title: Ford GT

text: A few other early cars sold for as much as a US$100,000 premium over the suggested retail price of US$139,995. Optional equipment available included a McIntosh sound system, racing stripes, painted brake calipers, and forged alloy wheels adding US$13,500 to the MSRP.


title: Ford GT

text: The Ford GT features many technologies unique at its time including a superplastic-formed frame, aluminum body panels, roll-bonded floor panels, a friction stir welded center tunnel, covered by a magnesium center console, a "ship-in-a-bottle" gas tank, a capless fuel filler system, one-piece panels, and an aluminum engine cover with a one-piece carbon fiber inner panel.


title: Ford GT

text: Brakes are four-piston aluminum Brembo calipers with cross-drilled and vented rotors at all four corners. When the rear canopy is opened, the rear suspension components and engine are visible.


title: Ford GT

text: The 5.4 L longitudinal rear mounted Modular V8 engine is an all-aluminum alloy engine with an Eaton 2300 Lysholm screw-type supercharger. It features a forged rotating assembly housed in an aluminum block designed specifically for the car. A dry sump oiling system is employed, allowing the engine to sit low in the car's frame. The DOHC 4 valves per cylinder heads are a revision of the 2000 Ford Mustang SVT Cobra R cylinder heads (with slightly increased wall casting thickness in the exhaust port). The camshafts have unique specifications, with more lift and duration than those found in the Shelby GT500. Power output is at 6,500 rpm and of torque at 4,500 rpm. A Ricardo 6-speed manual transmission is fitted featuring a helical limited-slip differential. "Car and Driver" tested the GT in January 2004 and recorded a 0- acceleration time of 3.3 seconds.


title: Ford GT

text: The United States Environmental Protection Agency mileage estimate for the GT is in city driving, and in highway cruising, for a combined .


title: Ford GT

text: The GT won "Top Gear"s Gas Guzzler of the Year award in 2005. One of the show's presenters, Jeremy Clarkson, owned a GT and despite initially reserving high acclaim for the vehicle, ultimately requested a refund from Ford due to extensive problems with the car's aftermarket alarm system.


title: Ford GT

text: During the GT's production run, the car was featured on the cover of the video game "Gran Turismo 4", and was also featured in "" and "", as well as being made into physical form in the "Transformers: Alternators" toyline, which featured realistic cars turning into Cybertronians; the Ford GT mold was used for the characters Mirage and Rodimus.


title: Ford GT

text: Modified versions of the Ford GT have established several speed records, including the standing mile. One modified version broke the record for fastest street legal vehicle (the vehicle used in the record run is street legal and registered for road use in the U.S.A) achieved by a highly modified twin turbo version of the original 5.4-liter V8 rated at approximately with a top speed of set in Texas in March 2019.


title: Ford GT

text: The Ford GTX1 is an aftermarket roadster iteration of the Ford GT introduced by the company at the 2005 SEMA Show. The car was built by Mark Gerisch, owner of Genaddi Design Group from Green Bay, Wisconsin with assistance from Ford. Kip Ewing, a development engineer who had been involved in the development of the GT and conceived the idea, supervised the project. The resulting chassis is ten percent less stiff than the standard GT.


title: Ford GT

text: The design was inspired by the open top GT40 which was conceived in the 1960s. The car had a modified engine cover, modified doors (with roof portions removed) and a central removal roof bar. Two roof pieces could be installed and removed when the roof bar was installed making the car a T-top, a canvas roof panel would be installed when the roof bar was removed. The car had headrests inspired from the Porsche Carrera GT.


title: Ford GT

text: The car received a positive response at the show and customers urged Ford to build this version of the GT but the end of the production of the GT in the forthcoming year meant that it would be expensive to produce another limited variant of the car. The GTX1 was offered as a kit by the body shop adding US$38,000 to the price of a standard Ford GT. The involvement of Ford in the process meant that the warranty and other obligations on the car were unaltered.


title: Ford GT

text: A total of 100 orders for the GTX1 were received and completed over a two-year planned production period, these including the exact copies of the SEMA show car. Other modifications on the GTX1 included race seats, a customized interior, new Wilwood brakes, a hidden rear bumper and a maximum power increase to . The GTX1 was featured in various automotive publications along with several reviews.


title: Ford GT

text: At the 2015 North American International Auto Show and at the unveiling of the 2015 racing video game "Forza Motorsport 6", the second-generation Ford GT was shown to the public with plans for production in 2016, after a decade-old hiatus from the first generation. The car marked 50 years since the GT40 won the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans and competed successfully in the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans to better celebrate the anniversary, winning the LM GTE-Pro class, taking 1st and 3rd in class.


title: Ford GT

text: The development of the second generation GT at Ford was a very secretive operation–according to design director Chris Svensson, "a handful of twelve people, including some key engineers, had access to the [design studio]". This secrecy was maintained inside Ford and to the press until its 2015 unveiling at the North American Auto Show.


title: Ford GT

text: The design of the new GT began with its aerodynamics package, which was closely related to the ultimate focus of the design team of creating a successful Le Mans race car. Low downforce and aerodynamic efficiency were of primary importance in the development of the exterior of the car, and this drove designers to pursue a 'teardrop profile' as often seen in LMP1 cars. The powertrain of the new GT, therefore, became a secondary criterion to the external design and aerodynamic performance of the car. Although a V8 and even a V12 engine were both considered, it was ultimately decided to use Ford's EcoBoost V6 engine due to the degrees of freedom that the compact engine gave designers.


title: Ford GT

text: The intent behind the design was for the overall look of the second generation GT to be recognizable as a part of the GT line, which meant, for example, a cut back front nose piece, circular tail lights, and raised twin exhaust pipes. There was no explicit requirement for luxury or practicality in the design of the road car, which is the reason behind the car's negligible cargo space and spartan interior. The interior seating position was fixed to provide additional space for the bodywork and teardrop exterior shape.


title: Ford GT

text: Like its predecessor, the new Ford GT is only offered as a 2-door coupe with the mid-rear layout, for the purpose of improved stability by keeping the center of gravity near the middle. The new GT's weight distribution is 43% front and 57% rear. Unlike the first generation car, the new GT has butterfly doors that no longer include a piece integrated into the roof.


title: Ford GT

text: The car is powered by a twin-turbocharged Ford EcoBoost V6 engine rated at and of torque. For the 2020 model year and beyond, this power output rating was increased to . The engine shares many components with the F-150's 3.5 L V6 engine including the cylinder heads, block and dual fuel system. Notable differences include larger turbochargers, an aluminum intake manifold, a custom dry sump lubrication system, unique camshafts and higher strength rotating and timing drive components.


title: Ford GT

text: Underpinning the new GT is a carbon fiber monocoque bolted to aluminum front and rear subframes covered in carbon fiber body panels. The windshield of the vehicle is made of Gorilla Glass manufactured by Corning, which is also used for manufacturing smartphone screens. The Gorilla Glass is used to reduce the weight of the vehicle by allowing for a thinner windscreen with the same strength as a normal glass windscreen. The GT employs a four-stage external dry sump oil pump and has an oil capacity of .


title: Ford GT

text: The new GT uses a pushrod suspension system, which move the primary components of the suspension inboard and provide space for the large aerodynamic elements in the bodywork of the car. The suspension is hydraulically adjustable, and the ride height can drop from in comfort mode to in Track or Vmax modes. These drive modes also dynamically adjust the dampening component of the suspension, which consists of two springs stacked in series. In Track and Vmax modes, one of these springs is completely locked to increase the overall spring rate of the system. The car also has a front-axle lifting system for clearing road obstacles and steep entry angles.


title: Ford GT

text: The new GT is the second Ford vehicle to feature optional carbon fiber wheels, after the Shelby Mustang GT350R. In addition to improved strength and rigidity, these wheels weigh less than their forged aluminum counterparts. The wheels have a diameter of 20 inches at the front and rear, and come equipped with Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires with codes of 245/35 R 20 for the front and 325/30 R 20 for the rear. The brakes are ventilated carbon-ceramic discs made by Brembo, with six-piston calipers at the front and four-piston calipers at the rear.


title: Ford GT

text: The most prominent exterior features of the new GT are the open airflow tunnels built into the rear fenders of the car, referred to as the 'flying buttresses'. These large aerodynamic elements, enabled by the compact V6 engine and pushrod suspension design, channel air around the teardrop-shaped cockpit over the rear spoiler for increased downforce. The front end of the GT features a GT40-inspired cutaway nose and vents in the hood that pass oncoming air over the top of the car. The rear features a large diffuser and hollow circular tail lights that expel air taken in by vents built into the flying buttresses.


title: Ford GT

text: The active rear spoiler of the GT can adjust and adapt to different driving conditions and modes depending on how much downforce is needed. In Track mode, a gurney flap will extend from the trailing edge of the wing to further increase downforce, and the wing will flip vertical to help stop the car under heavy braking.


title: Ford GT

text: The new GT has a claimed top speed of , and has a power to weight ratio of per kilogram. In steady-state cornering on a skidpad, the GT can achieve 1.11 g of lateral acceleration, and the car is capable of braking from to a stop in . Independent acceleration figures are provided below.


title: Ford GT

text: At the Willow Springs International Raceway, "Motor Trend" test driver Randy Pobst achieved a hot lap time of 1:23.69 in a 2017 GT, which at the time made it the fourth-fastest road car tested between the 2015 Porsche 918 Spyder (1:23.54) and the 2017 Porsche 911 Turbo S (1:24.26). After suffering from mechanical issues during an earlier test by automotive magazine "Car and Driver", racing driver Billy Johnson set a lap time around Virginia International Raceway of 2:38.62 in a 2017 GT. This places it third overall in Car and Driver's testing history at the circuit, between the 2019 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 (2:37.3) and the 2018 Porsche 911 GT2 RS Weissach (2:37.8).


