Equality, Difference, and Femininity in Edith Stein

Abstract

After a brief survey of some passages in which the Scripture and classic authors of the Christian tradition deal with the theme of the relationship between men and women, the author addresses the use that E. Stein makes of the category of “double species” in order to illustrate the equality and difference between men and women. Her treatment of the specificity of the woman is controversial, and linked to an anthropology that is not yet fully illuminated by a trinitarian comprehension of God. If, on the one hand, the category of “reciprocity” is absent from Stein’s reflection, her “anthropology of gift”, on the other hand, if it is referred both to men and women, contains precious potential in view of a trinitarian opening of the understanding of each human being.