Articles

Edith Stein’s Theological Concept of Vocation as an Alternative to Heidegger’s Authenticity

Reed Frey, CO

Abstract

Building on the work of scholars who see the theological dimensions of Edith Stein’s work as important, Reed Frey helps advance a fuller understanding of her mature response to Heidegger, especially as captured both in the body of Finite and Eternal Being and in the appendix on Heidegger.  Whereas Heidegger’s ontology without God shapes his view and provides an ultimately unsatisfactory ideal for the person, Stein’s theocentric ontology shapes her concept of vocation and provides a more robust alternative.

Citations

Eleonore Stein, Finite and Eternal Being.

Stein, Finite and Eternal Being, 378–86 {402–9}

Charles Guignon, “Authenticity and the Question of Being,” in Heidegger, Authenticity and the Self: Themes from Division Two of Being and Time, ed. Denis McManus (Routledge, 2015), 13.

Thomas Gricoski, Being Unfolded: Edith Stein on the Meaning of Being (The Catholic University of America Press, 2020).

Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church: Lumen Gentium (Liberia Editrice Vaticana, 2011), 11.

Stein, “Martin Heidegger’s Philosophy of Existence,” 454, {482–83}

Edith Stein, “The Ethos of Women’s Professions,” in Essays on Woman, 43–58, at 49.

Edith Stein, “Martin Heidegger’s Philosophy of Existence,” published as an appendix to Finite and Eternal Being, 419 {446}.

Paul Gorner, Heidegger’s Being and Time: An Introduction (Cambridge University Press, 2007), 7.

Somogy Varga and Charles Guignon, “Authenticity,” in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Edward Zalta and Uri Nodelman (Summer 2023).

Aleksandra Szulc, “Die Kreuzeswissenschaft Edith Steins und Das Sein zum Tode bei Martin Heidegger: Der Versuch eines Vergleichs,” in The Hat and the Veil: The Phenomenology of Edith Stein / Hut und Schleier: Die Phänomenologie Edith Steins (Traugott Bautz GmbH, 2016).

Donald Wallenfang, Human and Divine Being: A Study on the Theological Anthropology of Edith Stein (Cascade Books, 2017), xxix.

Stein, Finite and Eternal Being, trans. Kurt Reinhardt (ICS, 2002), 504.

Edith Stein, “The Church, Woman, and Youth,” in Essays on Woman, 237–52, at 250.

Donald Wallenfang, “On Human Vocation,” chap. 1 in Human and Divine Being, 1–20.

Terrence C. Wright, “Edith Stein: Prayer and Interiority,” in The Phenomenology of Prayer, ed. Bruce Ellis Benson and Norman Wirzba (Fordham University Press, 2005), 139.

Edith Stein, The Hidden Life: Hagiographic Essays, Meditations, Spiritual Texts (ICS, 1992), 16.

André-A. Devaux, “L’idée de vocation dans la vie et dans la pensée d’Edith Stein,” Les Études Philosophiques 11, no. 3 (1956): 424.

Robert McNamara, The Personalism of Edith Stein: A Synthesis of Thomism and Phenomenology (The Catholic University of America Press, 2023).

Edith Stein, “Spirituality of the Christian Woman,” in Essays on Woman, 87–128, at 128.

Edgar C. Boedeker, “Individual and Community in Early Heidegger: Situating Das Man , the Man-Self, and Self-Ownership in Dasein’s Ontological Structure,” Inquiry 44, no. 1 (2001): 93.

Edith Stein, “The Separate Vocations of Man and Woman According to Nature and Grace,” in Essays on Woman, trans. Freda Mary Oben, 2nd ed. (ICS, 1996), 59–86, at 59.

Denis McManus, in Heidegger, Authenticity and the Self: Themes from Division Two of Being and Time, ed. Denis McManus (Routledge, 2015), 5, 7n7.

Stein, Hidden Life, 105.

Wallenfang, Human and Divine Being, 9

Lucy Gelber’s editorial introduction to Stein’s Essays on Woman, 2nd ed., 14–41.

