Anthroposophy is not a religion, nor is it meant to be a substitute for religion. While its insights may support, illuminate or complement religious practice, it provides no belief system. Anthroposophy is open to persons of any faith but also those who do not adhere to a particular faith. What is of interest in anthroposophy is the living spiritual insights of its members and the activities that flow freely from those insights. Members are not prescribed a specific form of spiritual practice, however many freely practice meditation (contemplative thinking, visualization or imagery), artistic expression and study.

Anthroposophy has no profession of faith -- no oaths or vows are required for membership. Anthroposophy has no "sacred texts"; members of the Anthroposophical Society are free to work with any texts they consider to be spiritually significant. While it is not a requirement, many members read the works of Rudolf Steiner, the founder of the Anthroposophical Society, in order to study how he arrived at his spiritual insights.

1. Anthroposophy has no dogma or creed - the Statutes of the Anthroposophical Society specifically forbid dogma.

2. The Anthroposophical Society offers no religious practices or sacraments. It proscribes no religious practices.

3. Anthroposophy does not claim to lead to "salvation". Anthroposophy is concerned with understanding man's relationship to the spiritual world.

4. There is no one spiritual guide, teacher or master within the Anthroposophical Society whose statements are beyond questioning.

5. Anthroposophy is not a system of beliefs. Anthroposophy is a path to knowledge based on an understanding of humanity and our relationship to the spiritual world.

6. The Anthroposophical Society is not organized as a church. It is a free association of individuals and independent study groups some of whom have sought to be formally "recognized" by the Anthroposophical Society. This "formal" recognition is not a requirement for a study group to be publicized by the Society.

7. There are no priests, pastors, ministers or other religious functionaries.

Anthroposophy supports religion without interfering with religious practice. Many members of the Society engage in the practice of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Shinto, Buddhism and other faiths. Others are not connected to a particular religious faith.

Anthroposophy honors each member's own faith and the moral injunctions of that faith.

"Now it is often asked how spiritual science or Anthroposophy stands in relation to the religious life of man...By reason of the whole character of Anthroposophy, it will not intervene in any religious creed, in the sphere of any sort of religious life.... Spiritual science never can entertain the wish to create a religion... One cannot, therefore, call spiritual science, as such, a religious faith. It neither aims at creating a religious faith nor in any way at changing a person in relation to his religious beliefs. In spite of this, it seems as if people were worrying themselves about the religion of the Anthroposophists. In truth, however, it is not possible to speak in this way; because, within the Anthroposophical Society, every kind of religion is represented, and there is nothing to prevent any one from practicing his religious faith as fully, comprehensively, and intensively as he wishes." January 11, 1916 at Liestal near Basel, Switzerland

From R. Steiner quoted in Gunter Wachsmuth LIFE AND WORK, p.100-101

"It is a perversion of the truth to ascribe sectarian tendencies to Anthroposophy, for it certainly has no such intentions. It is a perversion of the truth to believe that it wants to be a new religious foundation. It does not want to do any such thing."