nature and source of human creativity and inspiration. Published here for the first time, the lectures demonstrate a distinctive approach founded on the raw material of musical perception. Beckh discusses the whistling wind, the billowing wave, the song of the birds and particularly the theme of longing. Never losing the ground from under his feet, he penetrates perennial themes: from the yearning for real spontaneity and the 'Mystery background' uniting heaven and earth, to spiritual knowledge that can meet the demands of the twenty-first century. Out of the cosmic context, Beckh writes to the individual situation. From there, he seeks again the re-won cosmic context. He does not write as a musical specialist and then turn to universal human concerns; rather, Beckh writes from universal human concerns and reveals music as of special concern to everyone. In addition to the transcripts of fifteen lectures, this book contains a valuable introduction and editorial footnotes. It also features appendices including Beckh's essay 'The Mystery of the Night in Wagner and Novalis'; reminiscences of Beckh by August Pauli and Harro Ruckner; Donald Francis Tovey's 'Wagnerian harmony and the evolution of the Tristan-chord', and several contemporaneous reviews of Beckh's published works.

During the brief window between the two World Wars, the Rev. Prof. Hermann Beckh led research at The Christian Community Seminary in Stuttgart. In those precious years he published on music, the gospels and the ancient Mysteries. By 1930, in his Contributions to the Priests' Newsletter, he had produced the most far-reaching account of the cosmic order ever written. The typescript of this great work was destined to gather dust in the Berlin Archiv, however, until it was discovered in recent years. Published here for the first time, it is the crowning masterpiece to Beckh's Collected Works. The translated and annotated text is accompanied by Rudolf Frieling's in-depth application of Beckh's principles of the cosmic starry order to the Creed of The Christian Community, and by a number of appreciations and relevant book reviews.Through ever-deepening meditation guided by Rudolf Steiner, and his vast knowledge of Tibetan, Sanskrit, Pali and Avestan sacred texts - scarcely to be equalled in Europe at the time - Beckh came to the first-hand realization that human and cosmic life was ordered. He perceived directly that this cosmic order was: good, as originating from the World-Will; true, as from World-Thinking; and beautiful, as from World-Feeling. All three could be personally experienced in disciplined consciousness that could enter dream, sleep and pre-natal life. This, then, was Beckh's method and inspiration, as shown in this extraordinary work.

Hermann Beckh’s masterful study of Mark’s Gospel offers much more than scholarly argument. It is the work of a true visionary who allows his readers to discover the meaning of the Earth and of humanity for themselves. Beckh was in the forefront of entirely new research and recovery of the Gospel, writing more for the future than for his own time. It is not uncommon for biblical scholars to view St. Mark’s Gospel as little more than an assemblage of fragmentary sources and a copy of uncertain, early memories. The Gospel is said to have little historical veracity, harmony or guiding structure. Beckh’s contemporary, the German writer Arthur Drews, even argued that the text was nothing more than a simplistic solar myth, wherein another Sun-hero pursued his way around the Greco-Roman constellations.Mark’s Gospel: The Cosmic Rhythm is a response to such twentieth-century materialistic thinking. He was asked to write the book in the 1920s by the leaders of The Christian Community, who sought to rescue the desecrated Gospel from its opponents. Inspired by Rudolf Steiner and a vast knowledge of ancient languages – Tibetan, Sanskrit, Pali and Avestan along with Hebrew, Greek and Latin – the Rev. Professor Hermann Beckh perceived how the Gospel reflects God’s Everlasting Covenant, and meticulously expressed its aesthetic unity, the consonance of its parts and its consequent radiant clarity. His far-reaching understanding of sacred texts in the original languages, always associated with the disciplined meditation he had attained from anthroposophy, led to unprecedented insight. This new edition of his classic study has been revised and redesigned.

