Edith Stein:The Life of a Philosopher and Carmelite (review)

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Stein: Life of a Philosopher and Carmelite. Authorized and revised biography by her Prioress Sister Teresia Renata Posselt, O.C.D; edited by Susanne M. Batzdorff, Josephine Koeppel, and John Sullivan. (Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications. 2005. Pp.xx, 372. $15.95 paperback.) In this new edition of the Reminiscences of Prioress Teresia Renata Posselt of the Cologne Carmel concerning Stein, which she decided to write because of her shock at Stein's cruel death in the Shoah and the destruction of Europe's Jews, Stein's niece, the author Susanne M. Batzdorff, translated the first six chapters of Posselt's memoir into English. Father John Sullivan, Director of the Institute of Carmelite Studies in Washington, D.C., translated Chapters 7-12. He dealt mainly with Stein's philosophy. Sister Josephine Koeppel, who long ago opened an Edith-SteinCenter in her Carmel in Elysburg, Pennsylvania, has become best known in Stein research in Europe through her valuable translation of Life in a Jewish Family. She translated Chapters 14-21 of this book.This new edition differs from the earlier one in two important ways: First, the chapters are recast in a text that follows Posselt's German original more closely; second, the biographical data are amplified by notes, commentaries, and bibliographic information. A detailed chronology of Stein's life, photographs of her times, and maps of the major locations she visited have been included. Gleanings offer comments and background information, and errors and misunderstandings have been corrected. Where passages have been removed, they are cited in the takeouts, and the reasons for such alterations are explained. Examples of Koeppel's sober analyses are that Stein lived in the so-called parental home on Michaelisstrasse only since 1910, since her mother, an able businesswoman in Breslau, frequently moved her residence in response to the growth of her flourishing lumber business. Prior to World War I, independent enterprise flourished as the advancement of These trends were destroyed for the most part through the inability of the German emperor William II and Hitler. Stein once mentioned that her mother experienced some trouble in her married life, but such things were not generally talked about at that time.Therefore, the translators omitted Posselt's description of a happy marriage with Siegfried Stein. When I met Josephine Koeppel in Germany, I was amazed at her American independence with which she investigated all over Europe. For me she was a ray of hope in the spirit of the second Vatican Council, for which Stein and people like Teresia Renata Posselt helped to create a theological and spiritual basis. On pages 347-353 passages are listed which could lead to misunderstandings, e.g. the religious philosopher Erich Przywara (who was not a Nazi) says that Stein did not look Jewish. Bibliographic footnotes and commentaries are meant to counter such ambiguities or explain them for today's readers, for example: The Jews crucified Jesus, therefore they must now wander like Ahasver all over the world. Or such comments as Edith Stein was very modest, something that was not usually the case with Jewish women. Such prejudices paralyzed many Germans, so that during the Nazi period they were hardly able to rescue their threatened fellow citizens. Such anti-Judaisms are omitted from the text but cited in the so-called Take-Outs. …