Bøker av Edward Reaugh Smith

"Ed is quite the special person. Not in the clichéd way that 'everyone is special.' You will find few clichés in his character. His life has unfolded through stages and phases which themselves are 'special' but which, in aggregate, can only be described as 'unique.' This is not to gainsay the idea of each individual's uniqueness. We confirm that verity. Yet, the very title of this autobiography, Pathways, implies that more than one route, more than one trajectory, was followed to create the Ed Smith we know today as friend, teacher, lecturer, businessman, and author of The Burning Bush." -- Paul V. O'Leary (from the preface)Pathways tells the story of his multifaceted life, from his youth as a student and athlete to becoming a a husband and father, attorney, musician, entrepreneur, and author. The intimate narrative of his life is both surprising and inspiring, allowing the reader a glimpse into the formation of a remarkable life. Edward Reaugh Smith is the author of eight books for SteinerBooks on Anthroposophy and the Bible, as well as his autobiography.

With this major work, Edward Reaugh Smith concludes his singular series on the Bible and Anthroposophy. Understanding the Book of Revelation presents the ultimate challenge to those who wish to penetrate its deepest meaning-a spiritual mountain whose summit has remained beyond reach to most people. Paradoxically, in spite of its name, Revelation is the most veiled and mysterious book in the Bible. A century ago, Rudolf Steiner opened a route to that summit. This book is the first extensive application of that priceless resource to the full text of Revelation. The substance of what Steiner tells us about John's Revelation derives from the individuality who had that Apocalyptic Vision-he was a seer and visionary, and his account is esoteric and open only to such a seer. Smith presents Steiner as a seer who, for the first time since John wrote his Revelation, has penetrated the obscuring veil of this text. The scope of John's vision and Steiner's exposition covers the vast stretch of our human journey. Our ongoing involvement in that journey is not optional. We are each in it from beginning to end. This book is for those who would awake to it.

More significant for Christianity than the twentieth-century Dead Sea and Nag Hammadi discoveries is the growing North American awareness of Rudolf Steiner's works. No Bible commentary has yet reflected the remarkable spiritual insights of Anthroposophy. In The Buring Bush, Edward Reaugh Smith combines his own extensive traditional biblical knowledge with his years of concentrated study and reflection on hundreds of assembled works by Steiner. The result is the first Bible commentary in the light of anthroposophic insight.This volume is based on the anthroposophic understanding given to humanity by Rudolf Steiner during the first twenty-five years of the twentieth century. The dramatic newness of anthroposophic thought means that the usual method of Bible commentary is not appropriate here. Much of The Burning Bush is devoted to laying an anthroposophic, or spiritual-scientific, groundwork. A major assumption indulged in most Bible commentaries--that one can go directly to portions dealing with given passages of scripture and understand what is being said about them--does not fit.Moses' vision of the bush burning on the mountain (Exodus 3:1-3) was profoundly seminal for each of us on our long, parabolic journey from the spiritual world into the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23:4), in which we have bodies of matter that die, until we can perfect them in our return journey.In this 3rd edition of The Burning Bush, each of the numerous citations to Steiner's works is updated according to the new Collected Works (CW) volume numbers. Steiner's works, in German, comprise 367 volumes, archived in Dornach (near Basle), Switzerland. The volume numbers are provided for all Steiner references, whether or not yet published in English.The Burning Bush is the foundation of the Edward Smith's five-volume series on the biblical message in the light of Rudolf Steiner's Spiritual Science. The other volumes are David's Question: "What Is Man?" (Psalm 8) (2001); The Soul's Long Journey: How the Bible Reveals Reincarnation (2003); The Temple Sleep of the Rich Young Ruler: How Lazarus Became Evangelist John (2011); and Revelation: A Cosmic Perspective (2015).The numerous citations to Steiner's works have been updated in this edition according to Collected Works (CW) volume numbers, as well as cities and dates for lectures. Steiner's works, in German, comprise approximately 367 volumes, archived in Dornach, Switzerland.

