1

EDITH STEIN’S
RELENTLESS ENGAGEMENT WITH TRUTH
By FR. FRANCIS B. PAYO, PhD, SThL-MA

INTRODUCTION

Let this sharing of mine serve as a window to see EDITH STEIN in a particular and
perhaps deeper way; thus, sharing with you my particular lens to look at her and perhaps
understand her better.

How shall we proceed? By telling you her story. After reading so many versions of her
life way back in 2013, especially the accounts of St. Waltraud Herbstrith and Sr. Mary
Catherine Baseheart, I have felt the urgency to retell her story based on the significant
impression they have made on me. My version of her story revolves on her apparently most
predominant pursuit – that is, her life-long and RELENTLESS ENGAGEMENT WITH
TRUTH.

Edith Stein impressed me as an honest seeker of truth and, accordingly, her life may be
characterized as a journey towards truth. 1 Truth, for her, unfolded in many ways and in
different forms.2 Jan H. Nota, SJ, notes in an introduction: “Edith Stein’s concern for the
truth extended beyond its application to herself to a concern for the truth in se.”3 Due to its
gradual unfolding, truth manifested to Stein in many faces corresponding to the stages she
was in her journey. At every stage, however, Edith was strongly motivated and zealously
determined that she gave her complete dedication to it as if “all that had mattered to her was
the quest for truth.”4

I. THE TRUTH ABOUT HER BEGINNINGS

1
Waltraud Herbstrith writes in his preface to the 4 th edition that Edith Stein was “an honest
and exacting thinker, diligent in opening up ways to the truth and yet gratefully accepting its
manifestations as unexpected gifts.” Cf. Edith Stein: A Biography, trans. Fr. Bernard Bonowitz, OCSO
(San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1992), 17.
2
Cf. John Sullivan’s chapter, “Searching for Deep Truth,” 80-93. He writes: “Edith cultivated an
avid desire for learning which, from the beginning of her student days through to the end of her life,
led her to search out the many facets of truth in all its complexity.” Cf. Edith Stein: Essential Writings
(Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2002), 80.
3
Interestingly he adds, “Not only did she want to hear the truth, even when it was at her own
expense, she also had the courage to say it to and about others.” Cf. ‘Introduction’ by Jan H. Nota to
Waltraud Herbstrith’s Edith Stein: A Biography, 10.
4
Nota, 11. Sullivan, in his essay mentioned earlier, describes such qualities which Edith
demonstrated: “a great deal of earnest zeal, intellectual rigor as well as vigor, and unflagging
seriousness in the task,” 76. Berkman describes it as Stein’s “sustained passion for truth seeking.” 2.
 2
“Life is difficult,” begins Scott Peck’s celebrated work, The Road Less Traveled.5 Chaim
Potok, a Jewish novelist, begins his novel, In the Beginning, with a more specific assertion:
that every beginning is difficult.6 Edith Stein is not an exception; her life as a whole is
extraordinarily difficult, and her beginning in her Jewish family was not that easy. 7 She was
the youngest of eleven children (four died as infants) born to German-Jewish parents,
Auguste, her mother, and Siegfried, her father, who died when she was barely two years old.
Notwithstanding her father’s death, Edith and her six siblings were educated at reputable
schools,8 thanks to the enterprise and hard work of their mother, 9 who raised them with all
her love and fidelity to their Jewish faith.10

5
M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and
Spiritual Growth (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2012), 5.
6
Chaim Potok, In the Beginning (New York: Knopf, 1975), 1. This author is quite famous for his
novel, My Name is Asher Lev. Asher Lev, the main character, experiences as an artist contradictions,
the deepest of which is that brought about by his Jewish religion and the image of the crucified Christ.
I am mentioning this because it bears significance on the contradictions that Stein herself had to face
inevitably, also with her being Jewish and her being a Catholic Christian.
7
According to Scott Spector, Stein’s Life in a Jewish Family is an “intensely ‘empathic’ text.” He
qualifies it in significant ways, but let the following two short descriptions suffice: 1) “Thus these
Jewish portraits are not designed as sympathetic depictions of a fellow community on German soil;
rather, they seduce the reader into seeing herself in portraits that nonetheless retain the mark of an
exoticized other. The figure of the Jew in this text thus passes into figures of Christian faith, German
patriotism, or German bourgeois values at respective moments; similar moves in Stein’s feminist
texts…“ 2) “This empathic portrait is structured to allow an experience of identification with the plight
of the othered figure at the same moment that its otherness is brought into relief.” See “Edith’s
Stein’s Passing Gestures: Intimate Histories, Empathic Portraits,” Contemplating Edith Stein, ed. Joyce
Avrech Berkman (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2006), 99, 102.
8
Mary Catherine Baseheart offers: “A striking characteristic of the family seems to have been
their respect for intellect and high value they placed on education.” See Persons in the World:
Introduction to the Philosophy of Edith Stein (Dordrecht/Boston/London: Kluwer, Academic
Publishers, 2010), 2. J. A. Berkman explains further: “For early-twentieth-century German Jews,
education of daughters as well as sons was both a prized cultural and religious value and the single
most important lever for social mobility;” 18 Thus, “the premium placed on education,” says
Berkman, “was evident in the family’s unflagging concern for and pride in each member’s
performance;” 19.
9
Alasdair MacIntyre describes Auguste as “a woman of extraordinary resource, warm and
loving towards her seven children, energetic and enterprising in the timber trade.” Cf. Edith Stein: A
Philosophical Prologue, 1913-1922 (USA: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2006), 10. Siegfried,
her father, was only 48 years old when he passed away. For a single parent to raise her seven children and
send them to reputable schools must be a formidable challenge. It was her business skill combined with
hard work and dedication which enabled Auguste to provide her family “with a certain prosperity that
allowed Edith to devote her time to studies.” Cf. ICS Introduction, The Science of the Cross, trans.
Josephine Koeppel, OCD (Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 2010), xi. Berkman captures it well:
“Effectively performing the conventional gender roles of both nurturant, self-denying mother and
assertive, public-oriented father, Stein’s mother exemplified the inspiring supermother of her day…” 17.
Also cf. Herbstrith, 19-20, and F. Gaboriau, 37.
 3
The early manifestation of Edith’s journey towards truth is her desire towards learning
as a young student.11 Her intellectual brilliance and great diligence in her studies made her
excel in school to the admiration of everyone. 12 In the words of Herbstrith, “she ‘swallowed’
her textbooks like someone starved.” 13 Such extraordinary gifts endowed her the necessary
capacity and disposition to pursue a lifelong engagement with truth as it manifested at
different periods of her journey. The importance of her gymnasium classes cannot be
overlooked since they prepared Stein thoroughly in the study of humanities and sciences
among others. “The full blossoming of the human intellect, unimpeded rational inquiry,
practical and theoretical understanding, respect for research, and the search for truth for its
own sake,” were some of the prized ideals of this pre-university preparatory level – that is,
allowing Stein to obtain a “comprehensive academic excellence.” 14