title: Ford GT

text: Production began in December 2016 and is scheduled to continue through 2022, with a planned production rate of one car per day at Multimatic's low-volume assembly facility in Markham, Ontario, Canada. Approximately two hundred 2017 and 2018 year production cars were recalled to fix potential hydraulic leaking and fire risk. The cars produced for the 2017 and 2018 model years are allocated through Ford Performance's vehicle allocation process. The cars produced for the 2019 model year were primarily for buyers unsuccessful in the initial selection process, and the cars produced for the 2020 model year are for new customers.


title: Ford GT

text: For the 2020 model year, the Ford GT received an update that introduced several mechanical upgrades and new special editions. The 3.5 L EcoBoost V6 is now rated at due to gallery-cooled pistons and more powerful ignition coils. New engine tuning also results in a 'broader torque band' according to Ford, although peak torque output remains unchanged. The updated GT also comes standard with a new titanium exhaust system developed by Akrapovič, which saves over the original exhaust. The suspension stiffness in Track mode has also been further increased, and cooling airflow into the flying buttresses has been improved by new vent design in this updated model.


title: Ford GT

text: There have been number of special edition series for the new GT, often involving unique liveries, materials, or interior changes. These special editions include:


title: Ford GT

text: A track-day-only version of the new GT, named the GT Mk II, was launched on 4 July 2019 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The name pays homage to the original GT40 Mk II race car that won the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans.


title: Ford GT

text: The GT Mk II features many substantial changes from the road car that increase its capabilities on the track. The 3.5 L EcoBoost V6 engine has been tuned and is rated at over , which is cooled by a roof-mounted air intake and new outboard-mounted intercoolers. The removal of the adjustable ride height system and the stripped-out interior reduces the overall weight of the Mk II by about over the road car. The active spoiler has been replaced by a much larger fixed wing, which in combination with a larger diffuser and new aerodynamic elements results in a 400% increase in downforce over the road car. The GT Mk II uses smaller 19-inch wheels and Michelin Pilot Sport GT slick racing tires, although it shares the GT's carbon ceramic brakes.


title: Ford GT

text: As a result of these changes, the GT Mk II is not street legal. Only 45 will be built, and at a unit price of US$1.2 million it is the most expensive new Ford ever sold. The Mk II, however, is not sold by Ford but rather directly to customers by Multimatic, the Canadian manufacturer of all GT cars.


title: Ford GT

text: To commemorate Ford's victory at the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans, Ford and Multimatic is building another track only Ford GT inspired by the Ford GT40 Mk IV with 800+ horsepower (according to some estimates) and at a price of $1.7 million. Only 67 of these cars will be built and they will be the last Ford GTs to roll out of production. Many specifications of the car, like the top speed, are currently unavailable at the moment as it's just revealed by Ford.


title: Ford GT

text: The Ford GT GT1 is a racing version of the Ford GT developed by Matech Concepts to comply with FIA GT1 rules. The official race debut of the Ford GT1 coincided with the kick-off of the 2009 FIA GT Championship season in Silverstone. For the 2010 FIA GT1 World Championship season four cars were built and fielded by two teams: Matech Competition and Marc VDS Racing Team. Three cars competed in the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans race, with two (the number 70 car run by the Marc VDS Racing Team and the number 61 car run by Matech Concepts) retiring early on. The third car retired later in the race. For the 2011 FIA GT1 World Championship season, Matech left the series which left Marc VDS running the four cars during the season, two under the Marc VDS Racing Team name and the other two cars under the name of Belgian Racing.


title: Ford GT

text: The Ford GT was also homologated for the FIA GT3 rules by Matech Concepts. The Ford GT GT3 is involved in numerous championships including the FIA GT3 European Championship, FIA GT1 World Championship, Blancpain Endurance Series, and others. The GT3 version is slower than the GT1 version (rated at around instead of ) and features different bodywork.


title: Ford GT

text: On 12 June 2015, at Le Mans, it was announced that Ford will return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2016 with a factory-supported, four-car effort operating as Ford Chip Ganassi Racing with the LM-spec Ford GT LM GTE-Pro. The Ford Chip Ganassi Racing cars campaigned in both the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the FIA World Endurance Championship. The car debuted at the 2016 24 Hours of Daytona on January 30–31 finishing seventh and ninth in class.


title: Ford GT

text: On June 19, 2016, the #68 Ford GT of Ford Chip Ganassi Racing finished first at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LM GTE-Pro class; the victory marked fifty years after Ford won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966, where they came first, second, and third with the GT40. In the 2016 6 Hours of Fuji and the 6 Hours of Shanghai, both the Ford GT's finished 1–2 at both races, the #67 winning both and the #66 coming second in both.


title: Ford GT

text: In the opening WEC race at Silverstone, the #67 Ford GT took victory. Two races later, on June 19, 2017, the #67 Ford GT of Ford Chip Ganassi Racing finished runner up at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LM GTE-Pro class; this time fifty years after the second Le Mans Race win in 1967.


title: Amistad (film)

text: Amistad is a 1997 American historical drama film directed by Steven Spielberg, based on the events in 1839 aboard the Spanish slave ship "La Amistad", during which Mende tribesmen abducted for the slave trade managed to gain control of their captors' ship off the coast of Cuba, and the international legal battle that followed their capture by the "Washington", a U.S. revenue cutter. The case was ultimately resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1841.


title: Amistad (film)

text: Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins, Djimon Hounsou, and Matthew McConaughey had starring roles. David Franzoni's screenplay was based on the 1987 book "", by professor Howard Jones.


title: Amistad (film)

text: The schooner "La Amistad" is transporting black slaves off the coast of the Spanish colony of Cuba in 1839. A captive, Cinqué, leads an uprising against the crew, most of whom are killed. Two navigators, Pedro Montez and Jose Ruiz, are spared on condition they help sail the ship to Africa. The Spaniards predictably betray them and instead sail into US waters, where the ship is stopped by the U.S. revenue cutter "Washington", and the mutineers are arrested.


title: Amistad (film)

text: A complicated legal battle ensues over the slaves. United States Attorney William S. Holabird brings charges of piracy and murder against them, but they are simultaneously claimed as property both by Montez & Ruiz, and as salvage by two officers from the "Washington". The Spanish government of Queen Isabella intervenes in support of Montez & Ruiz, under the Treaty of San Lorenzo. To avoid a diplomatic incident, President Martin Van Buren directs his Secretary of State John Forsyth to support the Spanish claim. Meanwhile, abolitionist Lewis Tappan and his black associate Theodore Joadson (a former slave), resolve to help the captives. They approach the brilliant lawyer, former US president and serving U.S. representative John Quincy Adams, but he is reluctant to get involved. They instead hire the young and eccentric attorney Roger Sherman Baldwin.


title: Amistad (film)

text: Baldwin, unable to converse directly with his clients due to the language barrier, suspects the slaves are not Cubans but Africans who have been kidnapped and transported illegally as part of the banned transatlantic slave trade. He and Joadson search "La Amistad" and find documents which prove the captives were kidnapped from Sierra Leone and transported across the Atlantic aboard the Portuguese slave ship "Tecora" before being transferred to "La Amistad" in Havana. The judge is impressed and signals his intention to dismiss the US and Spanish governments' case and release the captives.


title: Amistad (film)

text: To preclude this possibility, Van Buren replaces the judge with a younger man, Coglin, whom he believes will be easier to manipulate. Joadson seeks advice from Adams, who tells him that court cases are usually won by the side with the best 'story'. Baldwin and Joadson recruit freedman James Covey as a translator, enabling Cinqué to testify directly before the court. He describes how he was kidnapped from his home, and the horrors of the Middle Passage. Baldwin calls Captain Fitzgerald of the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron to corroborate Cinqué's testimony. He speculates that the captives were taken aboard the "Tecora" at the notorious slave fort Lomboko. Under cross-examination, Fitzgerald admits there is no direct evidence of Lomboko's existence. As tension rises, Cinqué abruptly stands and demands, "Give us, us free!". Moved by Cinqué's emotion, Judge Coglin rules that the Africans are to be released, and that Montez & Ruiz are to be arrested and charged with illegal slave-trading.


title: Amistad (film)

text: Under pressure from Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, who represents the slave-holding interests of the American South, Van Buren appeals the case to the Supreme Court. Baldwin and Joadson visit Adams again, and after meeting Cinqué he agrees to represent the Africans before the Supreme Court. Adams' impassioned and eloquent speech convinces the court to confirm the judgement and release the Africans.


title: Amistad (film)

text: Lomboko is stormed by Royal Marines under the command of Captain Fitzgerald, and the slaves held there are freed. Fitzgerald orders the ship's cannon to destroy the fortress, and dictates a sardonic letter to Forsyth saying that he was correct — the infamous slave fort does not now exist.


title: Amistad (film)

text: Van Buren is discredited by his failure to prevent the release of the Africans, and loses the 1840 election to William Henry Harrison. The Spanish government continues to press its claim for compensation up until the American Civil War.


title: Amistad (film)

text: The musical score for "Amistad" was composed by John Williams. A soundtrack album was released on December 9, 1997 by DreamWorks Records.


title: Amistad (film)

text: Many academics, including Columbia University professor Eric Foner, have criticized "Amistad" for historical inaccuracy and the misleading characterizations of the "Amistad" case as a "turning point" in the American perspective on slavery. Foner wrote, "In fact, the "Amistad" case revolved around the Atlantic slave trade — by 1840 outlawed by international treaty — and had nothing whatsoever to do with slavery as a domestic institution. Incongruous as it may seem, it was perfectly possible in the nineteenth century to condemn the importation of slaves from Africa while simultaneously defending slavery and the flourishing slave trade within the United States... "Amistad"’s problems go far deeper than such anachronisms as President Martin Van Buren campaigning for re-election on a whistle-stop train tour (in 1840, candidates did not campaign), or people constantly talking about the impending Civil War, which lay 20 years in the future."


