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a wonderful book ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

EDITH STEIN: ST. TERESA BENEDICTA OF THE CROSS
This is a very interesting book written by her niece which gives a lot of the family story and insight.I feel after reading the book, I would like to know moreabout her niece, Maria Ruiz S., the author.

Excellent
This is an easy to read beginners biography on Edith Stein: St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.It tells her life story and how she freely offered herself for the conversion of others.She grew up Jewish and became Catholic after searching for the truth, and then finally coming across the truth, when she read St. Teresa of Avila's Autobiography.You will truly come to know Edith Stein and feel close to her after reading this book.

Wonderful introduction to the life of St. Edith Stein!
This book is a wonderful introduction to the life of Catholic and Jewish martyr, philosopher, professor, nun, feminist, and saint who died in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. Scaperlanda does a great job of introducing the reader to her philosophy, personality, background, and amazing faith. If you enjoy this book, I reccomend "Knowledge and Faith" and "Life in a Jewish Family", both by Edith Stein.

Saint Teresa Benedicta a Cruce
This is story of a simple and devoted Carmelite nun.It is a wonderful story that not only gives biographical information it also incorporates a lot of Edith Stein's (Saint Teresa Benedicta a Cruce (Latin)personal philosophy and her feelings on femininism in society.It also shares her exceptional faith and devotion to God, even in the face of death.The book tells of her life, her entry into the Carmelite cloister and then her death in the Nazi camp, Auschwitz, Poland.It is a truly inspiraional and beautifully written book of one woman's courage and devotion.

Strands woven into a fine book
I really like how this author has woven a story out of the several strands - of Edith's own writings - of others who have written about her - of the history of the Jews in Germany - and of the life and times of Adolf Hitler as it affected Edith's life and that of millions of Jews and Christians.The author has braided together some wonderful connections that set Edith's life in the context of her times and of our times.I found special joy in these connections because I have read almost all of the sources - primary and secondary - separately - and it is good to see them woven together with spiritual meanings. This book now holds a place of prominece on my Edith Stein shelf of books. ... Read more

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A biography of the Jewish philosopher and convert to Catholicism who was put to death at Auschwitz during World War II and canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1998. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Saint Edith Stein, A Saint for Everyone
I bought this book for my Catholic religion class because I wanted them to know that saints come from different backgrounds.

Edith Stein, while a convert to Catholicism, never lost her roots to Judaism. It was important for me to have my children learn, through her story, that bad things happen to good people.

Aida L. Irizarry
[...] ... Read more

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The guideline that runs through all [Stein's] work is theinquiry into the question of the nature of the human person. Beginningwith her dissertation on empathy and following through to the works ofher maturity, the reader becomes aware of the thrust toward revealingthe person as person, in its universality, transcending time and placeand cultural milieu. Stein holds that phenomenology supplies the mosteffective means towards arriving at knowledge of what it means to be aperson, and that phenomenological analysis can reveal the essentialconstitution of human-being-in-the-world...
My purpose in this book is to remove the wrapping and lid from thegift that Edith Stein has given us and to say: `Look! See what isinside.' In a first attempt in English to do this in a comprehensiveway... I have indicated the need for ongoing study and critique. ... Read more

