Editing Edith Stein (section)

==Academic career==
In April 1913, Stein arrived at the [[University of Göttingen]] in order to study for the summer semester with [[Edmund Husserl]]. By the end of the summer, she had decided to pursue her [[doctoral degree]] in philosophy under Husserl and chose [[empathy]] as her thesis topic. Her studies were interrupted in July 1914 because of the outbreak of [[World War I]]. She then served as a volunteer wartime [[Red Cross]] nurse in an uninfectious diseases hospital at [[Hranice (Přerov District)|Mährisch Weißkirchen]] from 7 April to 1 September 1915.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://vahranice.g6.cz/stein.html | title=Vojenská akademie Hranice }}</ref> In 1916, Stein moved to the [[University of Freiburg]] in order to complete her dissertation on [[Empathy]].<ref>Elisa Magrì, Dermot Moran (eds.), ''Empathy, Sociality, and Personhood: Essays on Edith Stein's Phenomenological Investigations'', Springer, 2018, p. 12.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Stein |first=Edith |title=On the Problem of Empathy|year=1989 |isbn=9780935216110 |edition=Third revised |publisher=ICS Publications |location=Washington, D.C. |series=The Collected Works of Edith Stein, vol. 3|oclc=19324020}}</ref> Shortly before receiving her degree from Freiburg she agreed to become Husserl's assistant there. In this role, she differed with Husserl on important issues and made unique contributions to phenomenology as a whole.<ref>Wilhelmsson, John Christopher, "The philosophical contributions of Edith Stein" (2007). Master's Thesis.</ref> Her dissertation entitled ''Das Einfühlungsproblem in seiner historischen Entwicklung und in phänomenologischer Betrachtung''<ref>[https://historyofwomenphilosophers.org/projects/project/edith-stein/ Edith Stein – History of Women Philosophers and Scientists]</ref> (''The Empathy Problem as it Developed Historically and Considered Phenomenologically'')<ref name=SEP>{{sep entry|stein|Edith Stein|Thomas Szanto, Dermot Moran}}</ref>{{efn|Parts II–IV of the dissertation were published under the title ''Zum Problem der Einfühlung'' (''On the Problem of Empathy'') in 1917.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DURuCQAAQBAJ |title=Body, Text, and Science: The Literacy of Investigative Practices and the Phenomenology of Edith Stein |author=M. Sawicki |publisher=Springer |year=2013 |isbn=978-9401139793 |page=90}}</ref>}} was awarded a doctorate in philosophy with the ''[[summa cum laude]]'' honor.{{efn|In his 2007 M.A. thesis, "The Philosophical Contributions of Edith Stein",<ref>Wilhelmsson, John Christopher, [http://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/etd_theses/4017 "The philosophical contributions of Edith Stein"] (2007). Master's Thesis.</ref> John C. Wilhelmsson argues that Stein influenced the work of Husserl significantly during this period.}} Stein then became a member of the faculty at Freiburg, where she worked until 1918 as a [[teaching assistant]] to Husserl, who had transferred to that institution.<ref name=SEP/> The University of Göttingen rejected her [[habilitation thesis]] in 1919.<ref name=SEP/> Although Stein passed her doctoral examination with distinction, her attempts to habilitate failed due to the fact that Stein was a woman.<ref name=SEP/>

Her rejected habilitation thesis, ''Beiträge zur philosophischen Begründung der Psychologie und der Geisteswissenschaften''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://eprints.nuim.ie/393/1/Edith_Stein.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221010/http://eprints.nuim.ie/393/1/Edith_Stein.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-10 |url-status=live |first=Mette |last=Lebech |title=Study Guide to Edith Stein's Philosophy of Psychology and the Humanities |work=Faculty of Philosophy, NUIM, Maynooth}}</ref> (''Contributions to the Philosophical Foundations of Psychology and the Human Sciences''), was published in the ''Jahrbuch für Philosophie und phänomenologische Forschung'' in 1922.<ref name=SEP/> She is categorized as a [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|realistic phenomenologist]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Cibangu|first1=Sylvain K.|last2=Hepworth|first2=Mark|date=April 2016|title=The uses of phenomenology and phenomenography: A critical review|url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0740818816301116|journal=Library & Information Science Research|language=en|volume=38|issue=2|page=150|doi=10.1016/j.lisr.2016.05.001}}</ref>