title: Amistad (film)

text: "Amistad" received mainly positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 78% based on reviews from 67 critics, with an average score of 6.9/10. Its consensus reads, "Heartfelt without resorting to preachiness, "Amistad" tells an important story with engaging sensitivity and absorbing skill." Metacritic calculated an average score of 63 out of 100 based on 23 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Amistad (film)

text: Susan Wloszczyna of "USA Today" summed up the feelings of many reviewers when she wrote, "as Spielberg vehicles go, "Amistad" — part mystery, action thriller, courtroom drama, even culture-clash comedy — lands between the disturbing lyricism of "Schindler's List" and the storybook artificiality of "The Color Purple"." Roger Ebert awarded the film three out of four stars, writing:


title: Amistad (film)

text: In 2014, the movie was one of several discussed by Noah Berlatsky in "The Atlantic" in an article concerning white savior narratives in film, calling it "sanctimonious drivel."


title: Amistad (film)

text: Morgan Freeman is very proud of the movie, having said, "I loved the film. I really did. I had a moment of err, during the killings. I thought that was a little over-wrought. But he (Spielberg) wanted to make a point and I understood that."


title: Amistad (film)

text: The film debuted at 3 on Wednesday, December 10, 1997. It earned $44,229,441 at the box office in the United States.


title: Amistad (film)

text: "Amistad" was nominated for Academy Awards in four categories: Best Supporting Actor (Anthony Hopkins), Best Original Dramatic Score (John Williams), Best Cinematography (Janusz Kamiński), and Best Costume Design (Ruth E. Carter).


title: FX (TV channel)

text: FX is an American pay television channel owned by FX Networks, LLC, a subsidiary of the Disney General Entertainment Content unit of The Walt Disney Company. It is based at the Fox Studios lot in Century City, California. FX originally launched on June 1, 1994. The network's original programming aspires to the standards of premium cable channels in regard to mature themes and content, high-quality writing, directing and acting. Sister channels FXM and FXX were launched in 1994 and 2013, respectively. FX also carries reruns of theatrical films and terrestrial-network sitcoms. Advertising-free content was available through the FX+ premium subscription service until it was shut down on August 21, 2019.


title: FX (TV channel)

text: As of September 2018, FX is available to approximately 89.2 million television households (96.7% of households with cable) in the United States. In addition to the flagship U.S. network, the "FX" name is licensed to a number of related pay television channels in various countries around the world.


title: FX (TV channel)

text: FX, originally stylized as "fX", launched on June 1, 1994. Broadcasting from a large "apartment" in Manhattan's Flatiron District, fX was one of the first forays into large-scale interactive television. The channel centered on original programming, which was broadcast live every day from the "fX Apartment", and rebroadcasts of classic television shows from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, such as "Batman", "Wonder Woman", "Eight Is Enough", "Nanny and the Professor" and "The Green Hornet". fX had two taglines during this period: "TV Made Fresh Daily" and "The World's First Living Television Network". The "f" in the channel's name and logo was rendered in lower-case to portray a type of relaxed friendliness; the stylized "X" represented the channel's roots: the crossing searchlights of the 20th Century Fox logo.


title: FX (TV channel)

text: The live shows were each mostly focused on one broad topic. Shows included "Personal fX" (collectibles and antiques), "The Pet Department" (pets), "Under Scrutiny with Jane Wallace" (news) and "Sound fX" (music). The channel's flagship show, "Breakfast Time", hosted by Laurie Hibberd and Tom Bergeron, was formatted like an informal magazine show and was an Americanized version of Great Britain's "The Big Breakfast". "Breakfast Time" and "Personal fX" would regularly feature the channel's "roving reporters" – which included Suzanne Whang, John Burke and Phil Keoghan – visiting unique places around the United States live via satellite. Other notable fX personalities included Karyn Bryant and Orlando Jones, who were panelists on "Sound fX".


title: FX (TV channel)

text: The channel prided itself on its interactivity with viewers. fX, in 1994, was an early adopter of the internet, embracing e-mail and the World Wide Web as methods of feedback. Most of the shows would feature instant responses to e-mailed questions, and one show, "Backchat" (hosted by Jeff Probst), was exclusively devoted to responding to viewer mail, whether sent through e-mail or traditional postal mail. Select viewers were allowed to spend a day at the "apartment" and take part in all of the channel's shows. Inside the channel's syndicated programming blocks, channel hosts would frequently appear during commercial breaks to read news headlines, respond to e-mails from viewers about the episode that was airing, or to promote upcoming programming.


title: FX (TV channel)

text: The first incarnation of fX was not available on Time Warner Cable, one of the major cable systems in New York City, where its programming originated. TWC would not carry the channel until September 2001.


title: FX (TV channel)

text: The live shows gradually disappeared one by one until only "Personal fX" remained. "Breakfast Time" was moved to the Fox network and renamed "Fox After Breakfast" in mid-1996. It underwent several format changes, but never found a substantial audience and was canceled less than a year later. By the time that all live programming (with the exception of "Personal fX") was dropped, the channel focused entirely on its classic television shows until its relaunch in mid-1997. "Personal fX" remained on the refocused FX until May 1, 1998. FX vacated the "apartment" in the summer of 1998 and the channel's operations were streamlined with the other Fox-owned subscription channels.


title: FX (TV channel)

text: In early 1997, fX was relaunched as "FX: Fox Gone Cable", refocusing the channel's target audience towards men aged 18 to 49. During the first few years after its relaunch, FX was known for little else than airing reruns of such Fox shows as "The X-Files" and "Married... with Children", as well as 20th Century Fox-produced shows such as "M*A*S*H" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". The channel also added Major League Baseball games to its lineup at that time (at one point sharing rights with then-sister network Fox Family), and eventually expanded its sports programming to include NASCAR races in 2001.


title: FX (TV channel)

text: In the summer of 1998, FX debuted three original series: "Bobcat's Big Ass Show", "Instant Comedy with the Groundlings" and "Penn & Teller's Sin City Spectacular". All three series were cancelled the following year. Soon after its relaunch, the "Fox Gone Cable" tagline was dropped. By 1999, new original TV shows were added with the debut of shows such as "Son of the Beach" (a "Baywatch" parody that starred Timothy Stack and was executive produced by Howard Stern) and "The X Show" (a male-oriented late night panel talk show). The channel also acquired the pay-TV syndication rights to reruns of series such as "Ally McBeal", "NYPD Blue" and "The Practice" for then-record high prices then unseen in the pay-TV industry despite all three 20th Century Fox Television series being under common ownership; when these shows expensively fumbled in primetime, FX predominantly ran movies in its more high-profile time periods, though with the move of premiere film rights from free-to-air broadcast networks to basic cable channels, FX unexpectedly would end up a benefactor of this change.


title: FX (TV channel)

text: Beginning in 2002, the channel emerged as a major force in original pay-TV programming, gaining both acclaim and notoriety for edgy dramas. That year, FX debuted the police drama "The Shield", which became a breakout hit. This trend continued the following year with "Nip/Tuck", a drama about two plastic surgeons, and the Denis Leary-helmed "Rescue Me", about the lives of a crew of firemen from the New York City Fire Department post-9/11. Both shows were lauded by critics, and achieved equal success with viewers. "Rescue Me" was one of the few television series to be given an order for an additional season prior to the broadcast of its most recent season: in June 2009 FX renewed the show for an 18-episode sixth season, although the fifth season had not premiered at the time.


title: FX (TV channel)

text: Unlike many broadcast networks, FX has chosen to take risks with its programming and push the envelope of what can be shown on television; as a result, most (though not all) of the channel's original series are rated TV-MA, often for strong profanity, sexual content, and/or violence. Family organizations such as the Parents Television Council and American Family Association, have asked advertisers to boycott these shows due to their graphic content. Despite this, FX's original programming output, outside of a few shows, has been critically acclaimed for their strong storylines and characters.


title: FX (TV channel)

text: Capitalizing on the success of the hit documentary "Super Size Me", filmmaker Morgan Spurlock launched a new series, "30 Days", which debuted on FX in June 2005. The series place its subjects in situations uncomfortable to them for 30 days, such as making millionaires work for minimum wage, and having Christians live in a Muslim community.


title: FX (TV channel)

text: In the summer of 2005, FX debuted two new comedy series, "Starved", about the daily lives of four friends with eating disorders who live in New York City; and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia", about the usually very politically incorrect comic misadventures of four people who own a bar in the titular city. Both of these shows feature frank sexual dialogue and strong language, and were pitched as "The Dark Side of Comedy". "Starved" was derided by groups that sought to publicize eating disorders and was cancelled after its first season due to low ratings. Conversely, "Sunny" quickly became a critical darling, consistently achieved high viewership, and was picked up for a second season within days of its first-season finale. The second season added veteran actor Danny DeVito to the cast, and the show, still airing as of 2021, is the longest-running live-action sitcom in history.


title: FX (TV channel)

text: In 2006, FX debuted two new series, the reality series "Black. White." and the drama "Thief"; neither series was picked up for a second season. During 2007, FX introduced three new dramas: "Dirt", starring Courteney Cox; "The Riches", starring Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver; and "Damages", starring Glenn Close, Ted Danson and Rose Byrne. All three performed well in the ratings and were renewed for second seasons. By 2008, FX was available in 90.6 million homes in the U.S.


title: FX (TV channel)

text: In 2008, the channel launched a new branding campaign built around the theme "There Is No Box." It alluded to the phrase "thinking outside the box" and referred to how the channel's programming goes beyond "the box" concept. In addition, this was a pun related to the channel's creating original shows to compete against premium channels such as HBO. The channel's logo was updated on December 18, 2007, retaining only the FX wordmark while removing the klieg light logo box that had been placed to its left since the 1997 rebrand. The new branding included an advertising campaign featuring a post-game ad for the channel during Fox's coverage of Super Bowl XLII. The promo used the James Morrison song "You Give Me Something".


