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Edith Stein: Atheist, Philosopher, and Saint

Edith Stein: Atheist, Philosopher, and Saint. An extremely quick look at the phenomenology of Edith Stein March 3, 2003 St. Mary’s GSYP Tihamer “Tee” Toth-Fejel. Contents. Why Philosophy? Why Phenomenology? Ideas have consequences Phenomenology Why is Stein’s Work Important?

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Edith Stein: Atheist, Philosopher, and Saint

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  1. Edith Stein: Atheist, Philosopher, and Saint An extremely quick look at the phenomenology of Edith Stein March 3, 2003 St. Mary’s GSYP Tihamer “Tee” Toth-Fejel

  2. Contents • Why Philosophy? • Why Phenomenology? • Ideas have consequences • Phenomenology • Why is Stein’s Work Important? • Three major phases of Stein’s work: • Phenomenology of Edmund Husserl • The Problem of Empathy and Personhood • On the State and Nazism • Scholasticism of Thomas Aquinas • Finite and Eternal Being • Mysticism of St. John of the Cross • The Science of the Cross

  3. Why Philosophy? • Philosophy means Love of Wisdom. • Edith’s life was a pursuit of Objective Truth. • Catholic tradition: philosophy helps us understand God. • Old Testament • New Testament • Church Fathers • “Whoever seeks truth is seeking God whether they know it or not.” • Ideas have consequences - especially for Edith Stein.

  4. Why Phenomenology? • University of Breslau - mechanistic point of view. • Husserl’s Logical Investigations • Edmund Husserl - developed phenomenology to combat: • Relativism - rejects objective truth. • Skepticism – rejects certainty of knowing objective truth. • Positivism – rejects all objective truth except empirical facts. • Historicism - truth is relative to historical surroundings. Edith wanted to become a doctor to heal broken hearts, hearts that are broken by a broken world.

  5. Ideas have consequences Husserl Stein Heidegger Scholastic Saint Existentialist Nazi

  6. Phenomenology • Responses to Descartes: • Realism – the world is independently real, as thing and essence • Materialism – the mind is an illusion; only material world is real • Idealism – material world is illusion; only spiritual world is real. • Phenomenology avoids the issue by “bracketing” • Direct investigation of phenomena as consciously experienced. • How is the intended object constituted in our experience? • Our own conscious experience gives us direct means • Phenomenology is the science that makes a bridge between nature and the outside world, and our personal subjective, immediate experience.

  7. Why is Stein’s Work Important? • Psychology • Truth and the Meaning of Life • 20th Century “Why should we not commit suicide?” • 21st Century “Why should we ever leave a holodeck?” • Personhood • Moore’s Law – By 2020, your desktop computer may have the raw processing power of a human brain. • Artificial Intelligence – Will your desktop in 2040 be a person, or a zombie, or a god? • Community, Nation, and Race • Speciation and the Master Race

  8. Three major phases of Stein’s work Stein’s fierce interest in Truth led to three phases: • Pre-Baptismal Phenomenology ofEdmund Husserl: Using empathy as a tool, discovering personhood - as individual and as member of society • Scholasticism of Thomas Aquinas: Investigations into the meaning of being. • Mysticism of St. John of the Cross: “Natural science” would overwhelm “human science”, resulting in terrible events that could only be overcome by “the science of the cross”

  9. Pre-Baptismal Phenomenology:“The Problem of Empathy” • Why is Empathy a problem? • How do we constitute objects of consciousness? • How do we know that others exist? • Perception can be fooled by illusion, while reasoning can make errors, but insight can be directly perceived.

  10. Pre-Baptismal Phenomenology: Personhood Value World • Physical level interfaces with matter and energy; cause and effect. • Personal level gives and receives meaning. • Sentience (perceptions) • Intelligence (mental acts) personal sensate mental physical Physical World

  11. Pre-Baptismal Phenomenology:Community, Nation, and Race • Personhood needs community and other social structures. • The Nation-State is a community's tool, devised to fill values. • It is not: • big person aggregated out of little people (Hobbes) • personality of higher order (Husserl) • body of collective personality (Scheler) • People in a territory intentionally coalesce into one people • Race arises from adaptive strategies • Racial expression is never exclusive or opaque; a motivating structure for openness and cultural productivity. • Hate of racial differences blocks that which makes you human. • Stein wrote “On the State” in 1921, a decade before National Socialism proposed a very different account of the status of the state and its relation to race.

  12. Scholastic Phase • 1921 St. Teresa of Avila’s The Book of her Life • January 1, 1922 Baptised • 1925 Translated Disputed Questions about Truth • 1929 Comparison of Husserl’s Phenomenology and the Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas • Finite and Eternal Being: Aquinas from a phenomenological point of view • “Written by a beginner for beginners” • Beings with finite existence find their ultimate destiny in the eternal Divine Being.

