Abstract
Edith Stein, in her philosophical thought, applies the poetic metaphor of the unfolding of an exquisite flower to explain how the individual soul, after blooming in its earthly homeland, is inserted into an eternal, imperishable wreath surrounded by other seemingly insignificant blossoms. To illustrate her point, she explains that whereas the superficial observer will see merely a throng of people in the rows of soldiers marching by, a mother or bride can discern him whom they were eagerly searching out in the crowd. “Their love divined” the mystery at the heart of his existence, fully known only by God. This vignette serves as a paradigm for the contemplative ethic that can be discerned in Stein’s philosophy. Empathy and freedom work together, and a contemplative space of the heart unfolds, as the center of the authentic nature of human being. Its status, whereby nature and grace work together, is the result of free choices made throughout a lifetime. Stein’s “ethics” is a relational freedom for the sake of this mystery, for the sake of God. “Ethics” and the practice of contemplative silence are two sides of the same coin, so to speak. This paper will explain the dynamics of empathy and freedom at work in Edith Stein’s thought; discuss the contemplative space of the heart; and discern the contemplative ethic at work in her philosophy. Contemporary applications of such an approach will be explored.
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Notes
- 1.
Stein (2002a).
- 2.
Ibid.
- 3.
Ibid.
- 4.
Ibid., 509.
- 5.
Ibid., 510.
- 6.
Stein (1989).
- 7.
The passing of understanding as a mode of knowledge to understanding as a mode of being occurs within language. Paul Ricoeur will take a long route through semantics and the theory of text, to avoid the Heideggerian short route of transforming hermeneutics into an ontology of understanding or an ontology of selfhood. Thus, in following Ricoeur’s hermeneutical theory, we would avoid an onto-theological program.
- 8.
Stein (2009).
- 9.
Ibid.
- 10.
Ibid.
- 11.
Stein, Finite and Eternal Being, 380.
- 12.
Stein, On the Problem of Empathy, 92.
- 13.
Ibid., 96.
- 14.
Ibid.
- 15.
Ibid., 110.
- 16.
Ibid., 111.
- 17.
Ibid., 112.
- 18.
Ibid.
- 19.
Ibid., 115.
- 20.
Ibid.
- 21.
Ibid., 116.
- 22.
Ibid.
- 23.
Ibid.
- 24.
Ibid.
- 25.
Ibid., 117–118.
- 26.
Stein, Finite and Eternal Being, 514.
- 27.
Ibid., 343.
- 28.
Ibid., 370.
- 29.
Ibid., 371.
- 30.
Ibid., 372.
- 31.
Ibid.
- 32.
Ibid.
- 33.
Stein (2002b).
- 34.
Ibid.
- 35.
Stein (2000).
- 36.
Stein, Finite and Eternal Being, 430.
- 37.
Edith Stein, Essays on Woman, Revised Second Edition, in The Collected Works of Edith Stein, vol. 9, trans. Freda Mary Oben (Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 1996), 98.
- 38.
Stein (2014).
- 39.
Ibid., 90–91.
- 40.
- 41.
Stein, Essays on Woman, 162.
- 42.
Ibid., 85.
- 43.
Stein, Finite and Eternal Being, 405.
- 44.
Ibid., 399.
- 45.
Ibid., 400.
- 46.
Ibid.
- 47.
Stein, Essays on Woman, 194.
- 48.
Ibid., 195.
- 49.
Stein, Finite and Eternal Being, 526.
- 50.
Ibid., 526–27.
- 51.
Stein (1992).
- 52.
Ibid.
- 53.
Stein, The Science of the Cross, 165.
- 54.
Ibid.
- 55.
Ibid., 166.
- 56.
Ibid., 179.
- 57.
Stein (1993).
- 58.
Ibid., 286.
- 59.
Ibid., 105.
- 60.
Stein, Essays on Woman, 59.
- 61.
Ibid., 60.
- 62.
Ibid.
- 63.
Ibid., 10.
- 64.
Stein, Finite and Eternal Being, 438.
- 65.
Ibid., 439.
- 66.
Ibid.
- 67.
Ibid.
- 68.
Ibid.
- 69.
Ibid., 504.
- 70.
Ibid., 505.
- 71.
Edith Stein, The Hidden Life: Essays, Meditations, Spiritual Texts, 100.
- 72.
Ibid., 16.
- 73.
Stein, Essays on Woman, 103.
- 74.
Ibid., 103–04.
- 75.
Ibid., 104.
- 76.
Stein, Self-Portrait in Letters, 1916–1942, 313.
- 77.
Ibid., 309.
- 78.
Ibid., 331.
- 79.
Stein, Philosophy of Psychology and the Humanities, 169.
- 80.
Ibid.
- 81.
Ibid., 170.
- 82.
Ibid.
- 83.
Edith Stein, An Investigation Concerning the State, in The Collected Works of Edith Stein, vol. 10, trans. and ed. Marianne Sawicki (Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 2006), 171.
- 84.
Stein, Essays on Woman, 259.
- 85.
Stein, Self-Portrait in Letters, 1916–1942, 54.
- 86.
Ibid., 68.
- 87.
Ibid., 77.
- 88.
Ibid., 91–92.
- 89.
Ibid., 110.
- 90.
Ibid., 74.
- 91.
Ibid., 120.
- 92.
See Francis (2018). Pope Francis, in his Apostolic Exhortation, explains in the section entitled “Discernment” how “the same solutions are not valid in all circumstances and what was useful in one context may not prove so in another”.
- 93.
Stein, Finite and Eternal Being, 505.
- 94.
Ibid., 510.
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Petersen, M.K. (2022). Love Divined: Discerning a Contemplative Ethic in the Philosophy of Edith Stein. In: Andrews, M.F., Calcagno, A. (eds) Ethics and Metaphysics in the Philosophy of Edith Stein. Women in the History of Philosophy and Sciences, vol 12. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91198-0_5
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