The very first article W.J. Stein wrote for the first issue of his journal “The Present Age” was on Daniel Nicol Dunlop (D.N.D.). Originally published in December 1935, “An appreciation of D.N. Dunlop” is republished on our website because in a real sense this article traces the journal’s origins back to its roots: D.N.D. As W.J. Stein explains in the first paragraph: “The origin of this journal was Mr. D.N. Dunlops idea, and the title ”The Present Age” was his choice. He wanted me to create this journal and he hoped to write the introductory article.”
To complement W.J. Stein’s article, we would like to note a few aspects of D.N.D.’s being that seem relevant for today. All aspects appear to be the consequence of a universal and highly independent personality, grounded in the realities of daily life.
D.N.D.’s far-sighted impulse of the first World Power Conference in 1924 – which still exists today as the World Energy Council – shows, among other things, how he managed to meaningfully connect with humans that are not in any way connected with Anthroposophy. He seemed to be able to go beyond the institution and name Anthroposophy, while at the same time nobody would have difficulties arguing that he truly lived anthroposophy in a most eminent way.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that at this conference he united about 2000 delegates from 40 different countries, including from Russia and Germany. It seems that with this conference, D.N.D. was able to temporarily paralyze prevailing but dangerously narrow-minded political ideologies, usually some form of nationalism, which would prove fatal only a few years later. Instead, he united the universal interests of humanity on energy production and technology by bringing together scientists and engineers to share information and foster collaboration. It seems to us that this event is inherently based on the idea that political ideology or economic interests should not hamper individual (scientific) contributions towards the progress of humanity.
Another aspect we would like to emphasize briefly is his ability to detect and foster the best in people. Eleanor C. Merry, a close friend of his, describes his method as helping people to “stand on their own feet.” This method was revealed in little remarks, in seemingly trivial incidents, and so on, which with hindsight turned out to be significant occurrences for those in question.
A third aspect was his ability to exemplify and contextualize certain ideas with practical experience, thereby grounding them. Usually after a lecture on spiritual content, D.N.D. would give a summary by adding daily-life examples, in a sense making the content much more graspable. One can imagine that this ability of giving ideas a ‘reality-check’ also helped him in no insignificant way to organize the World Power Conference.
As can be sensed from these few examples, his being was universal, but not divorced from reality. D.N.D. and his impulses are transcending beyond Anthroposophy vs. non-Anthroposophy, transcending beyond different political ideologies. At the same time, he was extremely skillful in day-to-day affairs. The World Power Conference is one; his general ability to summarize and ground hovering ideas is another example. Both are qualities that, in the opinion of the authors, will prove inevitable in the next decades, especially for those that will have some decision-making power in the realm of politics or the economy.
Please find W.J. Stein’s article here.
Note: It should be clear that our introduction is no attempt in being an exhaustive or complete description. We beg the reader for indulgence as we can only try to highlight some aspects of such a rich and important life. We also warmly invite your contributions in the form of comments. An excellent biography of D.N.D. is provided by Thomas Meyer’s D.N. Dunlop A Man of our Time, published by Temple Lodge.