"Our Lord first served." (St. Joan of Arc)
August 9 is the Feast Day of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, known familiarly in philosophical circles as Edith Stein. She was a German Jewish philosopher who studied under Edmund Husserl, the father of modern day Phenomenology. She later converted to the Catholic Faith, joined the Discalced Carmelite Order (the same as St. Thérèse… Continue reading St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) – German Jewish Philosopher and Saint
If you gripe and complain about why you should follow religious rules and dogmas, you will never get where your heart tells you that you need to go. Obedience will never make sense to you, and you will convince yourself that God would never so stifle your spiritual life as to make your follow rules… Continue reading Obedience
The call of the heart (“There is something over there...”). The desire to know that which calls the heart (“...what is it?”). The “step-by-step” understanding of “what is it?” in our hearts. The gradual fullness of Being as we approach yet never fully grasp it. The surety that we are not lost. “There is something… Continue reading “Is this not the point of all we have said about all ‘having’ coming down to ‘being’?”
Here is the pivot in Knowledge and Faith that caught me by surprise, but delightfully so. I first thought that the book's sections were more or less a random collection of sundry topics. I now see the book is written "step by step" (one of Stein's favorite metaphors) leading to an end. The pivot herein… Continue reading “Hierarchy is not only an order of being but also an order of knowing.” – Edith Stein
Vladimir Soloviev and Edith Stein (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) strike a chord of similarity when it comes to their respective missions in life. Both philosophers saw their mission as being a reconciliation of systems, and this is what makes their works so attractive to me. They strove to reconcile whole systems, not to… Continue reading Vladimir Soloviev and Edith Stein
By now we are familiar with Edith Stein’s “step-by-step” approach (a phrase she often uses). She is very methodical in her reconciliation of Phenomenology with Scholasticism. It is important to demonstrate how they connect and where the questions and difficulties remain. Stein now introduces a resonating question, a second beacon of light by which we… Continue reading “There is something over there – what is it?”
The philosophical foundation for my work can be summarized as a Platonic Augustinian understanding of Edith Stein’s Phenomenological Thomism as outlined in her books Potency and Act and Knowledge and Faith. This includes particularly the concepts of Ideals (Forms), Spirit, Matter, and Nature. Using categories from the material sciences, Stein further breaks down philosophical nature… Continue reading A summary of Edith Stein’s Potency and Act (Part 2)
Edith Stein’s path thus far through the first thirty percent of Potency and Act can be modeled as follows. This is a summary of and outline for the development of her thesis to this point. We must keep in mind that Edith was a Phenomenologist, mentored under the great Edmund Husserl, the father of… Continue reading Summary of Edith Stein’s Potency and Act (Part 1)
"In this letter Stein gives us a first reason why she desired to be clear about the philosophical mission of her life: all her writings were leading up to 'laying the foundations of education.'" Edith Stein. Potency and Act (The Collected Works of Edith Stein) (Kindle Locations 1071-1072). Kindle Edition. The statement above from the… Continue reading “Step by Step” with Edith Stein
One of the many philosophical rushing, whitewater rapids Edith Stein helped me cross safely is that of reconciling Thomas Aquinas with my more Platonized (Augustinian) worldview. Is not Thomas the Angelic Doctor who baptized Aristotle, notably in his Summa Theologica? Should Aristotelianism now supersede Platonism as the natural paradigm through which we understand the supernatural?… Continue reading Edith Stein – reconciling Phenomenology with Thomas Aquinas