  13. Mystical Phase • St. John of the Cross - Spanish mystic • What is Mysticism? • 400 year anniversary of St. John • “A science of the cross can be gained only when one comes to feel the cross radically.” • What is a “science” of the cross? • Three stages of mystical union • The "dark night of the soul" • Satan’s power • Spiritual marriage with God

  14. PostScript • March 3, 2003 (Monday) at 5:40pm, when I was still at work, about to run through my Edith Stein talk for the 3rd (and final) time, I still didn't have an ending. And I was too stressed to think of one, because the first two times I had practiced my talk, it had taken 1.5 hours both times (for a half hour presentation), and I was concentrating on what to cut. • So just before I practiced going through my PowerPoint presentation, I thought, "Edith, if you're really a saint, please give me an ending when I get to the end of the last slide". And I started giving the talk aloud in the empty conference room. • A half hour later, when I got to the end of the presentation, she answered my prayer - like a ton of bricks. It was *so* obvious, and I kicked myself for being so dense for not thinking of it earlier. I thanked her quickly as I threw my laptop and the projector into their respective cases, sprinted to my car, and broke land speed records to get to St. Mary's in time to set up at 6:45 for the 7:00 pm presentation. • I went through the talk quite easily – after all my work, I knew the material quite well, since I had been working on it for months. When I neared the end of my talk, all of a sudden I realized what the implications of the ending were. It was rather difficult to for me to finish, because I was trying really hard not to weep – I finally realized what the conclusion of my talk really meant. The final words of my talk were as follows: • “All of Edith Stein’s work on the Science of the Cross impels her to speak of the glory of resurrection that the soul shares, through a unitive contemplation of God. But one cannot share in the resurrection without the suffering of a crucifixion. In the summer of 1942, the Dutch bishops formally denounced the anti-Semitic policies of the Nazis. In retaliation, the Nazis arrested all Jewish born Catholics, including Edith and her sister Rosa. Rosa became disoriented, and Edith gently said to her, “Come, let us go for our people.” That evening, as the nuns found the manuscript of this study lying open in her room, Edith knew that she was about to bear her own cross – and she was willing. Would it be that, when our time comes, we are willing too.” • Did the fact that the end popped into my head when I asked for it a coincidence, or was it a genuine message from St. Teresa of the Cross? • Being a doubting Thomas and almost minoring in psychology, I'd say that my subconscious came through under stress. Being a good phenomenologist like Teresa, I can't say for sure - all I can do is examine the phenomenon, and like the science in the "science of the cross", see if it makes a difference in my life.

  15. Questions Edith Stein was killed because of her Jewish background, so how can she be considered a Catholic martyr? How did Edith and her family work to improve Jewish/Catholic relationships? How do we as individual people view Jewish/Catholic issues? What are those issues? What can we as Catholics learn from studying the lives of Saints? Of the three phases of Stein’s work, which one appeals to you the most? How did Stein see the danger of Nazism a full decade before anyone else did? In philosophical terms, a zombie is an entity that behaves like us and may even share our neural and functional organization – but without conscious experiences. Stein would have some strong opinions on this subject, but in conflicting directions. What do you think these opinions would be? Given that Edith Stein was such an advocate of women’s rights, and such a pious and obedient Catholic nun who desired to be unified with the suffering of the cross, what would she have said, from her philosophical viewpoint, about women priests? Why would Edith Stein ever leave a holodeck? Why would you?

  16. Ave Maria Theater to perform Edith Stein The Ave Maria College Theater Group production of Edith Stein by Arthur Giron. 8 p.m., April 9-12 in the Academic Building of Ave Maria College. For more inforrmation, kate.ernsting@avemaria.edu or 734-337-4651 The play treats the life and heroic death of Edith Stein, a Jewish convert to Catholicism who became a Carmelite nun before she was taken from her convent to die with fellow Jews at Auschwitz. Under her professed name, Sr. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Stein was canonized by the Catholic Church in 1998, a move that was opposed by some prominent Jews because the new saint is also considered to be a martyr of the Shoah. The play does not duck the controversy caused by Stein being recognized as a martyr by both Catholics and Jews. Its opening scene takes place at Carmelite convent near Auschwitz that has been named after Stein. Saul Weismann of the International Holocaust Committee meets with the prioress to demand that the name and convent be removed. "Do you know the pain you are causing? ... The presence of the Cross at the gates of Auschwitz is an outrage," he tells her. The prioress replies, "We are here to bear the weight of the cross." The two discuss Stein's life in an attempt to resolve the huge rift in their positions; these glimpses produce the action of the play. Ave Maria College and the Association of Hebrew Catholics have co-sponsored a playwriting contest for students to write a one-act play based on Edith Stein's life. The Association of Hebrew Catholics will present an award to the student who writes the winning play. Open discussion will follow a public reading of the winning student play at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 13 in the college auditorium.

  17. More Info • http://www.geometry.net/philosophers/stein_edith.php • http://eprints.may.ie/archive/00000027/02/CONSTtom.pdf • http://www.helpfellowship.org/Edith/Edith_Stein_1998.htm • http://www.helpfellowship.org/Edith_Stein_now_a_saint.htm • http://www.spiritualitytoday.org/spir2day/833524oben.html • http://www.nd.edu/~colldev/subjects/catholic/personalconn.html • http://jewel.morgan.edu/~sawicki/steinstuff.html • http://www.karmel.at/ics/edith/stein.html • http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Oct1998/feature2.asp • http://www.holycross.edu/departments/library/website/hiatt/estein.htm

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