Essays on Woman

Reading Edith Stein's Essays on Woman

This fall I’m co-leading a reading group on Edith Stein, primarily her Essays on Woman, which is a collection of talks she gave in the 1930s around central Europe on the topic of woman. I use the verb “leading” generously, for I am in the group with Stein scholars and sitting at their feet, asking all the questions that I can.

Icon by Fr Richard G Cannuli OSA

I first heard about Edith Stein at the 2004 Calvin Festival of Faith and Writing when the theater group there produced a play about her arrest and death in the concentration camps. Her life story is inspiring, a narrative written by her Creator. Born into a Jewish family on Oct 12, 1891 (we just celebrated her birthday this month), Stein was the youngest of 11 children. Now that she has been canonized, the facts of her life are reinterpreted as signs of her future holiness. For instance, she was born during Yom Kippur, the Feast of Atonement.