Edith Stein: Self Portrait in Letters - 1916-42.

1942, while working on her posthumously published Science of the Cross, she was put in the Westerbork transit camp in Holland along with her sister Rosa and a number of other religious of Jewish origin. In a letter from that camp she tells her superior that they were to be deported east and requests some clothing and the next volume of her breviary. Within a week she was gassed at Auschwitz along with her sister, the other religious, and, as we now know, the Dutch writer Etty Hillesum who mentions in her own correspondence seeing some nuns at Westerbork.

The Institute of Carmelite Studies has been publishing Stein's complete works from the German edition of the Edith Stein--Werke. The volume of letters reviewed here is the fifth volume in that series. It is a heartbreaking work to read, especially as one gets into the letters from the 1930s. The letters range from her philosophical correspondence with the Polish phenomenologist Roman Ingarden in the 1920s to the vast correspondence she carried on with a range of persons after she entered the Carmelite cloister in Cologne. The letters reflect an authentically saintly mind that was capable of enormous human generosity. Along the way one gets glimpses of German intellectual life between the wars. I was struck, for example, that Martin Heidegger refused to take her on as a member of his seminar since she would later be seeking "Catholic" employment. Heidegger refers her to Professor Honecker, the Thomist philosopher. Interestingly enough, Honecker is the same professor who failed (!) Karl Rahner for being too "Kantian" in his reading of Thomas. Rahner had wanted to work with Heidegger (whose seminars he followed) but did not think that the master wanted a Jesuit student under his tutelage. The irony, of course, is that Rahner went back to Innsbruck, banged out a quick thesis in theology, and went on to teach and become one of the best known theologians of the century. O felix culpa!

However interesting these intellectual crossings are, what one gets from reading the entire correspondence is a sense of foreboding and awful inevitability. In the early 1930s Edith Stein laconically mentions that she can no longer teach for the sisters because of the racial laws. Soon her letters refer to relatives who emigrate, the "troubles" some of them are having in Europe, the tumult against Jews in the streets, etc. The ominous tone increases as mention is made (while Stein is in Holland) of the registration of non-Aryans; of "police permits" and the denial of exit visas; of her pathetic attempt (a month before she died) to transfer to a Swiss Carmel; and, finally, the optimistic note from Westerbork saying that "we were given a very friendly reception here" and the possibility that they would be freed "or at least that we may remain here." The footnotes to these letters are studded with the laconic phrase "died at Auschwitz."

This is a chastening work to read. Stein (in religion: Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) was a woman of profound faith and deep learning. Her letters exude a love for the liturgy (she had close contacts with the liturgical centers at Maria Laach and Bueron Abbeys), a vast experiential knowledge of mystical prayer (her favorite times of the monastic day were the two hours of silent contemplative meditation), and a wide compassion for others. The Institute of Carmelite Studies should be congratulated for this well annotated and careful edition of her letters which only enhances the other volumes in this series on one of the authentic great souls of our century.

In December 1979, the current pope removed the missio canonica of Hans Kung. In practice that meant Kung was declared ineligible to be considered as a professor of Catholic theology. In consequence, Kung no longer could be considered a member of the Catholic faculty of theology at the University of Tubingen, Germany (Kung himself is Swiss), or entrusted with the training of future priests and theologians. Kung continues at Tubingen as the head of the Institute for Ecumenical