Expressing Faith in a Phenomenological Mother Tongue

Edith Stein, in her work Finite and Eternal Being, argues that faith can be a legitimate source of knowledge, expanding the scope of rationality beyond what philosophy alone offers. Using the phenomenological first-person perspective and concepts of intention and fulfillment, she describes different ways of knowing God, culminating in lived mystical experience. Stein proposes a common epistemological ground where both believers and non-believers can engage, suggesting that theology and philosophy, while distinct, can enrich each other. This anticipates the work of later 'new phenomenologists' like Emmanuel Levinas and Jean-Luc Marion.

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Abstract

The article first exposes a section in Edith Stein’s masterwork, Finite and Eternal Being, where she explicitly reflects upon the relation between philosophy and theology, and on the possibility of a Christian philosophy. Here, Stein enlarges the scope of rationality when propagating faith as a source of knowledge in its own right. The phenomenological first-person perspective and notions of intention and fulfillment help to elucidate the different ways of getting to know God, finding its utmost source in the lived mystical experience. Despite including theological content in her phenomenological analysis, Stein proposes a possible “common ground” where the non-believer is also invited to join in an epistemological effort. This proposition, I suggest, is pointing forward to the contributions of the so-called “new phenomenologists” of the last half-century, Emmanuel Levinas and Jean-Luc Marion being examples of how theology and philosophy, though separate, may enrich each other.