That there is a living stream of Johannine Christianity can no longer be doubted. There is now an abundant literature from Rosicrucian and esoteric traditions - from the deepest prayer and meditation - that addresses the exalted nature of John the Evangelist as expressed through his Gospel, Letters and the Book of Revelation. Yet it fell to Hermann Beckh to elucidate clearly how the individual known as 'John' became the source of such undying love and wisdom in Christ. According to Rudolf Steiner, John was the ailing Lazarus, called from death to a new life as 'the disciple Jesus loved'. Beckh demonstrates how John's invaluable writings were based on personal spiritual knowledge and experience, expressing the divine work of the Cosmic Christ on human nature and on the Earth, leading far into the future. Whilst Beckh's authorship originated within the context of the emerging Christian Community founded in 1922, his profoundly original books could not be confined to its framework. Not only could Beckh tackle original texts in Tibetan, Sanskrit and Avestan, but - through his independent vision - he was able to establish new links with philosophical Alchemy, Jakob Boehme, Goethe, Nietzsche and Novalis. He thereby stands with these figures as a co-worker in a greater community.Having prepared the way with his Mark's Gospel of 1928, John's Gospel could be described as the capstone of Beckh's writings - as a triumphant announcement that theology and the study of John's Gospel have finally come of age. Appearing here in a freshly revised translation by Alan Stott, the current volume is enhanced by a series of valuable addenda that shed further light on Beckh's significant achievements.

The unique scholarship and artistic sensitivity of Prof. Dr Hermann Beckh (1875–1937) is in the process of being rediscovered. The great linguist, Orientalist and Christian priest – an active music-lover who also composed – penned pioneer works on our musical system that are respected by musicians and musicologists. This volume brings together two revised versions of his best-loved books. The Essence of Tonality is written ‘…for musicians and music-lovers who, because of their particular musicality experience something spiritual – and for spiritual seekers and sensitive people who, because of their particular spirituality, have experienced a connection with music.’ Beckh believed a spiritual view of tonality would ensure music’s, and humanity’s, future. The author elucidates the correspondence of the circle of fifths (the keys) to the zodiac. Research should be directed towards the twelve vital, spiritual key-centres, as expressing the cosmic rhythms in which we all live, rather than the abstract twelve chromatic notes of atonality. In The Parsifal Christ-Experience, Beckh’s original insights throw new and powerful light on the search for meaning in our age, for a knowledge of the heart. In the poetic libretto and remarkable music of his final creation, Wagner – acknowledged by Bruckner as ‘the Master’ – presents the Grail legend and its imagery. The psychological drama and its ultimate solution provide insights to anyone who is prepared to reflect on inner experience. Through Beckh’s references to Wagner’s own letters, as well as a remarkable letter from Nietzsche, the reader gains knowledge of the true nature of Wagner and his work.

Deriving from the Indian Atharvaveda, one of the oldest books of mankind, Hymn to the Earth forms part of the extensive Vedic scriptures of Hinduism. With its great veneration of divinity and the natural world, the richness and beauty of its pictures and the profundity of its thoughts, it continues to speak to us all these years later through its lively poetic movement. As Hermann Beckh says in the introduction: ‘No doubt we are dealing here with a most precious piece of a most ancient poetic work of humanity… Quite possibly, we could call this Hymn to the Earth the oldest modern poetical work, or the most modern piece of ancient poetry.’ In his extensive editorial commentary, Beckh – who translated the ancient text into German in 1934 – explains how this document of primordial human civilization, originating well before the Christian age, contains much that is of significance to present times. Indeed, it pre-echoes, in veiled form, ‘the Christ-Mysteries’. This inspiring rendering in English by Alan and Maren Stott, which includes the whole of the enchanting Hymn, captures something of the spirit of Hermann Beckh’s acclaimed translation.

Dieser Buchtitel ist Teil des Digitalisierungsprojekts Springer Book Archives mit Publikationen, die seit den Anfängen des Verlags von 1842 erschienen sind. Der Verlag stellt mit diesem Archiv Quellen für die historische wie auch die disziplingeschichtliche Forschung zur Verfügung, die jeweils im historischen Kontext betrachtet werden müssen. Dieser Titel erschien in der Zeit vor 1945 und wird daher in seiner zeittypischen politisch-ideologischen Ausrichtung vom Verlag nicht beworben.

Dieser Buchtitel ist Teil des Digitalisierungsprojekts Springer Book Archives mit Publikationen, die seit den Anfängen des Verlags von 1842 erschienen sind. Der Verlag stellt mit diesem Archiv Quellen für die historische wie auch die disziplingeschichtliche Forschung zur Verfügung, die jeweils im historischen Kontext betrachtet werden müssen. Dieser Titel erschien in der Zeit vor 1945 und wird daher in seiner zeittypischen politisch-ideologischen Ausrichtung vom Verlag nicht beworben.