Understanding light: the contemplative pedagogy of Edith Stein
Michele Kueter Petersen
CUADERNOS DE PENSAMIENTO December 5, 2025 DOI: 10.51743/cpe.475 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation Mysticism |
| Keywords | Contemplation Spirituality Transformative learning Enlightenment Faith Phenomenology philosophy Relation database Aesthetics Epistemology Spiritual practice Spiritual development Constructive Dialectic Facticity Self Philosophy of education |
| Key points | Argues that Edith Stein's philosophy provides a contemplative pedagogy that transforms religious education from passive belief into an active, relational, and morally formative process of 'transformative transcendence.' |
Abstract
We learn to philosophize and reflect both on what we think and how we think about what we think when we think with Edith Stein about education and religion. This article seeks to illuminate the philosophical gifts that Stein brings to religious pedagogy, including her stance on the importance of the acceptance of the divine will to advance in spiritual discernment. Under her tutelage, what is often inculcated as the mere passive reception of the light of revelatory faith becomes a philosophically illuminating act of transformative transcendence. The call to teach and to learn thus cultivates not just passive belief but the emergence of great-souled moral force laying the ground for a new Age of Enlightenment centered on a light-bearing relational being-true rather than on the mere outward illumination of fact. In the cultivation of interiority, Stein imparts a contemporary rule of life in teaching and learning as a vocation whereby the evolution of individuality becomes an integrative flow between contemplation and action. To bear and to understand light is to learn to see in a new way with the eyes of faith. The relation between being and becoming in the intersection between education, vocation, and spirituality helps us come to recognize in the mystery of our lives and for the sake of others what it is that we should do. Stein lays out a contemplative pedagogy of the heart that reflects the intellectual rigor of her philosophical education and training in phenomenology as well as the spiritual vigor of her religious life.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on mysticism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The mystical mind: probing the biology of religious experience | 2000 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Religious and Mystical Experiences as Artifacts of Temporal Lobe Function: A General Hypothesis | 1983 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Problem of Pure Consciousness: Mysticism and Philosophy | 1993 | Edited collection of essays | |
| Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century | 2020 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mysticism and schizophrenia: A phenomenological exploration of the structure of consciousness in the schizophrenia spectrum disorders. | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |