Freda Mary Oben

Picked this up at the interfaith library booksale today - it caught my eye because I recently learned about St Edith's work on empathy while researching my thesis. It reads a bit, but not too much, like hagiography.

I hadn't realized what an accomplished philosopher she was - her work in academia seems remarkable to me, given the times.

I find much in this brief discussion of her work that I like, but I just cannot swallow her dual-nature anthropology (ie, men and women have distinctive natures); though I do see how it qualifies as a feminist stance given the times, and the Kinder, Küche, Kirche context in which she was working. I strongly suspect her work significantly influenced JPII's Theology of the Body (anybody know for sure?).

The subtitle was a bit premature -- Edith Stein was not canonized until 1998; but her story is certainly an inspiration. Her feastday is August 9th.… (mehr)