The abyss of freedom. Dialogues on freedom between Edith Stein and Fyodor Dostoyevsky

ABSTRACT: What do Stein and Dostoyevsky have in common? Both profound connoisseurs of the human experience have inquired about the meaning of freedom in different historical moments but are surrounded by a dehumanizing historical context in common. Ten years after the death of the Russian writer (1881), the German phenomenologist and thinker was born (1891). The former lived an unbearable sentence in Siberia, while the latter died condemned in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

What can freedom mean for these thinkers, even more so when facing the abyss of war and political powers? Freedom can also be presented as an abyss; why? With the help of The Brothers Karamazov, a work read and commented on by Stein, we will explore this question.

Haddy Bello holds a Ph.D. in Theology and has served as an academic in the Faculty of Theology at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (UC) since 2013. Since 2009, she has worked as a researcher at the UC Center for “Interdisciplinary Studies in Edith Stein”. Her focus lies in theological anthropology and eschatology, particularly in dialogue with the problem of freedom. She has extensively researched this topic, beginning with her master’s in theology, followed by her doctoral dissertation titled “La libertad como despliegue y autoconfiguración de la persona humana, al modo de la dinámica trinitaria del amor, en Edith Stein” (“Freedom as the Unfolding and Self-Configuration of the Human Person, in the Manner of the Trinitarian Dynamics of Love, in Edith Stein”) in 2022.

Since 2015, she has been an active member of The International Association for the Study of the Philosophy of Edith Stein (IASPES). Currently, she serves as the vice dean of the Faculty of Theology while also continuing her work as a researcher and professor.