エディット・シュタインの "Unterwegs ad orientem" に関する一考察 : 死・キリスト・道行き
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概要
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For much of the past decades the study on Edith Stein has been centered on her life and her thought. But it has not yet became clearwhether she really knew about her final destiny at the time she was deported with many other Jews from the Westerbork Camp (Netherlands) to Auschwitz. Her attitude toward suffering and death is, however, well known from many of her writings and also from some of her remarks during her stay in Westerbork that have been transmitted by eyewitnesses. To us it seems that the key for understanding what was in Stein's heart at the final stage of her life lies in her last written words : "Unterwegs ad orientem." These words can be rendered into English as "On the way to oriens" or "On the way to the oriens." E. Stein wrote these words on a scrap of paper in the train to Auschwitz which she gave to a man who was standing at the platform during a short stopover in Schifferstadt, a town in the Rhine region. This article takes its starting point by establishing the exact wording of Edith Stein's last message, the note having been burned by a nun (whose father was Jewish) out of fear that it might be discovered and endanger her convent. In order to understand what meaning lies behind the words "Unterwegs ad orientem", we examine first the situation in countries that were under the Nazi dictatorship around 1942,the year in which E. Stein was killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau. The major question is whether or to what degree Jews, or the general population, were aware of the atrocities and the mass murder that was taking place at that time. The article offers some brief, but important information and documentation on this issue, which suggest that it was possible at that time to know what was happening to the Jewish people. It is likely that E. Stein learned about that horrific reality toward to end of her stay in Westerbork or in the train to Auschwitz. More important than this historical context of E. Stein's "Unterwegs ad orientem" is for us the background these words have in the Bible and in the liturgy. For this purpose we examine the Bible that E. Stein used and in which she had written her name, namely the Latin text of the Vulgata with the German translation, including footnotes, by Augustin Summaries of the Main Articles Arndt. Three other German translations were also available to her. Our interest is in the word "oriens". According to Luke 1 : 78 and Zechariah 3 : 8 and 6 : 12,Oriens is a name for the Messiah ; Isaiah 41 : 2 refers to salvation coming from the Oriens, understood as "light from the east", "morning light", "morning star" and also as a reference to the Messiah. In the Liturgy, Luke 1 : 78 is a part of the "Benedictus" and belongs to the daily morning prayer in the breviary which at E. Stein's time was recited in Latin. Of importance is also one of the so-called O-Antiphons, which are recited in the days before Christmas and in which the Messiah is addressed as Oriens ("Morning Star") and invoked "to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death" (Luke 1 : 79) . This interpretation of E. Stein's "Unterwegs ad orientem", as alluding to her way to Christ and the light that is manifest in him, finds support from the very last lines of E. Stein's academic-spiritual writings. Up to the moment when Nazi police officers (Gestapo) entered the monastery and took her to the Westerbork Camp she was working on her book "Kreuzeswissenschaft" (Science of the Cross) which is a study on John of the Cross. The final episode in this unfinished work dealing with the death of John. E. Stein quotes a brother who, having seen light that surrounded the dying saint, said to his mourning confreres : "Our father has gone to heaven in this light."
- 上智大学の論文
- 2002-08-01
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関連論文
- エディット・シュタインの "Unterwegs ad orientem" に関する一考察 : 死・キリスト・道行き
- エディット・シュタインの"Unterwegs ad orientem"に関する一考察--死・キリスト・道行き
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