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In this account of the life, work and ethics of four Jewish female intellectuals in the world of the Holocaust, Rachel Feldhay Brenner explores the ways in which these women sought to maintain their faith in humanity while aware of exacerbating destruction. She argues that through their written responses of autobiographical self-assertion Edith Stein, Simone Weil, Anne Frank and Etty Hillesum resisted the Nazi terror in ways that defy its horrifying dehumanization. Personal identity crises engendered the intellectual-spiritual acts of autobiograpical self-searching for each of these women. About to become a nun in 1933, Edith Stein embarked on her autobiography as a daughter of a Jewish family. Fleeing France and deportation in 1942, Simone Weil examined her inner struggle with faith and the Church in her "Spiritual Autobiography". Hiding for over two years in the attic, Anne Frank poignantly confides in her diary about her efforts to become a better person. Having volunteered as a social worker in Westerbork, Etty Hillesum searches her soul for love in the reality of terror. In each case, autobiographical writing becomes an act of defiance that asserts humanity in a dehumanized/dehumanizing world. By focusing on the four women's accomplishments as intellectuals, writers and thinkers, Brenner's account liberates them from other posthumous treatments that depict them as symbols of altruism, sanctity and victimization. Her approach also elucidates the particular predicament of Western Jewish intellectuals, who trusted the ideals of the Enlightenment and believed in human fellowship. While suffering the terror of physical annihilation decreed by the Final Solution, these Jews had to contend with their exclusion from the world that they considered theirs. On yet another level, this study of four extraordinary life stories contributes to a deeper understanding of the postwar development of ethical, theological and feminist thought. In showing concern about a world that had ceased to care for them, Stein, Weil, Frank and Hillesum demonstrated that the meaning of human existence consisted in the responsibility for the other, in the protection of the suffering God, in the primary value of relatedness through empathy. Arguing that their ethical tenets anticipated the thought of such postwar thinkers as Levinas, Fackenheim, Tillich, Arendt and Nodding, Brenner proposes that the breakup of the humanist tradition of the Enlightenment in the Holocaust engendered the postwar exploration of humanist potential in self-givenness to the other. ... Read more

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Any state exists only for the benefit of human beings. This basic tenet of Edith Stein's political thought rests on her conviction that humanity is fundamentally one community, precious beyond measure. Differences of race, culture, and language offer us means to grasp the values of life uniquely so that we may share them universally, reaching across all such social boundaries. Stein wrote this treatise in the early days of the Weimar Republic, shortly after the First World War. It sets forth a philosophy of law, government, and administration that is at once idealistic and practical. What is right, Stein argues, does not arise from legislation or litigation or politics. Right relations, as such, are more basic than any institution. Here, too, are Stein's first serious discussions of religious issues such as quilt, expiation, and freedom of conscience. This is the philosophical work that immediately preceded her decision to be baptized on January 1, 1922. Whether ironically or predictably, Stein was put to death twenty years later by a state that brazenly defied nearly every principle that she had defended in this treatise. In death she bore personal witness to the unity and dignity of the human race. She perished with her people, Jews and Christians alike, at Auschwitz in August 1942. ... Read more

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MacIntyre is one of the major British philosophers of the post-war years. He is a convert to Roman Catholicism. Edith Stein was an intellectual of considerable importance in the period between the two World Wars, also canonised as a Saint. A Jewish convert to Catholicism, she died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. Stein's published essays focused largely on the structure of the person and a careful articulation of the essential nature of community and its basis in our nature as persons. MacIntyre looks at Stein as both a theologian and philosopher, and reveals many of the fundamental issues in both disciplines. ... Read more

