Cornelio Fabro on Edith Stein : From Philosophy to Martyrdom

Cornelio Fabro’s writings on Edith Stein elucidate Fabro’s understanding of Stein’s contemporary relevance to philosophical debates about the relationship between Thomism and Phenomenology.
For the first time in the English Language, Joshua Furnal brings together a selection of works that are representative of Cornelio Fabro’s perspective on Edith Stein, offering a distinctive yet overlooked contribution to Steinian literature. Furnal begins, in the introduction, by exploring the impact of Edith Stein’s writings on Fabro’s stance toward the phenomenological tradition. Fabro’s engagement with phenomenology first surfaced in 1941 when he published two books simultaneously: Perception and Thought and The Phenomenology of Perception. Subsequently, his engagement with Stein’s philosophical writings first appeared in publications from 1949 to 1951, and then again in 1969, 1978, and 1989 in relation to her canonization process.
Fabro’s significance to Stein studies is due not only to his involvement in writing the dossier that facilitated her canonization process at the Vatican, but also to his appreciation for her existential approach to the relationship between faith and reason—which led her to martyrdom. As a Thomist and priest, Fabro viewed Stein as an important philosopher in her own right and saw an important link between his own Stigmatine background and Stein’s spirituality. This translation introduces Fabro’s understanding of Stein’s philosophy and sainthood and the broader issues that converge at the intersection of their thought.