The Necessary Problem of Edith Stein
Rubinson, Francesca L.
2020
- Edith Stein - born to a German family in 1891 - charted an unusual spiritual journey, which sparked dialogue and controversy decades after her death. Stein was raised Jewish, declared herself an atheist as an adolescent, and became a brilliant intellectual, only the second woman to earn a doctorate in philosophy in German history. In 1921, Stein converted to Catholicism, though she continually ... read moreasserted her Jewish identity. Stein worked as a Catholic feminist lecturer and combatted Nazi ideology by writing her autobiography "Life in a Jewish Family." In the 1930s Stein joined the order of Carmelite nuns, living a cloistered, contemplative life. In the 1940s she fled Germany for Holland to escape the Nazi regime. But when the Nazis invaded Holland, Stein was deported to Auschwitz, where she was killed in a gas chamber on August 9, 1942. Stein’s writings and the story of the nun murdered in Auschwitz spread widely. In 1987 Stein was beatified as a martyr of the Church, and in 1998 was canonized as a Catholic saint. My thesis examines Stein’s dual faith identity, how she reconciled her belonging to the Jewish people and her status as a bride of Christ. I argue that she positioned herself as an interfaith intercessor, comparing herself to the Hebrew Bible’s Queen Esther. I also explore the controversy sparked by her sainthood in the 1980s and 1990s, looking closely at how Jewish and Catholic communities define martyrdom. Ultimately I ask, what does Edith Stein represent and how has she affected Jewish-Catholic dialogue?read less
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