The Review of Metaphysics

Among contemporary Christian thinkers the figure of Edith Stein looms large, both because of her remarkable life as a Jewish convert and Christian martyr, and because of her uncommon philosophical journey from phenomenology to metaphysics—without leaving phenomenology behind. In The Living Philosophy of the Edith Stein, marshaling resources of psychology, Peter Tyler provides a novel guide through Stein’s life and thought by drawing her into dialogue with Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and [End Page 164] Ludwig Wittgenstein, among others. Comprised of eight chapters in two parts, Tyler discusses the Husserlian inspiration of Stein’s philosophy and her exposition of the problem of empathy, the necessary anthropological foundation of all psychologies—whether Freudian, Jungian, or Christian—and her development of an involved anthropology centered on the soul, and the influence of the spiritual writings of St. John of the Cross on her later thought and her integrity as a philosopher who presents a genuine living philosophy.

Tyler opens the book with a prologue detailing the rationale behind his choice of Stein for a study of the nature and life of the soul—a predominating area of research for him—since he discovers in Stein a faithful guide to the uniqueness of the person and inspiration for living a truly soulful life (ein seelisches Leben). Chapter 1 provides those new to Stein with an overview of her life through the lens of her personal empathetic abilities, before moving on in chapter 2 to a discussion of the Husserlian foundations of her thought in the phenomenological revolution of the early part of the twentieth century. Taking Husserl’s last work (Die Krisis der europäischen Wissenschaften und die transzendentale Phänomenologie: Eine Einleitung in die phänomenologische Philosophie) as his focal point, Tyler presents an outline of the phenomenological method for those unfamiliar, highlighting its particular interests and peculiar significance as well as its inspiration in and responsivity to the thought of René Descartes and Immanuel Kant.

In chapters 3 through 5 we get a presentation of the distinctiveness of Stein’s understanding of the soul, an understanding (finally) grounded in the anthropology of the Christian tradition yet informed by her use of the phenomenological method and general interest in the developing discipline of psychology. Here Tyler begins by detailing the implication of Stein’s understanding of empathy for the field of philosophy and the foundations of philosophical psychology, and he proceeds by bringing Stein’s philosophical-psychological insights into conversation with Nietzsche, Freud, and Jung. In both areas, Tyler shows how Stein’s critical synthesis of all she encounters furnishes her with a unique ability to provide a compelling and realistic account of the soul, one both philosophically robust and psychologically sensitive. In chapter 5, the stated centerpiece of the book, Tyler turns directly to Stein’s anthropology and begins to unpack certain leading features of her involved conception of the nature and life of the soul, inclusive of her corresponding conception of the levels of the personal self.

This foundational interpretive exposition by Tyler gives way in part 2 to a presentation of what he calls Stein’s “life philosophy”—that is, “how her ‘living philosophy’ may be lived out, especially in a new ‘age of anxiety’.” Here Tyler returns to the narrative of Stein’s life—though he never leaves her personal story behind—and gradually unfolds a number of its salient features, notably: (1) the manner in which her life and thought are deeply interwoven; (2) the traction for life that can be found in her philosophical insights; and thus (3) the ways in which her philosophy is a genuine [End Page 165] philosophy for life. Simply stated: Stein the person witnesses to a life lived in profound engagement with truth, and Stein the thinker provides acute observations for realizing a truly human life. Here Tyler additionally shows how Stein has recourse to the Christian mystical tradition—mediated by the Carmelite tradition of St. John of the Cross—and to the poetry of Gerard...