EDITH STEIN'S INTEGRATION OF PHENOMENOLOGY INTO CHRISTIAN REALISM

We find a wonderful synthesis of Husserlian phenomenology and Thomism in the later thought of Edith Stein, inspired by her conversion to the Catholic faith. The resulting relational ontology presents being as opening up and unfolding into infinity. Stein's thought is an integration, not a compromise, of phenomenological attentiveness to lived experience with the metaphysical realism of the Christian tradition, especially of Thomas Aquinas, ordered towards a fuller understanding of the human person as grounded in truth, open to transcendence, and ultimately fulfilled in God.