Book excerpt: This book is a gift to anyone wanting to understand Rufold Steiner's work. In this comprehensive overview, Dr. Anderson uses helpful diagrams and illustrations to unpack Steiner's ideas, and place them in a modern context, including: - The soul and self - The difference between soul and spirit - Karma and reincarnation, life after death - Spiritual ecology, 'etheric' forces - Nutrition, bio-dynamic farming - Waldorf education - Esoteric Christianity, sacred sites - Spiritual development, meditation - Cosmology, the 'aeons'and the 'epochs' - The arts: painting, sculpting, eurythmy, etc Thirty colour plates. With beautiful images and original scholarly research, the Rudolf Steiner Handbook is an invaluable guide to the contribution made by this extraordinary man.