Faces of Religious Experience: Edith Stein and Yeshayahu Leibowitz

„It is impossible to make an adequate expression about a specific religious person.“ Following this observation by the philosopher Hedwig Conrad-Martius, this lecture explores the enigma of faith through two monumental figures: the Carmelite mystic Edith Stein (1891-1942) and the rigorous Jewish thinker Yeshayahu Leibowitz (1903-1994). Despite the theological abyss between them, they share a surprising foundation: for both, faith is not a heritage, but a radical volitional decision. From this shared starting point, we will trace two diverging faces of radicalism: Stein’s „Radicalism of Immanence,“ which seeks to bridge the finite and eternal by transforming the soul into an „apartment for God,“ versus Leibowitz’s „Radicalism of Transcendence,“ which employs a „Split Strategy“ to separate the „Sector of Sanctity“ from human nature. Concluding with Stein’s powerful metaphor of the „Simultaneous Church“—a structure divided by a wall yet unified under one roof—we will discover how these opposing thinkers meet in the very structure of their unconditioned religious commitment.