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Saint, Carmelite Sister, Convert from Judaism, Author, Philosopher, Scholar, Humanitarian.
[The following is from the life of Edith Stein, from Bob and Penny Lord's book, "Martyrs - They died for Christ)
Saint Edith Stein was born in Poland on October 12, 1891.Her parent were Jewish.She was a brilliant student.When she turned seventeen, she entered a Girl's High School in Breslau.At the same time, in another part of Germany, another teenager - Adolph Hitler was failing an entrance exam to the Academy of Arts and already blaming it all on the Jews.Two teenagers - one a Saint and the other damned to Hell for all eternity.
God placed her (Edith) among Jewish intellectuals who had become Christians.Although she considered herself an atheist, she found herself seeking truth, and she later wrote that anyone seeking truth is in reality longing to find God, whether he knows it or not.
Meanwhile, Hitler in 1919 was writing, in his first manifesto: Because of the crimes the Jews had committed, they were to be removed from their midst.[On January 20, 1942, in Berlin there was a conference attended by high ranking officials of the Third Reich.It was decided 11,000,000 Jews were to be exterminated.]
Most of her friends had converted to the Lutheran Faith, and it is believed what held her up from converting was, she really did not know which Church she should join.When she read Saint Teresa of Avila's autobiography, she said that she knew this was the truth, that the Catholic Church contained the Truth, our Lord Jesus Christ, Himself.Edith walked the difficult path between her loyalty to her mother and Judaism, and her growing awareness of this God Who was growing inside her.January 1, 1922, Edith Stein was baptized.
January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler became Reich Chancellor of Germany.Edith Stein could have fled from Germany, as many German Jews had.Instead, she chose to go to the Cross for her people.She had spoken to her Savior and told Him that she recognized it was His Cross that the Jewish people were being made to carry.She wrote:"Those who understand must accept it with all their heart, for those who do not understand."
On the Feast Day of Saint Teresa of Avila, October 14, 1933, Edith Stein entered the Carmel in Cologne.She took the Religious name "Teresa Benedicta a Cruce", Teresa Blessed by the Cross.She shared with her Spiritual Director that she chose the name because it represented the one who had led her into the Church and the Carmel, Saint Teresa, and the role that she chose: to her Lord through the Cross.She offered up her life for not only the persecuted (the Jews) but the persecutors (the Nazis).She felt that if she did not pray and offer her life for the immortal souls of the Nazis, and for the remission of their sins, as the Savior had done for all mankind, who would?
Saint Edith Stein took her first vows in 1935.When asked how she felt, she replied "Like the Bride of the Lamb". The Nazis marched into the Rhineland, and with them Hell!
1936 was to be a year of pain and joy.When her mother died of cancer, and Edith could not be with her, she thought surely she too would die.Not even the joy of celebrating the Feast Day of the Exaltation of the Cross and her renewing her vows, could stop the ache inher heart.Her sister Rosa was baptized that Christmas.
As Hitler and his forces of destruction spread to Austria in March of 1938 and on to the Sudetenland in September, Edith Stein was taking her final vows.In April of 1938, when she stood before the altar of God and her whole community, she abandoned herself totally to our Lord through His Mother.
Often Saint Edith Stein was spotted praying before the picture of Our Lady of Sorrows.It was not that she was praying for suffering.We believe that she knew that one day she was to walk that Way of the ... Read more

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Murdered at Auschwitz, Edith Stein has become a figure of controversy in the Jewish-Catholic dialogue. Some observers, both Jews and Christians, insist that Stein was sent to the gas chambers because of her Jewish blood and that it would be inappropriate, at least at this time, to declare her a saint of the Holocaust. Others find in her canonization a healing symbol after the atrocities committed against Jews in Christian nations during World War II. In this volume, members of both religious traditions speak to the issue. Contributors: Judith Hershropf Banki, Suzanne Batzdorff, Rachel Feldhay Brenner, Harry James Cargas, Eugene Fisher, Zev Garber, Freda Mary Oben, Daniel Polish, Emanuel Tanay, and Nechama Tec. ... Read more

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This title covers most of Edith Stein's philosophical life, from her early work with Husserl to her later encounters with medieval Christian thought, as well as a critical and analytical reading of major Steinian texts. Stein was an original thinker who challenged not only the direction in which Husserlian phenomenology was progressing but also sought to bring to philosophical light the relevance of certain key questions, including the meaning of what it is to be human, the relevance of metaphysics to science, and fundamental questions about the nature of God. Working to correct the perception that Stein is either an 'unfaithful and distorting' phenomenologist or a pious Catholic mystic, Calcagno brings to light important work that has been neglected by both secular and religious scholars. The essays are not merely expository, but discuss the philosophical questions raised by Stein's work from a contemporary perspective, using Stein's original German texts. ... Read more

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"A valuable contribution to the existing literature on Edith Stein. These quality essays are written by a well-established international network of commentators and translators of Stein." —Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, author of Hannah Arendt: For Love of the World