Such experiences must have developed greatly Stein’s mental gifts and stimulated her
intellectual fervor that she needed no additional motivation to pursue further studies in a
university; it was then a privilege for those who have both the means and the capacity for
higher learning, and also an exceptional path for a woman in those days. 15 Edith was

10
MacIntyre finds Auguste’s being a “devout and observant Jew” as central to her life; 10. In
view of the practice of Jewish faith, Baseheart narrates: “She was the guiding spirit of the household
and saw to it that Jewish belief and practice set the tone and standard.” 1. Herbstrith notes that Edith
belongs to a “devout Jewish family.” The ICS ‘Introduction’ to Stein’s The Science of the Cross
describes Auguste as a “woman of strong faith,” witnessing to her children “an enduring attachment
to the faith and traditions of Israel.” Xi. In view of these, let me note, in anticipation, how Edith’s
conversion to Catholic faith and becoming a cloistered nun would have a staggering impact on her
mother and the rest of the family. On one hand, Batzdorff strongly implies that Edith was not well
educated in her faith except the exposure afforded by her mother’s observance of Jewish faith
practices; cf. 106. This is also the contention of Curtis Hutt in his essay, “Identity, Alterity, and Ethics in
the Work of Husserl and His Religious Students: Stein and Levinas,” Philosophy Today, vol. 53, no. 1
(Spring 2009), 12. On the basis of the preceding accounts, Edith was like a ‘nominal’ Jewish believer.
But Sullivan points out “Stein’s appreciation and gratitude for her Jewish roots” as “reflected in the
fact that she chose to write a loving memoir of her childhood, Life in a Jewish Family…” 28. These
accounts show the clashing accounts as regards Edith’s Jewishness.
11
Berkman attributes this to Edith’s mother who “encouraged her children’s inquisitive and
critical minds,” 18. It is worth noting that the young Edith, particularly at age eleven, “turned into a
quiet introvert,” perhaps due to the isolation brought about by her awakening intellect; cf. W.
Herbstrith, 22.
12
Batzdorff describes Edith as a “bright child” who “excelled in her studies,” 106. Cf. W.
Herbstrith, 24-25. Characteristic of Edith’s drive for excellence was that “she was never satisfied with
anything she had done. It wasn’t enough for her to do a ‘passable’ job; she wanted to devote herself
completely and attain to the ultimate” 70. Cf. Patricia Marks, Edith Stein: Trusting God’s Purpose
(Cincinnati: Ohio University Press, 2001), 3-5.
13
Herbstrith, 25
14
Cf. Berkman, 20.
15
Not contented with her pioneering striving to enter into university study, Edith even strived
for an even more exceptional thing to achieve for a woman in those days, that is, to enter Husserl’s
inner circle, which, as Hutt points out, is “overwhelmingly populated and dominated by men.” 18.
 4
undoubtedly gifted intellectually, and she was blessed to have been supported by her family in
this endeavor.16

SEARCH FOR TRUTH IN THE CONFINES OF PHENOMENOLOGY

She entered the University of Breslau at the age of twenty (April 1911) with literature
and philosophy as her chosen fields of study and teaching as her career. 17 Aside from
philosophy, she was also drawn to psychology as introduced by William Stern. 18 Her studies
were supplemented by learnings she got from joining intellectual circles and diverse political
groups.19 Berkman captures nicely Stein’s university life:

In addition to her formal studies and teaching, myriad cultural events—theater,

concerts, animated discussions with relatives and friends—stimulated Stein’s
university life. The intensity of her curricular and extracurricular learning
experience, the “constant exertion of all my powers,” gave Stein “an exhilarating
feeling of living a very full life, and I saw myself as a richly endowed and highly
privileged creature.”20

Stein’s studies in psychology inspired her to understand our surrounding world, especially
delving into the truth of our human personhood.21 However, concerned with finding solid
foundations for the sciences (including psychology), she was frustrated with the methods of
psychology as inadequate to establish such grounding. 22 She turned her interest and attention
to philosophy as it manifested in the realm of phenomenology, which “decisively transformed
the twentieth philosophical approaches.” 23 Her reading of Edmund Husserl’s Logical
Investigations24 brought her at the helm of Professor Husserl in the University of Gottingen.
She considered studies in phenomenology as legitimate and rich ground in her search for
truth. Husserl served as her mentor in her dissertation, and eventually she served as Assistant
to Husserl for barely two years, 18 months to be exact. 25 That close encounter did make her
16
Berkman writes: “Above all, Auguste Stein was resolute in providing her offspring with the
finest education she could afford and fostering her children’s educational achievements,” 18. She
informs us this detail: “Stein’s gymnasium curriculum epitomized educational ideals prized by middle-
class Germans, especially German Jews,” 20.
17
Ibid., 21.
18
Ibid., 22.
19
Two such groups were the Cloverleaf and the Pedagogical Group. Ibid., 22.
20
Berkman cites Edith Stein’s words from Life in a Jewish Family. Ibid., 23.
21
Cf. Baseheart, 5.
22
Herbstrith writes: “Utterly disillusioned with a psychology that seemed unable to provide
itself with a solid intellectual grounding, Edith Stein had felt compelled to search for truth in a
philosophical formulation.” 38. Cf. Berkman, 23.
23
Berkman, 23-24.
24
Herbstrith describes how her reading of Husserl’s Logical Investigations “revolutionized her
intellectual life,” 34.
25
Herbstrith has this to say: “Because of the empathetic manner with which she approached
Husserl’s thought, she quickly became the student most sensitive to his intention. Edith Stein had
come to Husserl searching for truth...” 39. Emphasis added. A. von Renteln writes a contentious
remark which could be realistic and clarificatory: “The work of being Edmund Husserl’s assistant,
which she commenced in October 1916, had quickly proven to be unsatisfactory. She had hoped that
 5
well acquainted with phenomenology and allowed her to wrestle and plunge deep into the
issues of phenomenology.26 This episode, though relatively short, would prove to be crucial in
determining Stein’s work of collaboration in her redaction of Husserl’s Ideas II and other
works. She did not only serve as assistant to Husserl, but a collaborator with him as well. 27 It
was during these years that she developed various acquaintances and friendships with fellow
students and professors alike, an atmosphere created by the spirit of Husserl’s
phenomenological movement.28