With this major work, Edward Reaugh Smith concludes his singular series on the Bible and Anthroposophy. Understanding the Book of Revelation presents the ultimate challenge to those who wish to penetrate its deepest meaning-a spiritual mountain whose summit has remained beyond reach to most people. Paradoxically, in spite of its name, Revelation is the most veiled and mysterious book in the Bible. A century ago, Rudolf Steiner opened a route to that summit. This book is the first extensive application of that priceless resource to the full text of Revelation. The substance of what Steiner tells us about John's Revelation derives from the individuality who had that Apocalyptic Vision-he was a seer and visionary, and his account is esoteric and open only to such a seer. Smith presents Steiner as a seer who, for the first time since John wrote his Revelation, has penetrated the obscuring veil of this text. The scope of John's vision and Steiner's exposition covers the vast stretch of our human journey. Our ongoing involvement in that journey is not optional. We are each in it from beginning to end. This book is for those who would awake to it.

"A bold undertaking! Smith aims at a broad synthesis of the teachings of the early twentieth-century esoteric philosopher Rudolf Steiner with the ancient mysteries, certain religio-philosophical texts in the Nag Hammadi Library, pre-Constantinian esoteric Christianity, and the Secret Gospel of Mark.... The brief excerpts from the Secret Gospel, quoted in the Letter of Clement to Theodore, fit well the esoteric fabric out of which Christianity emerged in its earliest days. In his excellent legal analysis of the failed "proofs" offered by Stephen Carlson and Peter Jeffery that the Secret Gospel is a modern forgery, Smith reveals his thorough grasp of the literature and a keen sense of what should qualify as proof. A provocative study!" -Charles W. Hedrick, Missouri State University "Few scholars have dared to put the insights of historical critical biblical scholarship into dialogue with the esoteric wisdom of Rudolf Steiner. Ed Smith has done so again and again. Smith's latest contribution is a treasure trove of information on the controversy surrounding Morton Smith's discovery of a Secret Gospel of Mark, on Rudolf Steiner's understanding of the ancient mysteries, and on anthroposophy's revitalization of allegorical exegesis. All of this points to the possibility that John the evangelist, Lazarus, and the rich young ruler of Mark 10:17 to 22 are one and the same. Those who are not convinced by Smith's analysis will surely be stimulated and challenged to contemplate what disparate exegetical traditions might learn from one another." -Dan McKanan, Harvard Divinity School Who wrote the Gospel of John? The author identifies himself only as "the disciple whom Jesus loved," and Christian tradition tells us that this disciple was the apostle John. However, during the past century, scholars have increasingly come to doubt that attribution. In 1902, Rudolf Steiner wrote that the author of the Gospel of John was in fact Lazarus. Steiner's position stemmed from his insight that Lazarus's encounter with death involved far more than people realized-an initiation into higher spiritual realities that uniquely qualified him to write this gospel. Edward Smith takes up this argument and shows that subsequent research has tended to favor Lazarus for reasons grounded in John's Gospel itself. More important, Smith shows that subsequent discoveries at Nag Hammadi and Mar Saba corroborate Steiner's reasoning about the nature of the raising of Lazarus, pointing to Lazarus as "the rich young ruler" of Mark's Gospel.

Based on a talk at the New York Open Center in 1999, this book on the identity of John speaks of Christian initiation in a new way--one whose time has come. What Smith has to say is both extraordinarily suggestive and remarkably conclusive. Covering a lot of ground in a way that is accessible, the author masterfully supplies us with a range of collateral materials that is always interesting and illuminates the larger picture. Because this small book began its life as a talk to a general audience, it is blessedly jargon-free and reader friendly. It contains both sophistication or bite while working a quiet but profound revolution in the field of study that it addresses.New Testament scholars as well as those concerned in any way with the future of Christianity ought to sit up and take note. Anyone seeking to understand the mystery of Jesus Christ and his "beloved disciple" will find true food for the mind and heart.