title: FX (TV channel)

text: During 2008, competition with other pay-TV channels increased. This was evident in the second season ratings for series "Dirt" and "The Riches", whose ratings decreased significantly from their freshman seasons. During some weeks, viewership for both shows barely exceeded 1 million. Both shows were cancelled in 2008; acquired shows "Dharma and Greg", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Married... with Children" and "Fear Factor" were also removed from the schedule.


title: FX (TV channel)

text: On September 3, 2008, FX debuted "Sons of Anarchy", a drama series created by Kurt Sutter (who previously served as executive producer of "The Shield") about a fictional outlaw motorcycle club devoted to protecting their sheltered California town from corporate developers and drug dealers; its September premiere coincided with that of "The Shield"s final season. "Sons of Anarchy" became a critical and commercial success, having aired for seven seasons . In 2010, the series attracted an average of 4.9 million viewers per week, making it "FX"s highest rated series to date. Other new shows that premiered in 2008 included the Kenny Hotz comedy "Testees", which debuted in October 2008 and was cancelled after its first season. In August 2008, FX relaunched its website, adding streaming of full episodes of its original shows. In 2009, reruns of the former ABC sitcom "Spin City" were removed from the schedule (though it was restored early the following year).


title: FX (TV channel)

text: In July 2009, FX ordered three new comedy pilots: "Archer", an animated series featuring a spy agency, which premiered on January 14, 2010; "The League", with a group of friends who are part of a fantasy football league; and "Louie", a sitcom starring stand-up comedian and writer Louis C.K., which "blend[s] stand-up material with ... 'extended vignettes' depicting moments from [the comedian's] offstage experiences." The following year, FX debuted "Wilfred", a comedy series starring Elijah Wood. It is based on the Australian series "Wilfred".


title: FX (TV channel)

text: In March 2010, the channel debuted "Justified", a drama series created by Graham Yost based on Elmore Leonard's short story "Fire in the Hole" (which was the series' original working title). It starred Timothy Olyphant as U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens – a tough, soft-spoken lawman with a rough side – and chronicles his cases and personal life, including unfinished business with an ex-wife and his aging father. FX also picked up the crime comedy-drama "Terriers", created by Ted Griffin, for its fall 2010 lineup; in 2011, the channel debuted the boxing drama "Lights Out", about retired boxing champion Patrick "Lights" Leary who is considering a comeback, despite the serious risks it entails. Despite the critical acclaim that "Terriers" and "Lights Out" received, the two series were cancelled after their first seasons due to low viewership; For "Terriers" specifically, FX Networks president and General Manager John Landgraf would later admit in a 2016 interview with critic Alan Sepinwall that "I cannot think of a more painful moment of my career than the one when I defined "Terriers" as a failure by canceling it."


title: FX (TV channel)

text: On October 1, 2010, parent company News Corporation (which spun off FX and the company's other U.S.-based entertainment properties to 21st Century Fox in July 2013) pulled its channels from Dish Network due to a carriage dispute over retransmission consent revenue. FX returned to the satellite provider's channel lineup on October 29, 2010, after Dish Network and News Corporation signed a long-term carriage agreement. On November 1, 2010, following a similar dispute, FX and its sister channels were restored by New York City-based cable provider Cablevision through a separate carriage agreement.


title: FX (TV channel)

text: On October 14, 2011, FX announced it picked up the rights to develop a series based on "Scar Tissue" and "Lords of the Sunset Strip", the autobiographies of the Red Hot Chili Peppers singer Anthony Kiedis and his father, Blackie Dammett. HBO had picked up the series, which was to be titled "Spider & Son", a few years before but never completed the project. "Entourage" writer/producers Marc Abrams and Mike Benson were tapped as its showrunners and Kiedis was to be involved as a co-producer. Dammett said in 2013 that the show has been "mothballed", and he hopes interest will resume on the project once the Red Hot Chili Peppers wrapped up their world tour that year. As of 2014 there has been no mention from FX, Kiedis or Dammett on the status of the series. On January 30, 2013, FX premiered the 1980s-set Cold War drama "The Americans".


title: FX (TV channel)

text: On March 20, 2019, The Walt Disney Company acquired 21st Century Fox. Consequently, FX Networks was integrated into the newly renamed Walt Disney Television unit. In a September 2018 interview with "Variety" of the Disney-Fox deal, Landgraf said, "I think this is a necessary step. I have curiosity and a bit of anxiety about how it will work, but I'm really excited about it.


title: FX (TV channel)

text: On April 8, 2019, FX Networks had acquired off-network rights to "Family Guy", starting with its sixteenth season and "Bob's Burgers", starting with its ninth season. "Family Guy" began airing on FXX on April 16, 2019, while "Bob's Burgers" made its debut on September 24, 2019. FXX shares the rights to "Family Guy" with sister network Freeform. WarnerMedia's Adult Swim and TBS held the rights to older seasons of both shows; WarnerMedia's rights to "Family Guy" expired on September 18, 2021, at which point reruns are exclusive to FX Networks and Freeform, with the rights to "Bob's Burgers" similarly coming under FX Networks' full control in 2023.


title: FX (TV channel)

text: On May 14, 2019, Comcast relinquished its control in Hulu to Disney effective immediately. As a result, the streaming service became a division of Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International with Comcast effectively becoming a silent partner. In November 2019, it was announced that FX would produce series for Hulu under the "FX on Hulu" brand. Four series previously in development for the linear FX channel will now premiere on Hulu, including "Devs", "Mrs. America" and "A Teacher". Furthermore, episodes aired on the linear FX cable network will be available on Hulu the next day. "FX on Hulu" launched on March 2, 2020.


title: FX (TV channel)

text: In December 2021, Disney announced that it would discontinue the "FX on Hulu" brand, resulting in the Hulu hub for FX and FXX programming being rebranded as simply "FX" going forward. The rebranding will also apply to Disney+ for international markets, including Canada.


title: FX (TV channel)

text: FX's most popular original shows include "Justified", "Damages", "Nip/Tuck", "Rescue Me", "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia", "The League", "Sons of Anarchy", "The Shield", "The Strain", "Archer", "American Horror Story", "Anger Management", "The Americans", "Better Things", "Louie", "You're the Worst", "Fargo", "American Crime Story", "Legion", "Snowfall" and "Atlanta".


title: FX (TV channel)

text: The channel also broadcasts theatrically released feature films from sister companies Walt Disney Pictures, Marvel Studios, and 20th Century Studios as well as other film studios such as Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Lionsgate Films, Relativity Media, Village Roadshow Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation which take up much of FX's primetime and the majority of its weekend schedules. It airs repeats of network television sitcoms (such as "Two and a Half Men" and "How I Met Your Mother"). From the late 1990s to the mid-2000s, the acquired shows which FX broadcast consisted largely of series originally broadcast on Fox between the late 1980s and the 2000s (such as "That '70s Show", "Married... with Children", and "In Living Color").


title: FX (TV channel)

text: After obtaining the spring broadcast rights to NASCAR, Fox Sports announced that FX would serve as its pay-TV partner for the 2001 inaugural season of race telecasts. As a result, FX covered several races in the series then known as the Busch Series and Winston Cup (including the All-Star Race), as well as select qualifying and final practice sessions. Having FX carry the race telecasts was intended to promote the channel and encourage NASCAR fans to contact their subscription providers to add FX to their lineup. In 2002, Peter Liguori, who was then president of FX, praised NASCAR for its growth; the channel increased penetration from 58.5 million to 76.6 million households nationwide. FX was removed from Fox's NASCAR coverage in the 2007 season, which saw the Busch Series move exclusively to ESPN, and Fox aired all of Nextel Cup races on broadcast television.


title: FX (TV channel)

text: In 1997, FX obtained partial pay-TV rights to Major League Baseball games; the channel initially aired game telecasts on Monday nights, before moving them to Saturday nights in 1998. In 2000, FX began sharing the Major League Baseball pay-TV rights with then-sister network Fox Family Channel (taking rights to the league's Thursday evening games from Fox Sports Net), with games being scheduled on an alternating basis with FX. Starting with the 2001 season, FX also obtained rights to games from the MLB Division Series, the only playoff round to which Fox did not hold television rights. Among the games televised on FX was Cal Ripken Jr.'s final home game with the Baltimore Orioles in September 2001.


title: FX (TV channel)

text: On April 27, 2011, FX began airing soccer games from the UEFA Champions League as part of the league's overall television deal with Fox Sports. In the fall of 2011, FX began broadcasting Big 12, Conference USA and Pac-12 college football games on Saturdays (mainly primetime games, with some daytime games mixed in), as part of Fox Sports' broadcasting contracts with the three conferences. In January 2012, FX began broadcasting content from the Ultimate Fighting Championship.


title: FX (TV channel)

text: With the August 2013 launches of national sports networks Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2, FX no longer serves as a regular pay-TV outlet for Fox Sports. However, UFC 185 preliminary fights aired on FX due to FS1 showing college basketball. Also on March 5, 2016, FX aired a Bundesliga match between that league's top two teams Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund to provide wider distribution of the fixture, as Fox, FS1, and FS2 all had sporting commitments of their own at the time of the match and the match was to air on the little-distributed Fox Soccer Plus (which does not have carriage on numerous TV providers). Because this was Fox's first year of coverage of Germany's top soccer league and Bayern and Borussia are the two most successful Bundesliga teams (and have an intense rivalry known as Der Klassiker), Fox wanted to give the game wider distribution, and so the game was moved to FX in a last-minute decision. In June 2016, FX continued its broadcast of sports with the airing of three games from the Copa América Centenario in order to gain a wider viewing audience for the selected teams.


title: FX (TV channel)

text: On September 14, 2019, Disney announced that FX would air the preliminary bouts for UFC 242. Disney replaced Fox Sports as UFC's rights holder in 2018. Usually preliminary bouts for UFC air on ESPN2, however because ESPN2 was airing college football, FX was used instead. UFC 242 was the first Disney owned sporting event to air on FX.


title: FX (TV channel)

text: On May 17, 2022, the XFL and Disney announced an exclusive broadcast agreement. As part of the agreement, select XFL games will air on FX beginning in 2023.


title: FX (TV channel)

text: FX began broadcasting a 720p HD channel in 2007, which is available on the majority of pay television providers. The SD channel, as was standard with all of Fox's broadcast and pay-TV networks (and also its new Disney siblings, which also all operate in 720p), is now merely downscaled from the HD feed at the provider headend level rather than having a devoted SD feed.


title: Ashish Vidyarthi

text: Ashish Vidyarthi (born 19 June 1962) is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, English, Odia, Marathi and Bengali films. He is noted for his antagonist and character roles. In 1995, he received the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for "Drohkaal".


title: Ashish Vidyarthi

text: Ashish Vidyarthi was born on 19 June 1962 in Delhi, India to a Malayali father from Kannur, and a Bengali mother from Rajasthan. His mother Reba Vidyarthi (Née: Chattopadhyay) was a Kathak guru, while his father Govind Vidyarthi is an expert in cataloging and archiving vanishing Performing Arts of India for the Sangeet Natak Akademi. He attended National School of Drama until 1990 and associated himself with another theatre group, Act One, run by N. K. Sharma.


title: Ashish Vidyarthi

text: In 1992, he moved to Bombay (now Mumbai). Ashish played the role of V. P. Menon in his first film, "Sardar", based on Sardar Vallabhai Patel's Life. Though, his first release was Drohkaal, for which he won a National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1995. He is also renowned for his role as Ashutosh, in . Ashish received the Star Screen Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role, for the 1996 film Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin.


title: Ashish Vidyarthi

text: Vidhyarthi has worked in 11 languages in over 300 films. He is the co-founder & curator of AVID MINER Conversations, which are interactive modules customized for organizations.


title: Gospel music

text: Gospel music is a traditional genre of Christian music, and a cornerstone of Christian media. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music varies according to culture and social context. Gospel music is composed and performed for many purposes, including aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, and as an entertainment product for the marketplace. Gospel music is characterized by dominant vocals and strong use of harmony with Christian lyrics. Gospel music can be traced to the early 17th century.


title: Gospel music

text: Hymns and sacred songs were often repeated in a call and response fashion, heavily influenced by ancestral African music. Most of the churches relied on hand-clapping and foot-stomping as rhythmic accompaniment. Most of the singing was done a cappella. The first published use of the term "gospel song" probably appeared in 1874.


title: Gospel music

text: The original gospel songs were written and composed by authors such as George F. Root, Philip Bliss, Charles H. Gabriel, William Howard Doane, and Fanny Crosby. Gospel music publishing houses emerged. The advent of radio in the 1920s greatly increased the audience for gospel music. Following World War II, gospel music moved into major auditoriums, and gospel music concerts became quite elaborate.


title: Gospel music

text: Black and Southern gospel music are largely responsible for gospel's continued presence in contemporary Christian music, with soul music by far the best-known popular music variant. The styles emerged from the African-American music and American folk music traditions and have evolved in various ways over the years, continuing to form the basis of Black church worship even today. It has also come to be used in churches of various other cultural traditions (especially within Pentecostalism) and, via the gospel choir phenomenon spearheaded by Thomas Dorsey, has become a form of musical devotion worldwide. Southern used all-male, tenor-lead-baritone-bass quartets. Progressive Southern gospel has grown out of Southern gospel over the past couple of decades. Christian country music, sometimes referred to as country gospel music, is a subgenre of gospel music with a country flair. It peaked in popularity in the mid-1990s. Bluegrass gospel music is rooted in American mountain music. Celtic gospel music infuses gospel music with a Celtic flair, and is quite popular in countries such as Ireland. British black gospel refers to Gospel music of the African diaspora produced in the UK.


title: Gospel music

text: According to Yale University music professor Willie Ruff, the singing of psalms in Scottish Gaelic by Presbyterians of the Scottish Hebrides evolved from "lining out"—where one person sang a solo and others followed—into the call and response of gospel music of the American South. Another theory notes foundations in the works of Dr. Isaac Watts and others.


title: Gospel music

text: Moreover, the genre arose during a time when literacy was not a guarantee, utilizing a great deal of repetition (which, unlike more traditional hymns, allowed those who could not read the opportunity to participate).


title: Gospel music

text: Perhaps the most famous gospel-based hymns were composed in the 1760s and 1770s by English writers John Newton ("Amazing Grace") and Augustus Toplady ("Rock of Ages"), members of the Anglican Church. Starting out as lyrics only, it took decades for standardized tunes to be added to them. Although not directly connected with African-American gospel music, they were adopted by African-Americans as well as white Americans, and Newton's connection with the abolition movement provided cross-fertilization.


title: Gospel music

text: The first published use of the term "Gospel song" probably appeared in 1874 when Philip Bliss released a songbook entitled "Gospel Songs. A Choice Collection of Hymns and Tunes". It was used to describe a new style of church music, songs that were easy to grasp and more easily singable than the traditional church hymns, which came out of the mass revival movement starting with Dwight L. Moody, whose musician was Ira D. Sankey, as well as the Holiness-Pentecostal movement. Prior to the meeting of Moody and Sankey in 1870, there was an American rural/frontier history of revival and camp meeting songs, but the gospel hymn was of a different character, and it served the needs of mass revivals in the great cities.


title: Gospel music

text: The revival movement employed popular singers and song leaders, the most famous of them being Ira D. Sankey. The original "gospel" songs were written and composed by authors such as George F. Root, Philip Bliss, Charles H. Gabriel, William Howard Doane, and Fanny Crosby. As an extension to his initial publication "Gospel Songs", Philip Bliss, in collaboration with Ira D. Sankey issued no's. 1 to 6 of "Gospel Hymns" in 1875. Sankey and Bliss's collection can be found in many libraries today.


title: Gospel music

text: The popularity of revival singers and the openness of rural churches to this type of music (in spite of its initial use in city revivals) led to the late 19th and early 20th century establishment of gospel music publishing houses such as those of Homer Rodeheaver, E. O. Excell, Charlie Tillman, and Charles Tindley. These publishers were in the market for large quantities of new music, providing an outlet for the creative work of many songwriters and composers.


title: Gospel music

text: The advent of radio in the 1920s greatly increased the audience for gospel music, and James D. Vaughan used radio as an integral part of his business model, which also included traveling quartets to publicize the gospel music books he published several times a year. Virgil O. Stamps and Jesse R. Baxter studied Vaughan's business model and by the late 1920s were running heavy competition for Vaughan. The 1920s also saw the marketing of gospel records by groups such as the Carter Family.


title: Gospel music

text: The Pentecostal movement quickly made inroads with churches not attuned to the Europeanized Black church music that had become popular over the years since Emancipation. These congregations readily adopted and contributed to the gospel music publications of the early 20th century. Sister Rosetta Tharpe, pioneer of rock and roll, soon emerged from this tradition as the first great gospel recording artist. The first person to introduce ragtime to gospel (and the first to play piano on a gospel recording) was Arizona Dranes.


title: Gospel music

text: The 1930s saw the rise of Black gospel quartets such as the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi and the Five Blind Boys of Alabama. In addition to these high-profile quartets, there were many Black gospel musicians performing in the 1920s and 30s, usually playing the guitar and singing in the streets of Southern cities.


title: Gospel music

text: In the 1930s, in Chicago, Thomas A. Dorsey turned to gospel music, establishing a publishing house. It has been said that 1930 was the year traditional black gospel music began, as the National Baptist Convention first publicly endorsed the music at its 1930 meeting. Dorsey was responsible for developing the musical careers of many African-American artists, such as Mahalia Jackson (best known for her rendition of his "Precious Lord, Take My Hand").


title: Gospel music

text: Meanwhile, radio continued to develop an audience for gospel music, a fact that was commemorated in Albert E. Brumley's 1937 song, "Turn Your Radio On" (which is still being published in gospel song books). (In 1972, a recording of "Turn Your Radio On" by the Lewis Family was nominated for Gospel Song of the Year.)


title: Gospel music

text: In 1964, the Gospel Music Association was established, which in turn began the Dove Awards (in 1969) and the Gospel Music Hall of Fame (in 1972). Both of the latter two groups began primarily for Southern gospel performers, but in the late 1970s, began including artists of other subgenres, which brought in many Black artists. Also in 1969, James Cleveland established the Gospel Music Workshop of America, a Black gospel outlet.


title: Gospel music

text: Late 20th-century musicians such as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and the Blackwood Brothers were also known for their gospel influences and recordings.


title: Gospel music

text: Urban contemporary gospel emerged in the late 1960s and early 70s with Walter Hawkins highly popular "Oh Happy Day" which is still performed worldwide in the 2000. Artists such as James Cleveland, Aretha Franklin, the Clark Sisters, Andrae Crouch and Richard Smallwood followed crossing over musically and gaining notoriety, and this pattern would repeat itself in subsequent decades, with new artists like Yolanda Adams and Kirk Franklin making increasingly more bold forays into the secular world with their musical stylings. The current sphere of Black gospel recording artists is almost exclusively of the urban contemporary bent.


title: Gospel music

text: Also of note is the rise of Christian (or gospel) rap/hip-hop, which has gained increasing popularity since the days of the Gospel Gangstaz and The Cross Movement. Often considered a subgenre of urban contemporary gospel, Christian rap has become dominated in present times by artists from Reach Records, who have seen perhaps the most commercial success of any artists in the gospel genre; Lecrae (the label's founder and preeminent artist) has charted in the top 10 of on the Billboard 200 three times, with his 2014 album "Anomaly" debuting at No. 1.