Her studies in phenomenology showed the concerns closest to her heart: most
especially the truth about the human person.29 The influence of Max Scheler and Wilhelm
Dilthey are significant in Stein’s growing understanding; specifically Scheler’s philosophy of
values30 and Dilthey’s empirical empathic comprehension. 31 Her subsequent researches
convinced her of the “inextinguishable uniqueness of the human person, who lives at the

this position would enable her collaboration with Husserl. Instead she was entrusted with the
mindless reworking and sorting of a tremendous number of the ‘Master’s’ notes. After lengthy
consideration, Edith Stein came to the conclusion that she had to resign from her position as Edmund
Husserl’s assistant.” Cf. A. J. Berkman, 136-137.
26
MacIntyre describes in detail the importance of Husserl’s Logical Investigations to his early
disciples like Stein: “For the earlier readers of Logical Investigations, this later development would
have seemed unimaginable. What had inspired them was the extent of Husserl’s success in providing
new and fruitful way of opening up philosophical enquiry that was a radical alternative to Kant.” Such
alternative encouraged them to contribute to the philosophical enterprise. 48. W. Herbstrith writes:
“Nothing escaped her observer’s eye. It wasn’t long before she had thoroughly mastered her new
setting, proving herself a born phenomenologist by the interest she showed in everything around
her.” 37. Emphasis added.
27
Antonio Calcagno grippingly tackles this issue. See his essay “Assistant and/or Collaborator?”
Contemplating Edith Stein, ed. J. A. Berkman, 243-270.
28
This “elite group,” as Berkman describes, was then called the Phenomenological Society; 24.
Some of the phenomenologists whom Stein encountered in this group were to become her life-long
friends and fellow collaborators along the phenomenological way. Herbstrith enlightens us on this
point: “As a teacher, Husserl trained his students to look at everything with strict impartiality and do
away with their rationalist blinders. His open and dynamic method of procedure engendered an
atmosphere in which intellectual friendships easily flourished. In fact, without being aware of it,
Husserl was founding an intellectual movement that eventually would result in the conversion of
many of his students to Christianity.” 40. On her part, Edith “appears to have had a natural gift for
forming friendships in every situation. Gentle, considerate, and self-possessed, she was always at the
center of a large and ever-expanding circle of friends.” 52. Worth mentioning among those closest to
Edith were Hedwig Conrad-Martius, Adolf Reinach, and Max Scheler. Despite that, however, Edith
admits how she seemed cold and unapproachable to most people; cf. Judische Familie [154], quoted
by Herbstrith, 53. Here Edith herself acknowledges the apparent impression she makes as distant
from people, due largely to her quiet and serious demeanor usually as a result of her deep absorption
into her concerns such as studies or otherwise. Also cf. Marks, 4-5.
29
Baseheart considers it central to Stein’s thought, 29. According to A. Bello, it was at the start
of the 1920’s when Stein examined the “deep structures of the human person.” 275.
30
Cf. Berkman, 26.
31
Cf. Spector, 102-103.
 6
same time in a state of spiritual interconnectedness with the rest of reality.” 32 Such conviction
by Edith Stein may well characterize her lifelong pursuit, but most predominantly in the
maturing and deepening of her journey towards truth. This eventually made her realize that
phenomenology may not be enough to satisfy her yearning towards the truth of the human
person, even though how relentless she was. Let me borrow a poignant narrative from Edith’s
former student Prof. Gertrud Koebner, quoted by W. Herbstrith: “Edith’s struggle began
immediately after leaving Husserl. Though she yearned to dedicate herself totally to the truth,
she could no longer believe that scientific truth, with which she was so thoroughly familiar,
had the right to one’s absolute devotion. For her the Eternal Truth shone on the Church, not
the university.”33 It pained Husserl that “she could not give an unqualified assent to his
thinking, but he did his best to respect and appreciate her point of view.” 34 Despite their
differences, however, Edith Stein and Edmund Husserl maintained a good relationship, as
Baseheart puts it, they “continued in their mutual respect and affection for each other until his
death in 1938,” following her career “with almost fatherly pride.” 35

Since philosophy was central to Edith’s very being, 36 she continued her pursuit even
beyond the confines of phenomenology, without however abandoning the phenomenological
method.37 She exhibited her phenomenological approach all throughout her writings, even
those which are characteristically theological and spiritual.

