Plato as a Mystic

Plato as a Mystic, the Rudolf Steiner’s study which we propose to our readers today, is taken from Christianity as Mystical Fact, a Steiner’s primitive and fundamental work, first published in German in 1902; an essay that, in Steiner's intentions, intends to demonstrate how Christianity was born from what had been prepared in the pre-Christian Mysteries. A theory that is certainly questionable and refuted by many philosophers and intellectuals, including Arturo Reghini and Friedrich Nietzsche.

According to Steiner, «The importance of the Mysteries to the spiritual life of the Greeks may be realised from Plato's conception of the universe. There is only one way of understanding him thoroughly. It is to place him in the light which streams forth from the Mysteries. (…) The Platonic view of the universe sets out to be knowledge which by its very nature is also religion. It brings knowledge into relation with the highest to which man can attain through his feelings».