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What relationship does Edith Stein’s philosophy have with her Judaism? If her works offer little evidence to address the question directly, a comparison of her thought with that of Jewish authors of her generation can provide valuable insights into her links with the Jewish world. This study endeavors to show that Stein’s philosophy shares with those of Buber and Rosenzweig several characteristics which mark a real originality with regard to the dominant thought of their time, and which are explicitly linked, for the latter, to Jewish sources: the precedence given to otherness in the face of egological philosophies; a way of thinking about the universal which does not deny, but honors, the value of the singular; and a concern, finally, with showing the presence of God rather than demonstrating his existence. Thanks to these connections, Stein’s philosophy can be seen as implicitly marked by Judaism in many of its fundamental features. Even his conception of Christian philosophy, which is totally unprecedented, can be understood as inspired by a way peculiar to Jewish philosophers of honoring the requirement of universality of philosophical reason, while at the same time being nourished by a religious heritage.