32
Cf. Herbstrith, 62. Elsewhere in her work, she notes about Edith’s interest on the human
person early on, “Her goal in these historical studies was to reach an understanding of the unity of the
human person,” 42. She even rethought (reformulated) the role or vocation of women, years after
her conversion, by developing a “more adequate concept of the human person,” that is, man and
woman as mutually complementary and individually responsible before God; 98-99.
33
When Husserl died, days before Edith took her perpetual vows as a Carmelite nun, she was
convinced that Husserl, a Protestant till death, sought God in seeking the truth all his life; that God
embraced him in His mercy. Cf. Sullivan, 29 and 91. This is implicit in what she writes in The Science of
the Cross: “One who seeks truth lives principally at the heart of an actively searching intellect. If he is
really concerned about the truth (not merely collecting single bits of knowledge) then he is perhaps
nearer to the God who is Truth, and therefore to his own inmost region than he himself knows.” 163.
Cf. also W. Herbstrith, 70.
34
Cf. Herbstrith, 115.
35
Cf. Baseheart, 24.
36
Cf. Baseheart, ‘Preface’, ix. “One constant,” according to Baseheart, “that endured through
all the changes was the intense intellectual energy and joy in learning that seem to have been rooted
in the philosophical nature of her personality,” 1. She further writes: “Dedication to philosophy
appears to be the axis of Stein’s intellectual life—one can almost say of her very life—until the last
several years at Echt.” 28.
37
The phenomenological approach is discernible in all of Stein’s writings, even those which are
theological or spiritual in nature. Fr. Jose Conrado Estafia emphasized this fact about Stein being
thoroughly a phenomenologist in terms of method, though not necessarily in terms of goals as put
forward later by Husserl; cf. “Edith Stein on the Human Quest: An Analysis of Her Method,”
Philippiniana Sacra, Vol. XLIII, No. 128 (May-August, 2008), 365. Baseheart attests to this: “Though all
her explorations of the history of philosophy, however, Stein remained a phenomenologist. Her
research invariably proceeded with very minute phenomenological analyses without which her
conclusions are incomprehensible.” 29.
 7
The radical openness of phenomenology towards truth certainly ushered Stein to a
realm beyond the explicit claims of phenomenology as originally envisioned by Husserl. 38
Stein found its approach compatible with other approaches insofar as it is geared towards the
discovery of truth. Without a doubt the phenomenological approach radically opened for her
towards truth in general, and especially to the Truth as enshrined in the Christian faith.

CONSUMED BY THE TRUTH OF CHRISTIAN FAITH

This restless yearning, fueled largely by significant circumstances in Edith’s life,

opened her eyes to the truth there may be in Christianity. In this regard, it is important to
mention how in her teenage years, 39 she confessed being an atheist. 40 The comingling and
interconnecting circumstances, namely: of visiting a cathedral in Frankfurt, 41 listening to Max

38
The very character and spirit of phenomenology, as originally envisioned by Husserl, implies
such radical openness to any scientific pursuit of truth.
39
Baseheart says that Stein “abandoned Judaism in her early teens, in spite of her mother’s
deep faith and commitment to its religious practice,” 4. Herbstrith says this happened at the age of
eleven; 22. But Berkman seems to imply that such atheism was surfacing in Edith and her sister Else
and brother-in-law at the age of fourteen; 19. Also cf. Sullivan, 18. Batzdorff, Edith’s niece, offers an
enlightening side of the story: “Throughout her student years, Edith was spiritually adrift. Though my
grandmother was a devout Jew, her children had little knowledge of Jewish matters. The boys knew
some Hebrew, enough to become Bar Mitzvah, but the girls had almost no Jewish education. Thus,
when Edith Stein tells us in her autobiography, Life in a Jewish Family, that she lost her faith at the
age of 15, we must keep in mind that it was not out of a thorough familiarity with Judaism. It is
intriguing, however futile, to speculate what might have happened to her spiritual development had
she turned to a more intrinsic study of Judaism instead of Catholicism.” 106.
40
Herbstrith says something interestingly significant in this regard: “For Edith Stein, returning
to school meant returning to a world without God. Now that her depression was overcome, she was
eager to continue the search for the ultimate grounds of being, the quest for truth taking the place of
childhood faith.” Emphasis added. 28. Florent Gaboriau considers such avowed atheism as but
indifference. He explains: “As happens with many young people, and by her own observation, Edith
was very bored by the services of the Synagogue where her mother took her with her sisters. But it is
to go beyond any evidence to draw from this a fixed attitude that could be called in any strict sense
atheism.” Cf. The Conversion of Edith Stein, trans. Ralph McInerny (South Bend, Indiana: St.
Augustine’s Press, 2002), 56.
41
Sullivan recounts Edith’s words: “This was something entirely new to me. To the synagogues
or to the Protestant churches which I had visited, one went only for services. But here was someone
interrupting her everyday shopping errands to come into this church, although no other person was in
it, as though she were here for an intimate conversation. I could never forget that.” See 89-90.
Herbstrith tells how Edith was deeply affected by such a woman kneeling down with her market
basket in one of the pews to pray briefly; cf. 62-63. F. Gaboriau most likely refers to this visit when he
wrote, “Her silent adoration attested to a presence, which explained the visit to a place Edith would
later learn was not only architecturally impressive, it was inhabited;” 36.
 8
Scheler’s lectures,42 the death of Adolf Reinach, 43 her reading of the autobiography of St.
Teresa of Avila44 -- eventually convinced Edith to follow the Truth that is Jesus Christ. “Edith
Stein tells us,” writes her niece Susanne M. Batzdorff, “that by becoming a Catholic she felt
truly Jewish for the first time in her life, but to her Jewish family it appeared that she had left
the fold.”45 In the cross, she encounters the truth about Jesus as incarnate, as God-Man. Here
she finds truth not simply as an idea, but as a person. 46 J. Nota offers: “The fascinating thing
to me about Edith Stein was that truth did not exist as an abstraction for her but as something
incarnated in persons and therefore as inconceivable apart from love.” 47 In fact, it is reckoned
that her quest for truth is inseparable from her life, without which her works would never be
understood adequately. Alasdair MacIntyre sees this in her philosophical quest: “[It is also
that] she deliberately and intentionally brought her philosophical thinking to bear on the

