Philosophy as a path to God in Edmund Husserl and Edith Stein. The same goal, two different projects

Abstract

Edith Stein was convinced that philosophy can only achieve its goal of becoming a universal theory of being if it opens itself methodologically and in content to theology. Therefore, even if it becomes philosophy in the Christian state, it must remain an exact science and the domain of natural reason. Hence Stein defines a number of methodological presuppositions that philosophy must fulfil in order to be actively assisted by theology without being transformed into it in any way. It should be noted in this context that this philosophy should, in Stein's view, prepare the way to faith and thus to God himself. Interestingly, Husserl had a similar conception of his phenomenological philosophy, claiming that his phenomenology, as a kind of philosophical theology, should become a way to God. In this respect, he also defined the methodological presuppositions of his philosophy, which, however, were completely different from those of Stein's philosophy. Why? Which methodological conditions are at stake in Stein's philosophy and which in Husserl's thought? I try to answer these and also other questions in my short contribution.