The financial crisis of 2008 ignited a general psychology of fear. This crisis of confidence was not just a crisis of capitalism, argues the author, but a crisis of materialism – the one-sided fixation on material prosperity. Tackling real questions relating to personal finances, savings, work, individual creativity and talent, Archiati offers a multitude of stimulating thoughts and new ideas. The alternative to fear around money, he says, is the joy of being constructively busy. It makes a person happy to be able to express their individual talents and abilities – and it also benefits society!

Key to Rudolf Steiner’s thinking about economics – which Archiati elaborates upon – is the notion that a person’s work should be separate from the income they receive. So long as we work only to get paid, we are working for ourselves, which is unproductive economically. Saving in an exaggerated way, out of fear for the future, is an outcome of such a system. However, if people were to receive sufficient money to enable them to lead a dignified life, independent of their role in society, attitudes would change. But this would call for a revolution in our culture – for human beings to be seen as more important than money.

This book is based on transcripts of a seminar whose participants were mostly not economic experts. The text retains the liveliness of verbal communication, as well as the original questions posed by the participants.

PIETRO ARCHIATI studied Theology and Philosophy in Rome and Munich. He worked in Laos as a teacher during the Vietnam War, and later as a missionary in New York. He discovered Anthroposophy in 1977 whilst a hermit on Lake Como, and it became the passion of his life. He later worked as a lecturer in a priest seminary in South Africa. Since 1987 he has been a freelance speaker and writer (his books include Spiritual Science in the Third Millennium, From Christianity to Christ, Reincarnation in Modern Life and The Great Religions). He also runs an independent company, together with Monika Grimm, that publishes key texts by Rudolf Steiner in the original German.