42
Baseheart points out how the “world of faith” was opened up to Stein through Max Scheler;
7. In a similar vein, Herbstrith notes the influence Scheler had on Stein, thus opening her to the world
of religious experience. She quotes from Stein’s Judische Familie [p. 183]: “It was my first contact with
a world that until then had been completely unfamiliar. I can’t say that it led me directly to faith. But
it did open up a whole new realm of ‘phenomena’ that I wouldn’t be able to pass by blindly anymore.”
47. MacIntyre says that among those philosophers whose acknowledgment of God challenged Stein’s
unbelief, “Scheler was perhaps the most fortright and sophisticated in speaking about religion;” 66.
Scheler’s work on sympathy “laid the foundations for a phenomenological ethics and greatly
influenced Stein’s own subsequent work, in spite of her dislike for their author” [referring to Scheler];
67.
43
A. von Renteln provides a significant treatment about the role Adolf Reinach played in the
life of Edith Stein; see 135-140. Reinach’s death, a professor highly respected and loved by Edith,
brought her in close personal encounter with his wife (then a widow, and she was there to console
her). Instead she found consolation in a “woman deeply convinced of the power of Christ’s victory
over death and suffering.” Gaboriau considers this encounter even far greater than Stein’s encounter
with Scheler; 40. Marks considers such encounter “extremely important” for Edith as she began her
engagement with the truth of Christian faith; 7. Berkman offers a narrative to explain: “Stein’s shift
toward Christianity, rather than Judaism, owed much to her relationship with Reinach’s widow, for
whom she was arranging her deceased husband’s papers and notes. Study of Adolf Reinach’s writings
deepened her understanding of religious faith and expanded her grasp of Christian concepts of love
and death.” 35-36.
44
Berkman offers some reasons for the great impact it had on Stein, since Stein herself never
offered an explanation for her ‘epiphany’; 36. Herbstrith narrates how Edith read by accident St.
Teresa of Avila’s autobiography and was deeply struck by it, saying after reading it: “This is the truth.”
She elaborates: “What Edith Stein found in Teresa’s autobiography was the confirmation of her own
experience. God is not a God of knowledge, God is love. He does not reveal his mysteries to the
deductive intelligence, but to the heart that surrenders itself to him.” 64-65. Gaboriau finds this
encounter with St. Teresa of Avila a “decisive acquaintance with an enormously impressive personage
emerging unexpectedly from a past age...” 41. Then and there she decided to be baptized as Catholic.
Let me quote: “It was in God’s plan that this woman, who was not only conscious of her femininity at
the moment when she felt herself called to conversion, but as a woman philosopher was also
concerned with the Truth to be discovered. That indeed was her own conclusion in those early
morning hours after finishing reading the autobiography of Saint Teresa. ‘There is the truth’.” 45.
According to Sullivan, “the great St. Teresa had opened the door to her.” Cf. 22, 117, 122.
45
Batzdorff, 117.
 9
practices of her everyday life and drew upon the experiences afforded by those practices in
formulating philosophical problems and arriving at philosophical conclusions.” 48 In other
words, her life and her thoughts are inextricably connected – or, better still, one and integral
for Edith Stein.

Her whole life is a moving testimony to an integral quest for truth in all its
manifestations,49 thus leading her ultimately to the truth of Christian faith. 50 C. M. Baseheart
aptly observes that “in the evolution of Stein’s thought,” we find a “movement beyond the
limits of pure reason, to reason illumined by faith and religious experience. 51 This seemed to
be the epitome in her pursuit of the truth of the human person, not just as something human
and finite but something inevitably connected to the divine and the infinite. Before such
encounter with the Crucified One, Edith wrote in her autobiography: “I didn’t yet have the
sort of intellectual clarity where the mind relaxes after it has gained some new insight, sees
the vistas that have opened up before it, and then advances with confidence. I groped around
like someone in a fog.”52 Her encounter with the Cross was a decisive moment towards her
conversion to Catholic faith, that is, her “unbelief collapsed and Christ shone forth – in the
mystery of the Cross.”53 She looked back at everything that happened in her life as
providential towards and in view of her conversion. 54 Her encounter with St. Thomas

46
All along, for Edith Stein, “human beings took precedence over abstract knowledge.” Cf.
Herbstrith, 109.
47
Nota, in his ‘Introduction’ to Herbstrith’s Edith Stein: A Biography, 11.
48
MacIntyre, 6.
49
Sullivan describes what I call ‘integral’ quest for truth as “holistic.” He writes: “Along with
Husserl Edith sought after a truth that in later terms would be called ‘holistic’ for its ability to embrace
more than abstract formulae and to include consideration of values, emotions, and ultimate concerns
such as peace and solidarity in the struggle for harmony and progress.” 81.
50
In a poem (“Aphorisms in the month of June 1940”), Stein wrote: “Judge not lest you be
judged in turn, Appearances cloud our view, We guess at the truth but only learn, God alone knows
what is true.” Cf. Batzdorff, 75.
51
Baseheart, xi. We would further find how Stein’s works show harmony between philosophy
and theology; cf. 19.
52
A quote by Herbstrith from Stein’s Judische Familie [201], 50.
53
Stein herself writes: “The cross has no purpose of itself. It rises on high and points above. But
it is not merely a sign—it is Christ’s powerful weapon; the shepherd’s staff with which the divine
David moves against the hellish Goliath; with it he strikes mightily against heaven’s gate and throws it
wide open. Then streams of divine light flow forth and enfold all who are followers of the Crucified.”
Cf. The Science of the Cross, 22. Cf. Herbstrith, 53. Gaboriau speaks of a triple or threefold conversion
in Edith Stein: the conversion of a Jew, a feminist and a philosopher: “Edith Stein’s conversion is one
in which we find freely and respectively engaged a Jew, but also precisely a Woman, and finally a
Philosopher.” 21.
54
Cf. Herbstrith, 56-57.
 10
Aquinas55 taught her “that faith has a further purpose: as a path to truth,” 56 thus advancing
the process St. Teresa of Avila had begun in her. 57

PURSUIT OF TRUTH IN A CLOISTERED LIFE

All along in her restless and relentless pursuit of truth, Edith showed herself to be a
scholar and teacher par excellence, to the great admiration of Edmund Husserl himself and
everyone she encountered.58 For several times, she applied for professorship in German
universities, but failed – due largely to her being a woman and other reasons as well. 59 Her

