RELATIONAL NATURE OF HUMAN PERSON
An Analysis of St Edith Stein’s Perspectives towards Ethical Community
Keywords:
Divine Vocation, Edith Stein, Empathic Inter-Subjective Relation, Ethical Relation, Human Existence, Emmanuel Levinas, Merleau-Ponty, OthernessAbstract
The essay analyzes and presents the nuances involved in the phenomenological themes of empathy, ethical concerns and human existence and explicates their theological implications in understanding the nature of human existence as Divine vocation in the light of Edith Stein’s theological reflections on them. The empathic inter-human relation, according to Stein is a locus of Divine Grace wherein one along with the other involve in an attempt to orient themselves for higher values for which they are originally called by God in the order of Creation. This orientation as opening to the other is given to humans by God. In the light of Stein’s views on human existence as Divine Vocation, this study argues that by pointing out self’s fundamental opening as self of love and responsibility for the other, one can realize oneself as always and already otherwise-than-being.
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