title: Gospel music

text: Traditional Black gospel music is the most well-known form, often seen in Black churches, non-Black Pentecostal and evangelical churches, and in entertainment spaces across the country and world. It originates from the Southeastern United States ("the South"), where most Black Americans lived prior to the Great Migration. This music was highly influenced by the hymnody of the spirituals and of Watts and, later, the musical style and vision of Dorsey. Whereas northern Black churches did not at first welcome Dorsey's music (having become accustomed to their own more Eurocentric flavorings), after the Southern migrants' new churches became more popular, so did gospel music, gospel choirs, and the general trend toward exclusive use of this music in Black churches. Dorsey, Mahalia Jackson, the Mississippi Mass Choir, and the Georgia Mass Choir are but a few notable examples.


title: Gospel music

text: Developing out of the fusion of traditional Black gospel with the styles of secular Black music popular in the 70s and 80s, Urban Contemporary gospel is the most common form of recorded gospel music today. It relies heavily on rhythms and instrumentation common in the secular music of the contemporary era (often including the use of electronic beats), while still incorporating the themes and heritage of the traditional Black gospel genre. Kirk Franklin is the foremost (and by far the bestselling) individual in this genre, while Andrae Crouch, the Clark Sisters, and Yolanda Adams are also very popular and noteworthy.


title: Gospel music

text: British black gospel refers to gospel music of the African diaspora in the UK. It is also often referred to as "UK gospel". The distinctive sound is heavily influenced by UK street culture with many artists from the African and Caribbean majority black churches in the UK. The genre has gained recognition in various awards such as the GEM (Gospel Entertainment Music) Awards, MOBO Awards, Urban Music Awards and has its own Official Christian & Gospel Albums Chart.


title: Gospel music

text: Southern gospel music comes from the Southeastern United States and is similar in sound to Christian country music, but it sometimes known as "quartet music" for its traditional "four men and a piano" set up. The genre, while remaining predominantly White, began to integrate Black gospel stylings in the 1960s. It has evolved over the years into a popular form of music across the United States and overseas, especially among baby boomers and those living in the South. Like other forms of music the creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of southern gospel varies according to culture and social context. It is composed and performed for many purposes, ranging from aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, or as an entertainment product for the marketplace.


title: Gospel music

text: Christian country music, sometimes referred to as country gospel music, is a subgenre of gospel music with a country flair, is also known as inspirational country. Christian country over the years has progressed into a mainstream country sound with inspirational or positive country lyrics. In the mid-1990s, Christian country hit its highest popularity. This popularity was such that mainstream artists like Larry Gatlin, Charlie Daniels and Barbara Mandrell, just to name a few, began recording music that had this positive Christian country flair. These mainstream artists have now become award winners in this genre.


title: Gospel music

text: Some proponents of "standard" hymns generally dislike gospel music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For example, Patrick and Sydnor complain that commercial success led to a proliferation of such music, and "deterioration, even in a standard which to begin with was not high, resulted." They went on to say, "there is no doubt that a deterioration in taste follows the use of this type of hymn and tune; it fosters an attachment to the trivial and sensational which dulls and often destroys sense of the dignity and beauty which best befit the song that is used in the service of God."


title: Gospel music

text: Gold reviewed the issue in 1958, and collected a number of quotations similar to the complaints of Patrick and Sydnor. However, he also provided this quotation: "Gospel hymnody has the distinction of being America's most typical contribution to Christian song. As such, it is valid in its inspiration and in its employment."


title: Gospel music

text: Today, with historical distance, there is a greater acceptance of such gospel songs into official denominational hymnals. For example, the United Methodist Church made this acceptance explicit in "The Faith We Sing", a 2000 supplement to the official denominational hymnal. In the preface, the editors say, "Experience has shown that some older treasures were missed when the current hymnals were compiled."


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (27 or 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a literary critic and published works including "The Philosophy of Freedom". At the beginning of the twentieth century he founded an esoteric spiritual movement, anthroposophy, with roots in German idealist philosophy and theosophy. Many of his ideas are pseudoscientific. He was also prone to pseudohistory.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: In the first, more philosophically oriented phase of this movement, Steiner attempted to find a synthesis between science and spirituality. His philosophical work of these years, which he termed "spiritual science", sought to apply what he saw as the clarity of thinking characteristic of Western philosophy to spiritual questions, differentiating this approach from what he considered to be vaguer approaches to mysticism. In a second phase, beginning around 1907, he began working collaboratively in a variety of artistic media, including drama, dance and architecture, culminating in the building of the Goetheanum, a cultural centre to house all the arts. In the third phase of his work, beginning after World War I, Steiner worked on various ostensibly applied projects, including Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, and anthroposophical medicine.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: Steiner advocated a form of ethical individualism, to which he later brought a more explicitly spiritual approach. He based his epistemology on Johann Wolfgang Goethe's world view, in which "thinking…is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas." A consistent thread that runs through his work is the goal of demonstrating that there are no limits to human knowledge.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: Steiner's father, Johann(es) Steiner (1829–1910), left a position as a gamekeeper in the service of Count Hoyos in Geras, northeast Lower Austria to marry one of the Hoyos family's housemaids, Franziska Blie (1834 Horn – 1918, Horn), a marriage for which the Count had refused his permission. Johann became a telegraph operator on the Southern Austrian Railway, and at the time of Rudolf's birth was stationed in Murakirály (Kraljevec) in the Muraköz region of the Kingdom of Hungary, Austrian Empire (present-day Donji Kraljevec in the Međimurje region of northernmost Croatia). In the first two years of Rudolf's life, the family moved twice, first to Mödling, near Vienna, and then, through the promotion of his father to stationmaster, to , located in the foothills of the eastern Austrian Alps in Lower Austria.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: Steiner entered the village school, but following a disagreement between his father and the schoolmaster, he was briefly educated at home. In 1869, when Steiner was eight years old, the family moved to the village of and in October 1872 Steiner proceeded from the village school there to the realschule in Wiener Neustadt.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: In 1879, the family moved to Inzersdorf to enable Steiner to attend the Vienna Institute of Technology, where he enrolled in courses in mathematics, physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, and mineralogy and audited courses in literature and philosophy, on an academic scholarship from 1879 to 1883, where he completed his studies and the requirements of the Ghega scholarship satisfactorily. In 1882, one of Steiner's teachers, Karl Julius Schröer, suggested Steiner's name to Joseph Kürschner, chief editor of a new edition of Goethe's works, who asked Steiner to become the edition's natural science editor, a truly astonishing opportunity for a young student without any form of academic credentials or previous publications.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: When he was nine years old, Steiner believed that he saw the spirit of an aunt who had died in a far-off town, asking him to help her at a time when neither he nor his family knew of the woman's death. Steiner later related that as a child, he felt "that one must carry the knowledge of the spiritual world within oneself after the fashion of geometry ... [for here] one is permitted to know something which the mind alone, through its own power, experiences. In this feeling I found the justification for the spiritual world that I experienced ... I confirmed for myself by means of geometry the feeling that I must speak of a world 'which is not seen'."


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: Steiner believed that at the age of 15 he had gained a complete understanding of the concept of time, which he considered to be the precondition of spiritual clairvoyance. At 21, on the train between his home village and Vienna, Steiner met an herb gatherer, Felix Kogutzki, who spoke about the spiritual world "as one who had his own experience therein".


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: In 1888, as a result of his work for the Kürschner edition of Goethe's works, Steiner was invited to work as an editor at the Goethe archives in Weimar. Steiner remained with the archive until 1896. As well as the introductions for and commentaries to four volumes of Goethe's scientific writings, Steiner wrote two books about Goethe's philosophy: "The Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World-Conception" (1886), which Steiner regarded as the epistemological foundation and justification for his later work, and "Goethe's Conception of the World" (1897). During this time he also collaborated in complete editions of the works of Arthur Schopenhauer and the writer Jean Paul and wrote numerous articles for various journals.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: In 1891, Steiner received a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Rostock, for his dissertation discussing


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: Fichte's concept of the ego, submitted to , whose "Seven Books of Platonism" Steiner esteemed. Steiner's dissertation was later published in expanded form as "Truth and Knowledge: Prelude to a Philosophy of Freedom", with a dedication to Eduard von Hartmann. Two years later, in 1894, he published "Die Philosophie der Freiheit" (The Philosophy of Freedom "or" The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, the latter being Steiner's preferred English title), an exploration of epistemology and ethics that suggested a way for humans to become spiritually free beings. Steiner later spoke of this book as containing implicitly, in philosophical form, the entire content of what he later developed explicitly as anthroposophy.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: In 1896, Steiner declined an offer from Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche to help organize the Nietzsche archive in Naumburg. Her brother, Friedrich Nietzsche, was by that time "non compos mentis". Förster-Nietzsche introduced Steiner into the presence of the catatonic philosopher; Steiner, deeply moved, subsequently wrote the book "Friedrich Nietzsche, Fighter for Freedom". Steiner later related that:


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: My first acquaintance with Nietzsche's writings belongs to the year 1889. Previous to that I had never read a line of his. Upon the substance of my ideas as these find expression in "The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity", Nietzsche's thought had not the least influence...Nietzsche's ideas of the 'eternal recurrence' and of 'Übermensch' remained long in my mind. For in these was reflected that which a personality must feel concerning the evolution and essential being of humanity when this personality is kept back from grasping the spiritual world by the restricted thought in the philosophy of nature characterizing the end of the 19th century...What attracted me particularly was that one could read Nietzsche without coming upon anything which strove to make the reader a 'dependent' of Nietzsche's.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: In 1897, Steiner left the Weimar archives and moved to Berlin. He became part owner of, chief editor of, and an active contributor to the literary journal "Magazin für Literatur", where he hoped to find a readership sympathetic to his philosophy. Many subscribers were alienated by Steiner's unpopular support of Émile Zola in the Dreyfus Affair and the journal lost more subscribers when Steiner published extracts from his correspondence with anarchist John Henry Mackay. Dissatisfaction with his editorial style eventually led to his departure from the magazine. In 1899, Steiner married Anna Eunicke; the couple separated several years later. Anna died in 1911.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: In 1899, Steiner published an article, "Goethe's Secret Revelation", discussing the esoteric nature of Goethe's fairy tale "The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily". This article led to an invitation by the Count and Countess Brockdorff to speak to a gathering of Theosophists on the subject of Nietzsche. Steiner continued speaking regularly to the members of the Theosophical Society, becoming the head of its newly constituted German section in 1902 without ever formally joining the society. It was also in connection with this society that Steiner met and worked with Marie von Sivers, who became his second wife in 1914. By 1904, Steiner was appointed by Annie Besant to be leader of the Theosophical "Esoteric Society" for Germany and Austria. In 1904, Eliza, the wife of Helmuth von Moltke the Younger, became one of his favourite scholars. Through Eliza, Steiner met Helmuth, who served as the Chief of the German General Staff from 1906 to 1914.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: In contrast to mainstream Theosophy, Steiner sought to build a Western approach to spirituality based on the philosophical and mystical traditions of European culture. The German Section of the Theosophical Society grew rapidly under Steiner's leadership as he lectured throughout much of Europe on his spiritual science. During this period, Steiner maintained an original approach, replacing Madame Blavatsky's terminology with his own, and basing his spiritual research and teachings upon the Western esoteric and philosophical tradition. This and other differences, in particular Steiner's vocal rejection of Leadbeater and Besant's claim that Jiddu Krishnamurti was the vehicle of a new "Maitreya", or world teacher, led to a formal split in 1912–13, when Steiner and the majority of members of the German section of the Theosophical Society broke off to form a new group, the Anthroposophical Society. Steiner took the name "Anthroposophy" from the title of a work of the Austrian philosopher Robert von Zimmermann, published in Vienna in 1856. Despite his departure from the Theosophical Society, Steiner maintained his interest in Theosophy throughout his life.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: The Anthroposophical Society grew rapidly. Fueled by a need to find an artistic home for their yearly conferences, which included performances of plays written by Edouard Schuré and Steiner, the decision was made to build a theater and organizational center. In 1913, construction began on the first Goetheanum building, in Dornach, Switzerland. The building, designed by Steiner, was built to a significant part by volunteers. Steiner moved from Berlin to Dornach in 1913 and lived there to the end of his life.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: Steiner's lecture activity expanded enormously with the end of the war. Most importantly, from 1919 on Steiner began to work with other members of the society to found numerous practical institutions and activities, including the first Waldorf school, founded that year in Stuttgart, Germany. On New Year's Eve, 1922–1923, the Goetheanum burned to the ground; contemporary police reports indicate arson as the probable cause. Steiner immediately began work designing a second Goetheanum building - this time made of concrete instead of wood - which was completed in 1928, three years after his death.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: At a "Foundation Meeting" for members held at the Dornach center during Christmas 1923, Steiner founded the School of Spiritual Science. This school, which was led by Steiner, initially had sections for general anthroposophy, education, medicine, performing arts (eurythmy, speech, drama and music), the literary arts and humanities, mathematics, astronomy, science, and visual arts. Later sections were added for the social sciences, youth and agriculture. The School of Spiritual Science included meditative exercises given by Steiner.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: Steiner became a well-known and controversial public figure during and after World War I. In response to the catastrophic situation in post-war Germany, he proposed extensive social reforms through the establishment of a Threefold Social Order in which the cultural, political and economic realms would be largely independent. Steiner argued that a fusion of the three realms had created the inflexibility that had led to catastrophes such as World War I. In connection with this, he promoted a radical solution in the disputed area of Upper Silesia, claimed by both Poland and Germany. His suggestion that this area be granted at least provisional independence led to his being publicly accused of being a traitor to Germany.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: Steiner opposed Wilson's proposal to create new European nations based around ethnic groups, which he saw as opening the door to rampant nationalism. Steiner proposed, as an alternative:


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: The National Socialist German Workers Party gained strength in Germany after the First World War. In 1919, a political theorist of this movement, Dietrich Eckart, attacked Steiner and suggested that he was a Jew. In 1921, Adolf Hitler attacked Steiner on many fronts, including accusations that he was a tool of the Jews, while other nationalist extremists in Germany called for a "war against Steiner". That same year, Steiner warned against the disastrous effects it would have for Central Europe if the National Socialists came to power. In 1922 a lecture Steiner was giving in Munich was disrupted when stink bombs were let off and the lights switched out, while people rushed the stage apparently attempting to attack Steiner, who exited safely through a back door. Unable to guarantee his safety, Steiner's agents cancelled his next lecture tour. The 1923 Beer Hall Putsch in Munich led Steiner to give up his residence in Berlin, saying that if those responsible for the attempted coup (Hitler's Nazi party) came to power in Germany, it would no longer be possible for him to enter the country.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: From 1923 on, Steiner showed signs of increasing frailness and illness. He nonetheless continued to lecture widely, and even to travel; especially towards the end of this time, he was often giving two, three or even four lectures daily for courses taking place concurrently. Many of these lectures focused on practical areas of life such as education.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: Increasingly ill, he held his last lecture in late September, 1924. He continued work on his autobiography during the last months of his life; he died at Dornach on 30 March 1925.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: Steiner first began speaking publicly about spiritual experiences and phenomena in his 1899 lectures to the Theosophical Society. By 1901 he had begun to write about spiritual topics, initially in the form of discussions of historical figures such as the mystics of the Middle Ages. By 1904 he was expressing his own understanding of these themes in his essays and books, while continuing to refer to a wide variety of historical sources.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: Steiner aimed to apply his training in mathematics, science, and philosophy to produce rigorous, verifiable presentations of those experiences. He believed that through freely chosen ethical disciplines and meditative training, anyone could develop the ability to experience the spiritual world, including the higher nature of oneself and others. Steiner believed that such discipline and training would help a person to become a more moral, creative and free individual – free in the sense of being capable of actions motivated solely by love. His philosophical ideas were affected by Franz Brentano, with whom he had studied, as well as by Fichte, Hegel, Schelling, and Goethe's phenomenological approach to science.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: Steiner used the word "Geisteswissenschaft" (from Geist = mind or spirit, Wissenschaft = science), a term originally coined by Wilhelm Dilthey as a descriptor of the humanities, in a novel way, to describe a systematic ("scientific") approach to spirituality. Steiner used the term "Geisteswissenschaft", generally translated into English as "spiritual science," to describe a discipline treating the spirit as something actual and real, starting from the premise that it is possible for human beings to penetrate behind what is sense-perceptible. He proposed that psychology, history, and the humanities generally were based on the direct grasp of an ideal reality, and required close attention to the particular period and culture which provided the distinctive character of religious qualities in the course of the evolution of consciousness. In contrast to William James' pragmatic approach to religious and psychic experience, which emphasized its idiosyncratic character, Steiner focused on ways such experience can be rendered more intelligible and integrated into human life.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: Steiner proposed that an understanding of reincarnation and karma was necessary to understand psychology and that the form of external nature would be more comprehensible as a result of insight into the course of karma in the evolution of humanity. Beginning in 1910, he described aspects of karma relating to health, natural phenomena and free will, taking the position that a person is not bound by his or her karma, but can transcend this through actively taking hold of one's own nature and destiny. In an extensive series of lectures from February to September 1924, Steiner presented further research on successive reincarnations of various individuals and described the techniques he used for karma research.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: After the First World War, Steiner became active in a wide variety of cultural contexts. He founded a number of schools, the first of which was known as the Waldorf school, which later evolved into a worldwide school network. He also founded a system of organic agriculture, now known as biodynamic agriculture, which was one of the first forms of modern organic farming. His work in medicine is based in pseudoscience and occult ideas. Even though his medical ideas led to the development of a broad range of complementary medications and supportive artistic and biographic therapies, they are considered ineffective by the medical community. Numerous homes for children and adults with developmental disabilities based on his work (including those of the Camphill movement) are found in Africa, Europe, and North America. His paintings and drawings influenced Joseph Beuys and other modern artists. His two Goetheanum buildings are considered significant examples of modern architecture, and other anthroposophical architects have contributed thousands of buildings to the modern scene.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: Steiner's literary estate is broad. Steiner's writings, published in about forty volumes, include books, essays, four plays ('mystery dramas'), mantric verse, and an autobiography. His collected lectures, making up another approximately 300 volumes, discuss a wide range of themes. Steiner's drawings, chiefly illustrations done on blackboards during his lectures, are collected in a separate series of 28 volumes. Many publications have covered his architectural legacy and sculptural work.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: As a young man, Steiner was a private tutor and a lecturer on history for the Berlin "Arbeiterbildungsschule", an educational initiative for working class adults. Soon thereafter, he began to articulate his ideas on education in public lectures, culminating in a 1907 essay on "The Education of the Child" in which he described the major phases of child development which formed the foundation of his approach to education. His conception of education was influenced by the Herbartian pedagogy prominent in Europe during the late nineteenth century, though Steiner criticized Herbart for not sufficiently recognizing the importance of educating the will and feelings as well as the intellect.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: In 1919, Emil Molt invited him to lecture to his workers at the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart. Out of these lectures came the first Waldorf School. In 1922, Steiner presented these ideas at a conference called for this purpose in Oxford by Professor Millicent Mackenzie. He subsequently presented a teacher training course at Torquay in 1924 at an Anthroposophy Summer School organised by Eleanor Merry. The Oxford Conference and the Torquay teacher training led to the founding of the first Waldorf schools in Britain. During Steiner's lifetime, schools based on his educational principles were also founded in Hamburg, Essen, The Hague and London; there are now more than 1000 Waldorf schools worldwide.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: In 1924, a group of farmers concerned about the future of agriculture requested Steiner's help. Steiner responded with a lecture series on an ecological and sustainable approach to agriculture that increased soil fertility without the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Steiner's agricultural ideas promptly spread and were put into practice internationally and biodynamic agriculture is now practiced in Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Asia and Australasia.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: A central aspect of biodynamics is that the farm as a whole is seen as an organism, and therefore should be a largely self-sustaining system, producing its own manure and animal feed. Plant or animal disease is seen as a symptom of problems in the whole organism. Steiner also suggested timing such agricultural activities as sowing, weeding, and harvesting to utilize the influences on plant growth of the moon and planets; and the application of natural materials prepared in specific ways to the soil, compost, and crops, with the intention of engaging non-physical beings and elemental forces. He encouraged his listeners to verify such suggestions empirically, as he had not yet done.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: In a 2002 newspaper editorial, Peter Treue, agricultural researcher at the University of Kiel, characterized biodynamics as pseudoscience and argued that similar or equal results can be obtained using standard organic farming principles. He wrote that some biodynamic preparations more resemble alchemy or magic akin to geomancy.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: From the late 1910s, Steiner was working with doctors to create a new approach to medicine. In 1921, pharmacists and physicians gathered under Steiner's guidance to create a pharmaceutical company called "Weleda" which now distributes naturopathic medical and beauty products worldwide. At around the same time, Dr. Ita Wegman founded a first anthroposophic medical clinic (now the Ita Wegman Clinic) in Arlesheim. Anthroposophic medicine is practiced in some 80 countries. It is a form of alternative medicine based on pseudoscientific and occult notions.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: For a period after World War I, Steiner was active as a lecturer on social reform. A petition expressing his basic social ideas was widely circulated and signed by many cultural figures of the day, including Hermann Hesse.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: In Steiner's chief book on social reform, "Toward Social Renewal", he suggested that the cultural, political and economic spheres of society need to work together as consciously cooperating yet independent entities, each with a particular task: political institutions should be democratic, establish political equality and protect human rights; cultural institutions should nurture the free and unhindered development of science, art, education and religion; and economic institutions should enable producers, distributors, and consumers to cooperate voluntarily to provide efficiently for society's needs. He saw this division of responsibility as a vital task which would take up consciously the historical trend toward the mutual independence of these three realms. Steiner also gave suggestions for many specific social reforms.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: Steiner proposed that societal well-being fundamentally depends upon a relationship of mutuality between the individuals and the community as a whole:


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: Steiner designed 17 buildings, including the First and Second Goetheanums. These two buildings, built in Dornach, Switzerland, were intended to house significant theater spaces as well as a "school for spiritual science". Three of Steiner's buildings have been listed amongst the most significant works of modern architecture.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: His primary sculptural work is "The Representative of Humanity" (1922), a nine-meter high wood sculpture executed as a joint project with the sculptor Edith Maryon. This was intended to be placed in the first Goetheanum. It shows a central human figure, the "Representative of Humanity," holding a balance between opposing tendencies of expansion and contraction personified as the beings of Lucifer and Ahriman. It was intended to show, in conscious contrast to Michelangelo's "Last Judgment", Christ as mute and impersonal such that the beings that approach him must judge themselves. The sculpture is now on permanent display at the Goetheanum.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: Steiner's blackboard drawings were unique at the time and almost certainly not originally intended as art works. Joseph Beuys' work, itself heavily influenced by Steiner, has led to the modern understanding of Steiner's drawings as artistic objects.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: Steiner wrote four mystery plays between 1909 and 1913: "The Portal of Initiation", "The Souls' Probation", "The Guardian of the Threshold" and "The Soul's Awakening", modeled on the esoteric dramas of Edouard Schuré, Maurice Maeterlinck, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Steiner's plays continue to be performed by anthroposophical groups in various countries, most notably (in the original German) in Dornach, Switzerland and (in English translation) in Spring Valley, New York and in Stroud and Stourbridge in the U.K.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: In collaboration with Marie von Sivers, Steiner also founded a new approach to acting, storytelling, and the recitation of poetry. His last public lecture course, given in 1924, was on speech and drama. The Russian actor, director, and acting coach Michael Chekhov based significant aspects of his method of acting on Steiner's work.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: Together with Marie von Sivers, Rudolf Steiner also developed the art of eurythmy, sometimes referred to as "visible speech and song". According to the principles of eurythmy, there are archetypal movements or gestures that correspond to every aspect of speech – the sounds (or phonemes), the rhythms, and the grammatical function – to every "soul quality" – joy, despair, tenderness, etc. – and to every aspect of music – tones, intervals, rhythms, and harmonies.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: Goethean science is not science, but pseudoscience. According to Dan Dugan, Steiner was a champion of the following pseudoscientific claims:


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: In his commentaries on Goethe's scientific works, written between 1884 and 1897, Steiner presented Goethe's approach to science as essentially phenomenological in nature, rather than theory or model-based. He developed this conception further in several books, "The Theory of Knowledge Implicit in Goethe's World-Conception" (1886) and "Goethe's Conception of the World" (1897), particularly emphasizing the transformation in Goethe's approach from the physical sciences, where experiment played the primary role, to plant biology, where both accurate perception and imagination were required to find the biological archetypes ("Urpflanze"). He postulated that Goethe had sought, but been unable to fully find, the further transformation in scientific thinking necessary to properly interpret and understand the animal kingdom. Steiner emphasized the role of evolutionary thinking in Goethe's discovery of the intermaxillary bone in human beings; Goethe expected human anatomy to be an evolutionary transformation of animal anatomy. Steiner defended Goethe's qualitative description of color as arising synthetically from the polarity of light and darkness, in contrast to Newton's particle-based and analytic conception.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: Steiner approached the philosophical questions of knowledge and freedom in two stages. In his dissertation, published in expanded form in 1892 as "Truth and Knowledge", Steiner suggests that there is an inconsistency between Kant's philosophy, which posits that all knowledge is a representation of an essential verity inaccessible to human consciousness, and modern science, which assumes that all influences can be found in the sensory and mental world to which we have access. Steiner considered Kant's philosophy of an inaccessible beyond ("Jenseits-Philosophy") a stumbling block in achieving a satisfying philosophical viewpoint.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: Steiner postulates that the world is essentially an indivisible unity, but that our consciousness divides it into the sense-perceptible appearance, on the one hand, and the formal nature accessible to our thinking, on the other. He sees in thinking itself an element that can be strengthened and deepened sufficiently to penetrate all that our senses do not reveal to us. Steiner thus considered what appears to human experience as a division between the spiritual and natural worlds to be a conditioned result of the structure of our consciousness, which separates perception and thinking. These two faculties give us not two worlds, but two complementary views of the same world; neither has primacy and the two together are necessary and sufficient to arrive at a complete understanding of the world. In thinking about perception (the path of natural science) and perceiving the process of thinking (the path of spiritual training), it is possible to discover a hidden inner unity between the two poles of our experience. Truth, for Steiner, is paradoxically both an objective discovery and yet "a free creation of the human spirit, that never would exist at all if we did not generate it ourselves. The task of understanding is not to replicate in conceptual form something that already exists, but rather to create a wholly new realm, that together with the world given to our senses constitutes the fullness of reality."


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: In "The Philosophy of Freedom", Steiner further explores potentials within thinking: freedom, he suggests, can only be approached gradually with the aid of the creative activity of thinking. Thinking can be a free deed; in addition, it can liberate our will from its subservience to our instincts and drives. Free deeds, he suggests, are those for which we are fully conscious of the motive for our action; freedom is the spiritual activity of penetrating with consciousness our own nature and that of the world, and the real activity of acting in full consciousness. This includes overcoming influences of both heredity and environment: "To be free is to be capable of thinking one's own thoughts – not the thoughts merely of the body, or of society, but thoughts generated by one's deepest, most original, most essential and spiritual self, one's individuality."


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: Steiner affirms Darwin's and Haeckel's evolutionary perspectives but extended this beyond its materialistic consequences; he sees human consciousness, indeed, all human culture, as a product of natural evolution that transcends itself. For Steiner, nature becomes self-conscious in the human being. Steiner's description of the nature of human consciousness thus closely parallels that of Solovyov.


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: In his earliest works, Steiner already spoke of the "natural and spiritual worlds" as a unity. From 1900 on, he began lecturing about concrete details of the spiritual world(s), culminating in the publication in 1904 of the first of several systematic presentations, his "Theosophy: An Introduction to the Spiritual Processes in Human Life and in the Cosmos". As a starting point for the book Steiner took a quotation from Goethe, describing the method of natural scientific observation, while in the Preface he made clear that the line of thought taken in this book led to the same goal as that in his earlier work, "The Philosophy of Freedom".


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: In the years 1903–1908 Steiner maintained the magazine "Lucifer-Gnosis" and published in it essays on topics such as initiation, reincarnation and karma, and knowledge of the supernatural world. Some of these were later collected and published as books, such as "How to Know Higher Worlds" (1904–5) and "Cosmic Memory". The book "An Outline of Esoteric Science" was published in 1910. Important themes include:


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: Steiner emphasized that there is an objective natural and spiritual world that can be known, and that perceptions of the spiritual world and incorporeal beings are, under conditions of training comparable to that required for the natural sciences, including self-discipline, replicable by multiple observers. It is on this basis that spiritual science is possible, with radically different epistemological foundations than those of natural science. He believed that natural science was correct in its methods but one-sided for exclusively focusing on sensory phenomena, while mysticism was vague in its methods, though seeking to explore the inner and spiritual life. Anthroposophy was meant to apply the systematic methods of the former to the content of the latter


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: For Steiner, the cosmos is permeated and continually transformed by the creative activity of non-physical processes and spiritual beings. For the human being to become conscious of the objective reality of these processes and beings, it is necessary to creatively enact and reenact, within, their creative activity. Thus objective spiritual knowledge always entails creative inner activity. Steiner articulated three stages of any creative deed:


title: Rudolf Steiner

text: Steiner termed his work from this period onwards "Anthroposophy". He emphasized that the spiritual path he articulated builds upon and supports individual freedom and independent judgment; for the results of spiritual research to be appropriately presented in a modern context they must be in a form accessible to logical understanding, so that those who do not have access to the spiritual experiences underlying anthroposophical research can make independent evaluations of the latter's results. Spiritual training is to support what Steiner considered the overall purpose of human evolution, the development of the mutually interdependent qualities of love and freedom.