55
Stein’s encounter with St. Thomas Aquinas took the form of being the translator of the
latter’s works, namely: Questiones disputatae de veritate and De ente et essentia. She was already
then a Carmelite nun. Cf. Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falcovitz, “His Whole Life Consisted of a Search for
Religious Truth: Edith Stein in Conversation with John Henry Newman,” Contemplating Edith Stein, ed.
J. A. Berkman, 151. As a translator of St. Thomas, H. Gerl-Falcovitz cites Przywara’s words: “Because of
the nature of translation itself, everything today has become living philosophy. Thomas and Thomas
alone is everywhere, but in such a way that he stands eye to eye with Husserl, Scheler, and Heidegger.
The terminology of phenomenology, which Stein masters as a creative philosopher in her own right,
has nowhere taken the place of Aquinas’s, but with it, doors now open back and forth all the more
effortlessly.” 161.
56
According to Berkman, Stein was “convinced” of phenomenology’s compatibility with her
Catholic convictions, thus she wrote an essay “synthesizing Husserlian logic and Aquinas’s thought.”
37. Cf. Herbstrith, 84.
57
Cf. Herbstrith, 85. Let me dwell further on how Edith was influenced by St. Thomas.
Herbstrith tells us: “Thomas’ intellectual breadth had a liberating effect on Edith Stein.” 86. Edith was
influenced to the extent of writing an essay on Husserl’s 70 th birthday, titled: Husserl’s
Phenomenology and the Philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Edith realized that philosophy “was
simply one of the talents a person is given to help discover the mysteries of God within creation,” an
attitude which led her “to develop a more objective stance toward the world.” 87. Gaboriau has this
to say: “What presented itself to be converted in the case of Edith Stein was assuredly her Judaism,
her femininity, her philosophy. And by way of corollary one can comprehend, in the interior of her
essential conversion, a manner of intellectual conversion to the thought of the Common Doctor of
whom before-hand she had no idea but who from then on inspired her.” 62. Gaboriau points out how
Edith Stein was converted intellectually by St. Thomas, cf. 64.
58
We read in the ICS Introduction to The Science of the Cross: “Hardly is there a need to
mention this, but Edith Stein was a woman of brilliant intelligence, the first in her class as a general
rule. According to one of her childhood teachers a large gap was invariably left between herself and
anyone who followed next. When she arrived at the University of Gottingen, the eminent philosopher
Husserl was so astonished to learn that she had accomplished the heroic feat of reading the second
volume of his Logische Untersuchungen that he accepted her unhesitatingly into his seminar.” Xi.
59
Cf. Berkman, 35. During that time, it was quite unheard of for a woman to pursue a
professorship career in the university. W. Herbstrith offers an explanation: Despite Husserl’s “glowing
recommendation” (Freiburg), the “circumstances (recent military defeat and political unrest in
Germany) were not conducive to hiring a woman professor, still something of a novelty in the years
after World War I.” 62. Theresa Wobbe writes: “By viewing Stein not singly but as part of a generation
of female pioneers and warriors, we understand her better, and the story her life takes on enhanced
 11
doctorate in philosophy, approved with summa cum laude honors, was already a very
extraordinary achievement for Edith. According to J. A. Berkman, she is “the second woman
in German history to receive a doctorate in philosophy. 60 Florent Gaboriau, SJ notes that her
official attempt to become a professor in a university was the first in Germany, and she was
given the chance by presenting a habilitation thesis.61 She was refused. Yet such
disappointments only strengthened her initial inspiration to enter the religious life, 62
something she found too difficult to pursue for fear of hurting her mother even more. 63 At this
point in her journey, however, even her mother, a God-fearing woman, was amazed at the

historical significance;” she elaborates this in her essay, “The Complex Modernity of Edith Stein: New
Gender Relations and Options for Women in Early-Twentieth-Century Germany,” Contemplating Edith
Stein, ed. J. A. Berkman, 122-133. J. Sullivan speaks of the “prevalent gender discrimination” and anti-
Semitism; 18. D. K. Greene describes Stein’s being a woman and a Jew as meriting her a “double
marginality,” 49. It is worth noting that C. M. Baseheart sees another reason for this refusal (for Stein
to be a university professor): “There is evidence that there was more than rejection of a woman
involved; there was the view that some of Stein’s ideas on psychology contained in the habilitation
thesis which she presented ran counter to the positions held in the department of Gottingen.” 12.
Also cf. P. Marks, 6. Like J. Sullivan, A. MacIntyre suggests that Stein’s being a Jew was also a factor
that blocks her hopes to become professor; 13.
60
Berkman, 1.
61
Gaboriau takes this attempt by Edith in view of her struggle for the equality of men and
women, confident that she would be treated equally with men in the world of academe. He points
out: “She was accordingly a dedicated woman, conscious of her obligation to femininity, who
unwittingly approached an encounter that changed her direction completely.” 38-40. Berkman tells us
that it was “not until 1950 did a woman actually habilitate in Germany in philosophy. By the early
1920s the prospect of a gender-equal republic had dimmed. A woman’s professorship in philosophy,
let alone a cabinet post, was out of the question.” 179.
62
I find this insight echoed in a more enlightening manner by the words of Angelika von
Renteln: “External life circumstances were important markers that contributed decisively to Stein’s
discovery of faith. The difficulties that Stein encountered made her stronger on her spiritual path…
Edith Stein herself did not deny these circumstances and regarded the painful experiences that she
had in this respect as an important asset, which led her to new insights.” She Cf. “Moments in Edith
Stein’s Years of Crisis, 1918-1922,” trans. Antonio Calcagno, Contemplating Edith Stein, ed. J. A.
Berkman, 135.
63
Her conversion to Catholic faith already brought so much pain and sorrow to her mother;
thus, her entrance to religious life would be a much bigger blow to her. Edith herself narrates this
particular episode before she bade farewell to her mother and the rest of the family to become a
Carmelite nun: “But a few months later, when for the first time since my baptism I stood face to face
with my dear mother, it became clear to me that she would not be able to withstand this second blow
for the time being. She would not die of it, but it would fill her with such bitterness that I could not
take the responsibility for that. I would have to wait patiently.” Cf. Batzdorff, 18, 24-30. 11 years later
Edith witnessed the deep sorrow of her mother when finally she revealed her decision of entering
Carmel. Batzdorff explains why it was unacceptable for her mother (and all Jews for that matter):
“Christianity, which Edith had chosen to embrace was in our eyes in 1933 the religion of our
persecutors. For Grandmother Stein, it was the severest blow imaginable,” for she could never see
 12
transformation happening to Edith that “she was able to feel, though not to comprehend, the
holiness emanating from her daughter.” 64