"We badly need this new book on Edith Stein, so that we may ponder how a brilliant Jewish woman in Weimar Germany could become a Carmelite nun, yet retain a vivid Jewish identity and close ties to her family. The essays help us synthesize Stein's troubling legacy as an accomplished philosopher, a Catholic saint, a Jewish daughter, and a stubborn feminist who was trapped in very dark times indeed." —Deborah Hertz, Herman Wouk Chair in Modern Jewish Studies, University of California at San Diego, and author of Jewish High Society in Old Regime Berlin

"Readers will be fascinated by this multidisciplinary, state-of-the-art, well-contextualized essay collage on the life and writings of Edith Stein. A remarkable woman in every respect, the deeply spiritual Edith Stein crossed many seemingly uncrossable boundaries—national, linguistic, religious, intellectual—in her search for understanding of the human condition. This volume, ably orchestrated by Joyce Berkman, provides English-language readers an excellent introduction to a brilliant, complex, twentieth-century European woman: intellectual, philosopher, feminist, Jew, Christian, and Catholic saint." —Karen Offen, Ph.D., Institute for Research on Women and Gender, Stanford University

Controversy surrounding the beatification and canonization of Edith Stein, a Catholic convert of Jewish heritage who was murdered at Auschwitz, has eclipsed scholarly and public attention to Stein’s extraordinary development as a philosopher. Divided into three sections—biographical explorations, Stein's feminist theory and pedagogy, and her creative philosophical contributions—the sixteen essays in this volume represent the first comprehensive interdisciplinary analysis in English of Stein’s life and philosophical writings. ... Read more

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Edited by John Sullivan, OCD. Collection of papal documents and other materials related to the beatification and canonization of Edith Stein.
This booklet acquaints the reader with major Vatican pronouncements made at the time of Edith Stein's canonization late in 1998, as well as the pope's homily at the Eucharist of her beatification on May 1, 1987.

You can read how the niece of Saint Edith interprets (Jewish) family sentiment about the canonization, and learn the official position of the United States' bishops clearly outlined by their representative for Catholic-Jewish relations.

The editor has devised a useful select bibliography to assist further reading. He is the most recent recipient of the Edith Stein Award of the Edith Stein Guild, given to acknowledge his efforts 'in fostering better understanding between Christians and Jews, specifically by bringing Edith Stein's writings to the English-speaking world.' ... Read more

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Edith Stein was beatified in 1987 and canonized in 1998 but is still relatively unknown in the English-speaking world. She provides an example of a Christian thinker deeply engaged in the debates of her own day, and her work offers models and insights for addressing the questions of the twenty-first century.

Sarah Borden presents an overview of St Edith Stein's life and thought, beginning with her biography. She then covers her early work in phenomenology, her political writings, her studies on women and women's education, as well her later turn to medieval metaphysics, and spiritual and religious texts. The final chapter covers the controversies surrounding Stein's beatification and canonization.

Arranged by topic and proceeding largely in chronological order, the book is accessible and aimed at a general audience, although the material is presented in such a way as to be useful to specialists. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An excellent introduction
Borden has done a very deft job of introducing a complex thinker to non-specialist audiences. As a trained Catholic philosopher, Borden is able to explain both Stein's pre-Catholic and post-conversion work, which includes philosophical, educational, and spiritual writings on topics ranging from the nature of the state to the prayer of the church.

She has a really valuable ability to express philosophical ideas briefly and clearly, and goes into considerable detail on Stein's theories of empathy, the person, woman, etc. More general readers may skip some of the philosophical detail, but will still find many parts of the book interesting.

Having done a recent dissertation on Stein, she is up-to-date on the large and growing body of Stein scholarship and often succinctly indicates where the current philosophical debates lie. She also includes a chapter on the Jewish-Catholic controversy surrounding Stein's canonization by Pope John Paul II.

This is a perfect introduction for academic readers coming to Stein for the first time. It's not for those interested mainly in Stein as a saint, however: there are many hagiographical and biographical books on Stein but this is not one of them. It is a work aimed at giving a sympathetic but objective overview of Stein as a thinker. ... Read more