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Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz
‘What is the human being?’ Edith Stein (1891-1942), master-disciple of Husserl, developed a remarkable phenomenology, especially in refer to the interrelation of human body, soul, self-concept, and divine giftedness. In German the conception of body is twofold: It can be understood as „Körper“, that means as an objective entity, or instrument. And body can be understood in a deeper sense: as „Leib“ = living body, etymologically related to Leben (life), including soul, integrating spirit – while „Körper“ could be also a dead body. Leib reveals itself ascending from the non-living to the living entities, from vegetative and animal life to human being including freedom and self-consciousness. Therefrom human being can activate its access to the creative origin, to the original light. This is Edith Stein’s answer to the auto-construction of an I, which regards its own body only as an instrument or masque on a meaningless stage.
