Title: Edith Stein: Scholar, Feminist, Saint  Author: Freda Mary Oben, Ph D  ISBN: 0-8189-0523-9  Paperback: 80 pp.  Price: $5.95 + shipping  To Order call: 1 800-343-ALBA (2522) Please have your Master or Visa card ready

On August 9, 1942, a Carmelite nun of Jewish descent was among the people gassed by the Nazis at Auschwitz and buried in a mass grave. Later, her body, like the others, was exhumed and cremated. By all human reckoning, Sr. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, born Edith Stein, should have passed into total oblivion. But in the years since her death, biographies have been written about her; her writings have been published and translated; and she was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1987. What is the reason for all this? Why is Edith Stein more famous now than she was when she was alive? You'll find the answers in this masterful work on a remarkable woman who was a Jewish convert, philosopher, educator, feminist, contemplative nun -- and martyr for the Faith.

 

Dr. Freda Mary Oben is a noted authority on the life and works of Edith Stein. Like Edith, she is a convert from Judaism. She received a Ph.D. in literature from the Catholic University of America, has taught and lectured widely, and has written for several journals. Her second book for Alba House (2001), The Life and Thought of St. Edith Stein treats in greater detail the philosophical approach that Edith used to wed phenomenology to scholasticism. Reviews "Dr. Oben reveals Edith Stein's classic traditional Catholicism by noting this philosopher's great love for Our Lady. In addition, the Carmelite martyr had, naturally, total respect for consecrated virginity, as well as a normative view of Christian marriage. She rejected the idea of priesthood for women because neither Mary nor any of Christ's women disciples were made priests. It is helpful to be reminded of Edith Stein's orthodoxy, so that we can see that no movement can impress her into its service. Her remarks about women becoming educated, concerned with the vital issues of the day, and entering the professions, do not put her in the feminist camp... Edith Stein, now more rightfully called Blessed Teresa Benedicta, is Saint and Scholar. In that order." --Homiletic and Pastoral Review "To appreciate this beautifully written story of Edith Stein, with its hagiographic approach disciplined by careful research, it is necessary to suspend the normal Jewish reaction of dismay at one who forsook her own religion to discover within Christianity spiritual resources which were at least equally available in her own tradition... There is no doubt of the greatness of Stein's intellectual and spiritual stature. This is borne out both in her struggle to absorb new insights on woman in the Church's theology, and in her struggle to achieve atonement for Nazi evil... This book is recommended as a lucid introduction to Stein's life and thoughts, but not as an impartial critical biography. It is short, written with evident love, and provided with illustrations and useful references." --Norman Solomon in Christian Jewish Relations Top of Page