Zum Problem der Einfühlung (Verlag Herder, 2008), available in English as On the Problem of Empathy, 3rd ed., trans. Waltraut Stein (ICS, 1989).

Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle, 16.

Sarah Borden Sharkey, Thine Own Self: Individuality in Edith’s Stein’s Later Writings (The Catholic University of America Press, 2010), 6.

Edith Stein’s Was ist der Mensch?: Theologische Anthropologie (Herder, 2005).

Christina Lamb, “Conscience: An Investigation in Steinian Philosophy in Relation to Bioethics,” Religions 12, no. 8 (July 22, 2021): 1–13, at 9.

Edith Stein, Potency and Act, trans. Walter Redmond (ICS, 2009), 18 {15}.

Edith Stein Werke edition of Stein’s texts

Potenz und Akt: Studien zu einer Philosophie des Seins (Verlag Herder, 2005).

Robert McNamara, “The Concept of Christian Philosophy in Edith Stein,” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 94, no. 2 (2020): 323–46.

Edith Stein Gesamtausgabe (ESGA), volume 11/12, Endliches und ewiges Sein: Versuch eines Aufsteigs zum Sinn des Seins (Herder, 2006).

Edith Stein, Finite and Eternal Being, xxxi.

Mette Lebech, “Edith Stein and Martin Heidegger: On the Meaning of Being,” in Listening to Edith Stein: Wisdom for a New Century, ed. Kathleen Haney (ICS, 2018), 214–16.

Martin Heidegger, Being and Time, ed. Dennis Schmidt, trans. Joan Stambaugh (1927; repr., State University of New York Press, 2010), 41.

Martin Heidegger, Sein und Zeit (1927; repr., Max Niemeyer Verlag Tübingen, 1967), 42.

John D. Caputo, “The Problem of Being in Heidegger and the Scholastics,” The Thomist: A Speculative Quarterly Review 41, no. 1 (1977): 62–91.

Peter J. Schulz, “Toward the Subjectivity of the Human Person: Edith Stein’s Contribution to the Theory of Identity,” trans. Christina Gschwandtner, American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 82, no. 1 (2008): 161–76.

James B. Reichmann, SJ, “Edith Stein, Thomas Aquinas, and the Principle of Individuation,” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 87, no. 1 (2013): 55–86.

Stein, Kreuzeswissenschaft. Studie über Joannes a Cruce (Herder, 2003), available in English as The Science of the Cross, trans. Josephine Koeppel (ICS, 2018).

Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle, trans. E. Allison Peers (Dover Publications, 2012).

Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD, and Otilio Rodriguez, OCD, trans., The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, rev. ed. (ICS, 1991).

Rowan Williams, Teresa of Avila (Continuum, 1991).

Ruth Burrows, OCD, Interior Castle Explored (Hidden Spring, 1982).

A. Katherine Grieb, “Teresa of Ávila: The Interior Castle,” Theology Today 62, no. 2 (2005): 230–34.

E. W. Trueman Dicken, “The Imagery of the Interior Castle,” Ephemerides Carmeliticae 21, no. 1–2 (1970): 198–218.

Mary C. Coelho, “St. Teresa of Avila’s Transformation of the Symbol of the Interior Castle,” Teresianum 38, no. 1 (1987): 109–25.

Edith Stein, Beiträge zur philosophischen Begründung der Psychologie und der Geisteswissenschaften (Verlag Herder, 2010), available in English as Philosophy of Psychology and the Humanities, trans. Mary Catherine Basehart and Marianne Sawicki (ICS, 2000).

Eine Untersuchung über den Staat (Herder, 2006), available in English as An Investigation Concerning the State, trans. Marianne Sawicki (ICS, 2006).

Ann W. Astell, “Saintly Mimesis, Contagion, and Empathy in the Thought of René Girard, Edith Stein, and Simone Weil,” Shofar 22, no. 2 (2004): 116–31.

Timothy Burns, “On Being a ‘We’: Edith Stein’s Contribution to the Intentionalism Debate,” Human Studies 38, no. 4 (2015): 529–47.

