Edith Stein (+ 1942) was a brilliant philosopher, earning her doctorate summa cum laude in August of 1916 on the problem of empathy. Brought up in a devout Jewish household of eleven children, she came into in the world on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, making her her mother’s favourite. Lapsing into atheism in early youth, her inquisitive mind and expansive, generous soul never rested easy with such a hope-less philosophy.
Two things prompted her conversion in young adulthood: The first was seeing someone go into a church to kneel, pray and converse with God:
This was something totally new to me. In
