Good and Evil in the Life and Work of Edith Stein

Freda Mary Oben Good and Evil in the Life and Work of Edith Stein Until the end of time, writes St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), good and evil will do battle. In exploring her views on this crucial issue, it is important both to examine what she has written on this theme and to reflect on her life and character. For she not only felt the need to develop her philosophy but to follow perfectly the moral demands that it imposes. As a saint, she is the epitome of goodness; as a martyr, she is a symbol of evil's oppression. The Church lauds her as a woman ofheroic virtue. What was she like as a young Jew? She tells us herself that, as a youngster, she already realized that it is better to be good than to be smart. She had been subject to frequent tantrums as a small child, but at the age of seven, grew quiet and obedient. Her high-school friends prized her for her gaiety, loyalty, and empathy; she was a good friend, listening and helping when needed.Wedded to the social scene, she read the daily newspapers and discussed the issues of the day, already an ardent suffragette.A patriotic Prussian, she served for six months as a Red Cross nurse duringWorld War I, in an epidemic hospital in Austria: Sister Edith gave tireless, courageous devotion to her logos 3:1 winter 2000 ?78 LOGOS patients to the point of staying up nights in worry, smoking countless cigarettes, and drinking too much coffee! As a student and assistant to Edmund Husserl, she wrote phenomenological works on the nature of the individual in relation to others: her dissertation On the Problem ofEmpathy ; Psychische Kausalit ät2 (Psychic Causality); and Individuum und Gemeinschaft^ (The Individual and the Community). She had inherited the Jewish social consciousness with its sensitivity to the needs and rights of others and writes that she had "a feeling for the solidarity not only of all mankind but also of smaller social entities."4 Claiming to be an atheist from fourteen to twenty-one years old, she was yet concerned with the ideal ofpersonal goodness and the common good. She developed a political philosophy based on the spiritual person who is motivated by right values to activate justice in recognition ofthe rights of"the other."According to this philosophy , empathetic relationships constitute an organic, spiritual solidarity that fosters human rights in the family, community, nation and the world. So our young Edith, concerned with the good, thought she was good as well. But yet, she was known as a keen wit, at times as "enchantingly malicious."5This critical bent extended to everything and everybody around her. In the autobiography ofher youth, Life in aJewish Family, she tells a story aimed at herself. A college friendhad said to her, "[Y]ou seem to have become far too critical." She confesses : "I had always considered it my privilege to make remarks about everything I found negative, inexorably pointing out other persons' weaknesses, mistakes, or faults of which I became aware, often using a ridiculing or sarcastic tone ofvoice."6 But she was soon to say that one has to accept people as you find them, that you do not win anything by"telling a person off,"that the only way to influence anyone is to be the way you want them to be. And, in just a few years, she was already admired by her colleagues and students at the Dominican Teachers' Institute for her saintly THE LIFE AND WORK OF EDITH STEIN qualities, for herjoy and peace, patient endurance, generosity, mildness , discretion, and great faith.What had happened? She had found Christ and knew that her priority was to develop holiness and to become "another Christ." Christian Philosopher-Theologian Through Husserl, Stein had a cursory contact withThomasAquinas, but she never mentions him in her autobiography or letters as a factor in her conversion. She does speak precisely of other persons in this regard (Max Scheler, Adolf and Anna Reinach,Teresa ofAvila). Testimony has been given that she started to studyAquinas in earnest as preparation for baptism.7 Before going to our topic...