Published: 2019-04-17

Family in the light of Edith Stein’s integral personalism

Barbara Kmiecik

Abstract

Edith Stein – St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (1891–1942) undertook the issue of the family in the context of analysing a human person as a relational being. She compiled her experiences connected with the family she grew up in. She was aware of the threats awaiting the family connected with maintaining its unity and fulfilling its proper functions. Stein’s concept of the family is first of all community which is characterized by many interpersonal interactions and related values. She also perceived the family as the picture of the God’s image, which is indicated by biblical descriptions of the creation of the man, as well as by Augustinian concept of the Trinity. Man’s resemblance to God is expressed in complementarity of the woman and the man and their capacity for fruitful love. A married couple, being in the relation of a free gift of themselves and constituting the base of the family, can evolve in order to create educational environment for their offspring. Thus the family is the first and the most appropriate place to form a man as an integral mature person, comprising both physical, sensual and emotional sphere, together with moral, spiritual and religious one. The concept of the family and the way Edith Stein undertakes the issue of the family put her research into the current of integral personalism.

Keywords:

integral personalism, person, relations, education, family, Edith Stein

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Kmiecik, B. (2019). Family in the light of Edith Stein’s integral personalism. Family Forum, 4, 53–70. Retrieved from https://czasopisma.uni.opole.pl/index.php/ff/article/view/847

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