Eventually, after a long wait of more than ten years, Edith followed her heart’s inmost
desire, “to fulfill a long-cherished dream”65 of devoting her life completely to God as a
cloistered nun.66 She entered the Discalced Carmelites, and henceforth she would be known as
Sr. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, 67 a name that signifies “her vocation as an act of solidarity
(or, her old word, empathy) with the suffering of the world.” 68 Her presence was characterized
by her great wit and laughter, warmth, affection and care. 69 Even as a religious in the confines
of a monastery, Edith was tasked several times to do scholarly work – something she thought
to be part of her former life.70 As Gaboriau writes: “She remained therefore more and more
faithful to her vocation as philosopher, just as she remained faithful to her Judaism and to her
femininity, but in a new manner.”71 She assumed all her responsibilities in the convent,
whether domestic or scholarly, with utmost humility, diligence, and love. 72 Such a life of total
surrender and dedication to God is her personal testimony to the mystery of the Cross which
struck her at the core of her being.73

her beloved daughter again. Cf. S. Batzdorff, 108. Also cf. Sullivan, 19. Hutt writes that her mother
“was emotionally distraught over her daughter’s conversion and later admission to the Carmelites,”
19.
64
Herbstrith adds, “For all her deadly anguish, she knew that she was powerless against the
mystery of grace.”
65
Cf. Batzdorff, 108.
66
I share Wobbe’s insight, as she concludes her essay, about the significance of this decision by
Stein: “Stein’s modern agency in making her choice to enter a Carmelite convent carries a distinctive
historical relevance.” She clarifies this earlier in her essay: “Despite ardent family opposition to her
decision and family willingness to support her financially were she to remain in Breslau, despite her
age of entry into the convent at forty-two, despite her Jewish descent and her professional and
scholarly commitments, she remained firm.” 30-31.
67
Cf. Spector. This name, according to him, was of Edith’s choice, inspired by St. Teresa of
Avila, St. John of the Cross and our Crucified. He qualifies, “The surrender of the name and the
‘redressing’ of the subject are consistent with Stein’s increasing devaluation of external identities and
given narratives…” 107.
68
Cf. Patricia Hampl, “Edith Stein (Poland, 1942): A Book Sealed with Seven Seals,”
Contemplating Edith Stein, ed. J. A. Berkman, 70.
69
Cf. Josephine Koeppel, Edith Stein: Philosopher and Mystic (Collegeville, Minn.: The Liturgical
Press, 1990), 139. Such characteristics are considered to be the hallmarks of Edith’s personality; see
Marks, 19.
70
Cf. Baseheart, 16, 27. Also cf. Berkman, 41.
71
Gaboriau, 63.
72
Sullivan recounts how compassionate Edith was, most especially when she grew deeper in
Christian faith. 24-25.
73
In The Science of the Cross, Stein writes: “Whoever truly wants, in blind faith, nothing more
but what God wills, has, with God’s grace, reached the highest state a human being can reach. His will
is totally purified and free of all constraint through earthly desires; he is united to the divine will
through free surrender.” 166.
 13
The many heartrending events in the life of Edith, most especially when she was
brought to Auschwitz with her sister, were, according to M. C. Baseheart, the ‘darkness’ she
had to go through; and her relentless search for truth which eventually took the form of the
Cross served as the beacon of light which guided her through the darkness. 74 As W. Herbstrith
beautifully recounts: “Yet, despite the extreme darkness of the situation, her personal courage
and spirit of affirmation enabled her to believe in the final victory of truth.” 75 Scott Spector
describes Stein’s demeanor in almost the same way while on board a freight bound for
Auschwitz: “They are in darkness, she is in light; they are squatting on the floor, she is
standing; they are ‘listless’, she is pensive and composed.” 76 John Sullivan also describes it
beautifully: “She acted as a vessel of compassion even in the most trying days of her life. Her
humane behavior won out over the inhumanity imposed on her and her companions by the
Nazi persecutors of her church and of her people.” 77 Her death at Auschwitz was simply the
crowning glory of her relentless pursuit of truth, which she found in the mystery of the
Cross.78

How profound and amazing it is to realize that Edith Stein finally found the truth in the
mystery of the Cross, but even more profound and amazing to behold that she found it in her
total self-offering to the Crucified One.

HER TRUTH: SHINING YET SHROUDED IN MYSTERY

Edith Stein’s engagement with truth characterizes her life and person. In playing
various roles, at times simultaneously, of being a philosopher, a translator, a teacher, an
intellectual (particularly promoting women’s role in society), a friend, and a cloistered nun
among others—nuanced to a great extent by belonging to a Jewish family and German
citizenry—she was constantly engaged towards her quest for truth in its ever-expanding and
ever-deepening contexts.79 It promoted her human flourishing, particularly as a philosopher
74
See Baseheart, 1-20.
75
Herbstrith, 57.
76
Cf. Spector, 94.
77
John Sullivan’s essay, “Some Instances of Edith Stein’s Humor and Compassion,”
Contemplating Edith Stein, ed. J. A. Berkman, 90.
78
Cf. Hutt, 12; also cf. ‘ICS Introduction,’ The Science of the Cross, xi. J. Sullivan shares with us a
testimony by Julius Marcan, a survivor at the concentration camp: “It was Edith Stein’s complete calm
and self-possession that marked her out from the rest of the prisoners…. Many of the mothers were
on the brink of insanity and had sat moaning for days, without giving any thought to their children.
Edith Stein immediately set about taking care of these little ones. She washed them, combed their
hair, and tried to make sure they were fed and cared for.” Let me add J. Sullivan’s words: “She had
only herself to give: her attentiveness, the time she took away from her own worries, and her sense of
religious hope. She gave all that she had, because she was fully present with and to the others, and
she was willing to do as much as she could to share their burden of suffering so as to lighten the load.
She acted as a compassionate sister to the suffering, to ‘be of help to them’.” 25. Such are authentic
gesture of deep empathy.
79
Stein’s being Jewish and German at the same time is considered quite adequately by Joyce
Avrech Berkman in his essay, “The German-Jewish Symbiosis in Flux: Edith Stein’s Complex
National/Ethnic Identity,” Contemplating Edith Stein, ed. J. A. Berkman. Among the questions she
tackles is: “What did her Germanness and Jewishness mean to Stein during successive phases of her
 14
(phenomenologist) and as a Christian (religious). It was her engagement with scientific truth,
philosophical truth, and eventually the truth of Christian faith, where she found the ultimate
purpose and profound meaning of her being. 80 Disappointments and her eventual death may
be considered as obstacles to her human flourishing, but with the eyes of faith they are but
tests of one’s faith and the way towards truth in its truest and most sublime sense. For
ultimately, she was engaged not with ephemeral truth, but with eternal truth as personified
and incarnated in Jesus Christ.

