STEINIANA: Revista de Estudios Interdisciplinarios

God, experience and «interiority» in Edith Stein's phenomenology: is it legitimate to believe in a real divine presence as object of religious experience if it is equally legitimate to doubt the divine nature of such object?

Juvenal Savian Filho — 2023-12-28

By describing religious experience, Edith Stein reveals not only her analysis of this specific experience, but also the meaning of her own phenomenology. Accepting the suggestion of her friend Roman Ingarden to establish a parallel between the treatment given to the «reality» of the «world» and the treatment given to the «object» of religious experience, Edith Stein makes it clear that, if it is rationally legitimate to believe in a divine being as object of experience, it is also methodically legitimate to doubt the divine nature of any object of experience. By its supernatural essence, the Transcendent Reality, God, ensures that the experience of him does not need proof, a fact that would serve as a basis for the parallel with the affirmation of the «reality» or «objectivity» of the «world». However, this problem cannot be treated in the terms of the so-called «debate idealism versus realism»; and, specifically regarding the description of religious experience, it will only be authentic if it treats its object or substance as an attribute of an experience.

Experience of God and Ecosystem. Approach to the theological philosophical foundation from the work Being finite and Being eternal. Essay of an ascent to the sense of Being

Anneliese Meis — 2023-12-28

The present study does not have a specific knowledge of the ecosystem. It is based on a general knowledge of this subject, supported by a review of the most recent literature and a detailed study of Laudato Si. The basic delimitation, enriched and changed by diverse perspectives of multiple accesses in the course of time, orients the access of the present conference from Edith Stein's "philosophy of being" as an "outline of a doctrine of being", based on the original experience configured as a symphony, thanks to the open interrelation of philosophy with theology and vice versa. It starts from the "base of original experience" and its simple certainty of being to elucidate in the human spirit "the reciprocal relationship of consciousness and the objective world" thus approaching the ultimate origin of the ecosystem, the Triune God and One.

Philosophy as a path to God in Edmund Husserl and Edith Stein. The same goal, two different projects

Cristina Bustamante — 2023-12-28

Edith Stein was convinced that philosophy can only achieve its goal of becoming a universal theory of being if it opens itself methodologically and in content to theology. Therefore, even if it becomes philosophy in the Christian state, it must remain an exact science and the domain of natural reason. Hence Stein defines a number of methodological presuppositions that philosophy must fulfil in order to be actively assisted by theology without being transformed into it in any way. It should be noted in this context that this philosophy should, in Stein's view, prepare the way to faith and thus to God himself. Interestingly, Husserl had a similar conception of his phenomenological philosophy, claiming that his phenomenology, as a kind of philosophical theology, should become a way to God. In this respect, he also defined the methodological presuppositions of his philosophy, which, however, were completely different from those of Stein's philosophy. Why? Which methodological conditions are at stake in Stein's philosophy and which in Husserl's thought? I try to answer these and also other questions in my short contribution.

Experience and society: Some contributions of Edith Stein to the analysis of social life

Rubén Sánchez Muñoz — 2023-12-28

Throughout this article we are going to argue that some themes developed by Edith Stein from her philosophy can contribute and contribute to the understanding of our world, that is, aspects of the Steinian philosophy that can help us to understand our social reality. And the fact is that, as she herself shows throughout her work, the human person (which seems central to us) is a social being and when we imagine him outside his links with other people, we fall into a fiction. Therefore, in order to understand important aspects of the person, such as his professional development or the place he occupies in a community or society, we must see and attend to the links he has with others. This proves that Stein maintained from the beginning an idea of subjectivity that can only be understood in the horizon of intersubjectivity. For this reason, in the first section of this paper we explore some ideas concerning the knowledge of the other, which is possible thanks to empathy; in the second section we review the communities of belonging in which the person develops and discovers himself. In the third section we see that this social life is of utmost value in describing and understanding the formation and education of the person, since every process of formation takes place within a group that enables or hinders the development of character. Finally, we indicate some ideas about society and religion, since in this area of social relations, the relationship or religion with God, a Person in the full sense of the word, occupies a special place.

The religious experience of Edith Stein: looking for the footprints of Anna and Adolf Reinach

Pamela Lucía Chávez Aguilar — 2023-12-28

Thanks to empathy, some knowledge of the other’s experience is possible for us. This way, the religious experience of the other can be a door of access to God. Some keys to configure of Edith Stein's religious experience are the affective proximity to the Reinach marriage, the deep suffering for loss and the attempt for common rational understanding. This experience, marked by the mystery of the cross and the Geborhenheit, expresses the biographical journey of the personal being, which unfolds in relation to others.

The aesthetic experience as a propaedeutic way to the experience of God

Maria Aracoeli Beroch — 2023-12-28

In different works of Edith Stein we find allusions and a few reflections on the aesthetic realm, for the main part combined with other topics. For Stein, this realm entails the notions of art, the artist, the beauty and its characteristics, information about the reactions of the spectator before beautiful and/or artistic objects, and finally, God as beauty and author of the beautiful in creation. It is clear that in Stein’s thought aesthetics does not only imply reflection on the beautiful object (natural or manmade) but also reflects on the subject who relates to beauty.

The article aims first to reconstruct Stein’s understanding of the aesthetic experience through various textual clues and personal testimonies of the German thinker. The notion of experience is not univocal, and this is also shown when applying the notion to this field of study. Secondly, the article presents texts, for the most part from the Christian period of Stein’s writings, that reveal how the aesthetic experience opens the way to the ethical and above all to the religious, thus allowing for an experience of God.

Crónica XIII Simposio Internacional Centro UC de Estudios Interdisciplinarios en Edith Stein

Eliana Martínez — 2023-12-28

Editorial

Cristián Nuñez — 2023-12-28

Rubén Sánchez, (2021) Educación, persona y empatía: ¿Es importante la empatía para la educación? (Bogotá: Editorial Aula de humanidades, 184 pgs.)

Camila Romero Romero — 2023-12-28