Elisa Magrì and Dermot Moran, eds., Empathy, Sociality, and Personhood: Essays on Edith Stein’s Phenomenological Investigations (Springer International, 2017), especially Timothy A. Burns, “From I to You to We: Empathy and Community in Edith Stein’s Phenomenology,” 127–43.

Eva Reyes-Gacitúa and Antonio Calcagno, eds., Edith Stein’s “An Investigation Concerning the State”: Sociality, Nationhood, Ethics (Springer International, 2020).

Aleksandra Szulc, “Stein and Heidegger: Two Phenomenologies,” Dialogue and Universalism 25, no. 3 (2015): 105–14.

James Orr, “Edith Stein’s Critique of Sociality in the Early Heidegger,” Neue Zeitschrift für Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie 55, no. 3 (2013): 379–96.

James Orr, “‘Being and Timelessness’: Edith Stein’s Critique of Heideggerian Temporality,” Modern Theology 30, no. 1 (2014): 114–31.

James Orr, “‘The Fullness of Life’: Death, Finitude, and Life-Philosophy in Edith Stein’s Critique of the Early Heidegger,” The Heythrop Journal 55, no. 4 (2014): 565–75.

George Heffernan, “Stein’s Critique of Heidegger on Temporality, Eternity, and Transcendence—With Special Attention to Conrad-Martius’s Contribution,” in Hedwig Conrad-Martius and Edith Stein: Philosophical Encounters and Divides, ed. Antonio Calcagno and Ronny Miron, Women in the History of Philosophy and Sciences (Springer International Publishing, 2022), 105–32.

Etelvina Pires Lopes Nunes, “Consciência e temporalidade em Edith Stein: Em diálogo com Heidegger,” Trans/Form/Ação 44, no. 1 (2021): 95–116.

José Reinaldo Felipe Martins Filho, “Martin Heidegger et Edith Stein: Deux voies pour l’être: Impressions de proximité et d’éloignement,” Heidegger Studies 36 (2020): 187–209.

Anthony Calcagno, “Abundance or Nothing? Edith Stein and Martin Heidegger on the Question of Being (Philosophical Reflections on Metaphysical Existence),” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 74, no. 2 (2000): 269–85.

Alasdair MacIntyre, Edith Stein: A Philosophical Prologue (Continuum, 2006).

Sarah Borden Sharkey, Edith Stein’s Finite and Eternal Being: A Companion (Lexington Books, 2023).

Robert McNamara, The Personalism of Edith Stein: A Synthesis of Thomism and Phenomenology (The Catholic University of America Press, 2023).

Edith Stein, Finite and Eternal Being: An Attempt to Ascend to the Meaning of Being, in Edith Stein: The Complete Works. Critical English Edition, vol. 12, ed. Andreas Uwe Müller, trans. Walter Redmond (ICS, 2023), 6 {7}.

Lidia Ripamonti, “Edith Stein’s Critique of Martin Heidegger; Background, Reasons, and Scope” (PhD diss., Anglia Ruskin University, 2013).

John H. Nota, “Edyta Stein i Martin Heidegger,” in Tajemnica Osoby Ludzkie. Antropologia Edyty Stein (Wydawnictwo Wrocławskiej Księgarni Archidiecezjalnej TUM, 1999).

Stein’s section on “The Meaning and Possibility of a Christian Philosophy,” in Finite and Eternal Being, 18–33 {20–36}.

Robert McNamara, “Human Individuality in Stein’s Mature Works,” in Edith Steins Herausforderung heutiger Anthropologie, ed. Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz and Mette Lebech (Be&Be, 2017), 124–39.

Lidia Ripamonti, “Being Thrown or Being Held in Existence? The Opposite Approaches to Finitude of Edith Stein and Martin Heidegger,” in Yearbook of the Irish Philosophical Society (Department of Philosophy of Maynooth University, 2008), 71–83.

Rafał Kazimierz Wilk, “On Human Being: A Dispute between Edith Stein and Martin Heidegger,” Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 10, no. 4 (2007): 104–19.