With the many testimonies about Edith Stein, I could not agree less with her niece’s
avowal: “As I study her writings, her letters, her poems I sometimes feel that I come closer to
understanding her than I could as a girl of twelve, when I had my last conversation with her.
But what she really was, the essence of her life and death, will forever remain
her secret.”81

Edith Stein was born on Oct. 12, 1891 and died on Aug. 9, 1942, two months short for
her 52 birthday. We can say that she lived a relatively short life, but she lived it fully. Like a
nd

beautiful song, her convictions, scholarly works and teaching blend harmoniously with her
daily routine and relationships.82 In the words of Greene, her “wholeness” as such “represents
a coherence of being, an integrity lived out authentically.” 83 Her lifelong engagement with

life, and how did she express any shifts in perspective?” 170-100.
80
In response to Martin Heidegger’s ‘anxiety’ (angst) towards death, Stein has this to say:
“The undeniable fact that my being is limited in its transience from moment to moment and thus
exposed to the possibility of nothingness is counterbalanced by the equally undeniable fact that
despite this transience I am, that from moment to moment I am sustained in my being, and that in my
fleeting being I share in enduring being. In the knowledge that being holds me, I rest securely.” Taken
by J. Sullivan from Edith Stein’s Finite and Eternal Being, 68. Cf. Antonio Calcagno, “Die Fulle oder das
Nichts? Martin Heidegger and Edith Stein on the Question of Being,” The Philosophy of Edith Stein
(USA: Duquesne University Press, 2007), 113-131. The profound meaning, according to Ralph
McInerny, is Edith’s “pursuit of holiness.” Cf. Preface to Florent Gaboriau’s The Conversion of Edith
Stein, trans. Ralph McInerny, xi.
81
Batzdorff, 113. Hampl’s insight into the life story of Stein is pretty much along this line: “She
remains a riddle containing her seeming contradictions… For she is an enigma. That is, she is a life
waiting to be read.” In the latter part of her essay, she writes: “She was born for mystery, it seems, as
genius always is.” 62-63. Marianne Sawicki, in her introduction to Stein’s Philosophy of Psychology
and Humanities, points out an important insight which Stein develops in this work, that “individual
persons as such remain mysteries to one another;” xvii.
82
In a similar vein, MacIntyre tells us how Stein’s “philosophical stances are in significant ways
informed by her life experiences” (referring to the 1913-1922 period of her life). 6.
83
Cf. Greene, 54. Let me insert here a relevant and interesting comment by MacIntyre about
Stein in relation or in comparison to Martin Heidegger within the context of history of philosophical
thought: “It goes without saying that Heidegger is an incomparably greater philosopher than Stein.
But the history of philosophy is punctuated by the interventions of genuinely great philosophers who
have redirected and misdirected philosophical enquiry.” Emphasis is mine. By the way, it seems
MacIntyre here refers to Stein as a genuinely great philosopher who has redirected rather than
misdirected philosophical inquiry, while Heidegger is likely the one who misdirected it. This is subject
to closer verification though. For immediately on the next page, he establishes that Stein is a
“significantly more important thinker than she has often been taken to be.” This is congruent to the
 15
truth led her finally to behold the fullness of truth in Jesus Christ, the Truth Incarnate. In
total surrender, possible only with the eyes of faith and with a heart burning for love of God,
she did not only find out about the Truth, she encountered the Truth herself and her whole
being was consumed by the Truth, in this life and beyond. Her very words, uttered from the
abundance of her heart, testify to this wonderful phenomenon which eludes the grasp of our
rational mind. Let me close this narrative with this parcel of testimony from Edith Stein,
whom we in the Catholic world revere as St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Virgin & Martyr:

Who are You, sweet light that fills me

And illumines the darkness of my heart?
You guide me like a mother’s hand,
And if You let me go, I could not take
Another step.
You are the space
That surrounds and contains my being.
Without You it would sink into the abyss
Of nothingness from which You raised it into being.
You, closer to me than I to myself,
More inward than my innermost being—
And yet unreachable, untouchable,
And bursting the confines of any name:
Holy spirit—
Eternal love!84

“scholarly neglect” pointed out by Antonio Calcagno as mentioned earlier in this chapter. Cf. 185-186.
84
This is the first stanza of a six-stanza poem titled, “Seven Beams from a Pentecost Novena,”
which she composed for Pentecost in 1942, the same year she was sent to Auschwitz and died a
martyr’s death. See Batzdorff, 93. The Catholic Church’s claim on Edith Stein as martyr had raised
controversies and still an issue until now. D. K. Greene, for example, argues: “One goal of
canonization of Edith Stein’s is to increase attention to this remarkable woman. Whether that goal will
be realized is still an open question. What is clear is that unless an alternative to the hagiographic
interpretation of her life is developed, interest in her case will remain limited to sectarian believers.
Not only will Edith Stein’s life not be subject to broad scrutiny, but the opportunity to create interest
in it will be lost,” 55.