While Stein had earlier contacts with Catholicism, it was her reading of the autobiography of the mystic [[Teresa of Ávila]] during summer holidays in [[Bad Bergzabern]] in 1921 that prompted her conversion and eventually the desire to seek the life of a [[Discalced Carmelite]]. Baptized on 1 January 1922, and dissuaded by her spiritual advisers from immediately seeking entry to the enclosed and hidden life of a Carmelite nun, Stein obtained a position to teach at the Dominican nuns' school in [[Speyer]] from 1923 to 1931. While there, Stein translated [[Thomas Aquinas]]' ''De Veritate'' (''Of Truth'') into [[German language|German]], familiarized herself with Catholic philosophy in general and tried to bridge the phenomenology of her former teacher, Husserl, to [[Thomism]]. She visited Husserl and Heidegger at Freiburg in April 1929, the same month that Heidegger gave a speech to Husserl on his 70th birthday. In 1932 she became a lecturer at the Catholic Church-affiliated Institute for Scientific [[Pedagogy]] in [[Münster]], but [[Antisemitism|antisemitic]] legislation passed by the [[Nazi Germany|Nazi government]] forced her to resign the post in 1933. In a letter to [[Pope Pius XI]], she denounced the Nazi regime and asked the Pope to openly denounce the regime "to put a stop to this abuse of Christ's name."

{{blockquote|As a child of the Jewish people who, by the grace of God, for the past eleven years has also been a child of the Catholic Church, I dare to speak to the Father of Christianity about that which oppresses millions of Germans. For weeks we have seen deeds perpetrated in Germany which mock any sense of justice and humanity, not to mention love of neighbor. For years the leaders of National Socialism have been preaching hatred of the Jews ... But the responsibility must fall, after all, on those who brought them to this point and it also falls on those who keep silent in the face of such happenings.

Everything that happened and continues to happen on a daily basis originates with a government that calls itself 'Christian'. For weeks not only Jews but also thousands of faithful Catholics in Germany, and, I believe, all over the world, have been waiting and hoping for the Church of Christ to raise its voice to put a stop to this abuse of Christ's name. Is not this idolization of race and governmental power which is being pounded into the public consciousness by the radio open heresy? Isn't the effort to destroy Jewish blood an abuse of the holiest humanity of our Savior, of the most blessed Virgin and the apostles? Is not all this diametrically opposed to the conduct of our Lord and Savior, who, even on the cross, still prayed for his persecutors? And isn't this a black mark on the record of this Holy Year which was intended to be a year of peace and reconciliation? We all, who are faithful children of the Church and who see the conditions in Germany with open eyes, fear the worst for the prestige of the Church, if the silence continues any longer.}}

Her letter received no answer, and it is not known for certain whether the Pope ever saw it.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/this-europe-letters-reveal-auschwitz-victims-plea-to-pope-pius-xi-598301.html |title=This Europe: Letters reveal Auschwitz victim's plea to Pope Pius XI |newspaper=The Independent |access-date=21 February 2003 |location=London |first=Peter |last=Popham |date=21 February 2003}}</ref> However, in 1937 the Pope issued an encyclical written in German, ''[[Mit brennender Sorge]]'' (according to its German first words, lit. "With deep anxiety"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_14031937_mit-brennender-sorge.html|title = Mit Brennender Sorge (March 14, 1937) &#124; PIUS XI}}</ref>), in which he criticized Nazism, listed violations of the [[Reichskonkordat|Concordat]] between Germany and the Church of 1933, and condemned antisemitism.