Stein: Edith Stein

by Sarah R. Borden

Edith Stein was beatified in 1987 and canonized in 1998 but is still relatively unknown in the English-speaking world. She provides an example of a Christian thinker deeply engaged in the debates of her own day, and her work offers models and insights for addressing the questions of the twenty-first century.Sarah Borden presents an overview of St Edith Stein's life and thought, beginning with her biography. She then covers her early work in phenomenology, her political writings, her studies on women and women's education, as well her later turn to medieval metaphysics, and spiritual and religious texts. The final chapter covers the controversies surrounding Stein's beatification and canonization.Arranged by topic and proceeding largely in chronological order, the book is accessible and aimed at a general audience, although the material is presented in such a way as to be useful to specialists.

156 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2004

Reviews

[M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

For an introduction, it's an extremely infornative book that manages to explain philosophical and theological concepts quite clearly. This book is very recommendable on most grounds, although I don't think it's accurate to interpret that Edith Stein thought of change of sex as possible. The author backs this quote on an edition of Essays of Woman, which I hope to check in the German original as soon as I learn enough, because the statement is somewhat unclear:

"Although Stein considers the physical change of sex as a possibility, she nonetheless
insists on masculinity and femininity as two unchanging species.

Therefore, it appears that a better interpretation of her position is to see the masculine and feminine natures as residing first in the soul, not the body"

It's possible that she was referring to the case of female or male sex characteristics developed because of hermaphroditism or other disorders, since, as Borden notes, Stein did not make a sharp distinction between sex and gender, which is the feature of post WWII feminism, and strongly opposed the idea of some factions of the women's movement back then that denied female nature.


Bits like this are indeed, very interesting, concerning her study of the question of womanhood, and very relevant with the rise of things such as "male and female brains" proven by neuroscience:

"At a couple of points Stein criticizes German studies that tried toestablish the differences between the sexes through quantitative studies, looking at what occurred on average and calculating the frequency with which various traits appeared in men versus women.Such an approach does little to show whether these differences simplyreveal types, which are subject to change, or species, which are not. Inher investigations, Stein is interested in showing that the differencesare ones of species, not merely of types."

[Ian Clary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edith Stein was a remarkable person. Born in late-nineteenth-century Germany to a Jewish family, Stein grew up basically agnostic/atheistic. She studied phenomenology under Edmund Husserl at Gottingen and, after obtaining her PhD, she became his assistant. After stumbling upon Teresa of Avila's autobiography, Stein converted to Christianity (Catholicism) and would eventually become a Carmelite nun, joining the convent in Cologne. Due to the rise of Hitlerism, Stein moved to Echt, The Netherlands, to join the Carmelites there. She was eventually taken from Echt by the Nazis and died with hundreds of other Jewish Christians in Auschwitz. Even as a nun, she continued to write philosophical works, alongside others in spirituality, that have made a serious contribution to important topics in metaphysics and epistemology. Though a phenomenologist throughout her life, she was also very influenced by medieval thinkers like Thomas Aquinas (she even translated De Veritate into German for the first time); one of her most important essays is the comparison she drew between Husserl and Thomas.
What I find most appealing about her, and Sarah Borden's book does a great job at drawing this out, is that Stein was a beautiful human being. Deeply spiritual, humble, caring and devoted to God. When I read her works, I feel strangely drawn in by her story and her thought, so much that I wish I'd known her! Borden's introduction captures all of what is important about Stein: her life story, her philosophical depth, her spirituality, and the vexed question of her Jewish bloodline and Catholic faith. I really appreciated this book. While it's an introduction, it assumes a lot of knowledge, but it is accessible and I learned a lot. Looking forward to reading more Stein and more Borden!