„Any Woman is Nothing but a Woman” – Edith Stein’s Theological Vision of Women’s Role in Church and Society

Abstract

The article analyses Edith Stein’s theological view of women’s role in the
Church and society. First, the phase of her life is presented during which she wrote her essays about women. Second, the methodological question is discussed how we can interpret her works as theological. In the main part her understanding of sexes is presented. Stein describes three levels of a human being. On the first level all people are equal and should therefore have the same political rights and educational opportunities (egalitarianism). On the second level, Stein speaks about difference between women and men in nearly essentialists categories. On the third level, she writes about exceptionality of every person (individualism). It follows that not every woman must have ‘female’ characteristics from the second level. In order to understand her thinking about women, it is very important that her integrate theological and anthropological vision should be taken into consideration.