Edith Stein
Edith Stein
Full Name and Common Aliases
Edith Stein was born Hermanns Steins on October 12, 1891, in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland). She is commonly known as Saint Edith Stein.
Birth and Death Dates
Born: October 12, 1891
Died: August 9, 1942
Nationality and Profession(s)
Edith Stein was a German philosopher and Catholic nun. She was born into an Orthodox Jewish family but converted to Catholicism in 1922.
Early Life and Background
Stein grew up in a devoutly Jewish household with her parents, Hermann and Barbara Steins. Her father, a merchant, died when Edith was just eight years old, leaving her mother to raise her and her younger brother on her own. Stein's early life was marked by tragedy; she lost several siblings and experienced the emotional strain of living with a strict mother.
Major Accomplishments
Edith Stein earned her doctorate in philosophy from the University of Freiburg in 1917, where she studied under Edmund Husserl. She became one of the first women to earn a Ph.D. in philosophy from the university. Her academic work focused on the relationship between psychology and philosophy.
Notable Works or Actions
Stein's most notable contributions are her works on the phenomenology of consciousness and her philosophical analysis of the human condition. Some of her key concepts include:
The primacy of consciousness: Stein argued that conscious experience is primary, while physical objects are secondary.
The person as a unity of psyche and body: She emphasized the interconnectedness of the mind and body in understanding human nature.
Impact and Legacy
Edith Stein's philosophical contributions had a significant impact on the development of phenomenology. Her work also influenced Catholic thought and spirituality, particularly with regards to the concept of "the person" as central to her philosophy.
Why They Are Widely Quoted or Remembered
Stein is widely quoted and remembered for her unique blend of academic rigor and spiritual depth. Her conversion to Catholicism and subsequent ordination as a nun in 1936 also earned her recognition as a saint within the Catholic Church.
Quotes by Edith Stein
The state has got to be its own master. The modalities of civic life may not be prescribed for it through any power standing outside of that state - be it a private person or be it a community superior, collateral, or subordinate to that state.
Diverse forms of memory can have a variety of gaps. Thus it is possible for me to represent a past situation to myself and be unable to remember my inner behavior in this situation. As I transfer myself back into this situation, a surrogate for the missing memory comes into focus.
Whoever resorts regularly to the lessons of Holy Scripture as an apt pupil will take the Savior into her group, and the children will perceive that He is present and that He assists in their work; thus, He will take possession of their souls.
A community having the breadth and scope of a people still cannot claim to be an ethnic community unless and until there emerges from its mentality a distinctive culture particularized by the community's special character.
Because human development is the most specific and exalted mission of woman, studies in anthropology and theory of pedagogy are essential in girls' education.
The community that stands behind a culture as a comprehensively productive personality must be so extensive that in it, to a certain degree, all partialities balance out and work together.
The emotions have been seen as the center of woman's soul. For that reason, emotional formation will have to be centrally placed in woman's formation.
As the possessor of complete knowledge, God is not mistaken about people's experiences as people are mistaken about each others' experiences.
During my early years, I was mercurially lively, always in motion, spilling over with pranks, impertinent and precocious, and, at the same time, intractably stubborn and angry if anything went against my will.
Peoplehood tends to develop into nationhood if the people achieves a certain maturity. This is analogous to an individual person who becomes acquainted with herself only in the course of her life, without being able to say that she possessed no personal uniqueness at all before that 'self-recognition.'