Following the excellent conference in Cologne this summer here is an extract from my paper on Stein and Resilience. As well as a picture of the remarkable Stein memorial in Cologne.
best wishes
Peter
‘A
scientia
crucis (‘science of the cross’) can be
gained only when one comes to feel the Cross radically.’[1]
In their 2016 essay
on the subject, Cook and White suggest that there are three essential elements
of resilience:
1. ‘Confrontation of
significant adversity or risk’
2. ‘The use of
internal and external resources to cope amidst adversity’ and
3. ‘A positive
outcome’ (Cook and White 2016: 2)
Edith
Stein’s experience at the hands of the Nazis in the 1930s and 40s clearly came
under category one and she certainly displayed, in testimonials and letters, an
ability to ‘cope amidst adversity’. But, a ‘positive outcome’? Systematic
humiliation and trial, transportation across Germany in a stinking cattle wagon
with no food or water, leading to the eventual extermination of a wise, pious
and compassionate middle-aged woman in the degradation of Auschwitz - can this be called a positive outcome? Well, on the basis of psycho-somatic metrics,
obviously not. Yet, this is a paper concerning psycho-spiritual reflection on resilience, and if there is one
thing we can learn from the Christian scriptures it is that the ‘foolishness of
God is wiser than human wisdom, and that God’s weakness is stronger than human
strength’ (1 Cor 1: 25). Thus, in this paper I want to bring Edith Stein, her
experiences and her reflections thereupon, into conversation with the emerging
discourse of resilience. Already it will be apparent that the unique
circumstances of Stein’s life, force us into new positions, perhaps
uncomfortable to the psychologist but always rewarding for the theologian. In
this respect I see this paper as part of an ongoing project of dialogue between
theology and psychology that began with my book The Pursuit of the Soul (Tyler 2016).
What is clear in the emerging
discourse of resilience, as initiated by scholars such as Cook and White, is
that a distinction can be made between the healthy individual and the resilient
individual, which distinguishes it from the now well established discourse of
mental health, with all its pitfalls and problems.
Which is to say that
rather than borrowing its terminology from medical tropes, the language of
resilience encourages us to move beyond the borders of the purely medical as we
stray into the borders of spirituality and religion. From this I would like to
suggest that pathology and human suffering, rather than being something to be
swept under the carpet are ‘authentic, real and valuable as they are’ (Hillman
1975: 75).
In this respect the language of resilience, as
I argued in my earlier book, opens up the possibility of ambiguity, paradox, unknowing and the symbolic in our relationship to
the human psyche (or, better, soul) when faced with the extreme conditions
of human existence (see Tyler 2016:177- 179) and this will be a major theme of
this paper as we explore the ‘soul-language’ of Edith Stein.
Secondly, the exploration of the
discourse of resilience allows us to expand upon the transcendent perspective in relation to the individual.
As we shall see, the
transcendent perspective is an essential dimension of the psyche in Stein’s
anthropology and if we are to make sense of her resilience in the face of the
horrors and perversions of the Holocaust then we cannot avoid a discussion of
her analysis of the human being as being essentially a homo transcendens.
[1] Letter
to Mother Ambrosia Antonia Engelmann, the Prioress of Echt Convent, December
1941, 9 months before Edith Stein’s deportation to and death at Auschwitz
Concentration Camp (in Stein 1993: 341).
