The Ethics and Religious Philosophy of Etty Hillesum

The Ethics and Religious Philosophy of Etty Hillesum: Proceedings of the Etty Hillesum Conference at Ghent University, January 2014

This volume contains the proceedings of the second international Etty Hillesum Congress at Ghent University in January 2014 and is a joint effort by fifteen Hillesum experts to shed new light on the life, works and vision of the Dutch Jewish writer Etty Hillesum (1914-1943), one of the victims of the Nazi-regime. Hillesum’s diaries and letters illustrate her heroic struggle to come to terms with her personal life in the context of the Holocaust. This volume revives Hillesum research with a comprehensive rereading of her texts. With the current rise of interest in peace studies, Judaism, the Holocaust, inter-religious dialogue, gender studies and mysticism, it is evident that this book will be invaluable to students and scholars in various disciplines.

The book has xviii-383 pp., a Bibliography, General index, Index of textual references. Language: English. Editors: Klaas A.D. Smelik, Meins G.S. Coetsier, and Jurjen Wiersma

Contributions by

Table of Contents

• Preface
• List of Contributors
• Introduction, Klaas A.D. Smelik
  
• Perspectives of Research on Etty Hillesum’s Writings, Klaas A.D. Smelik

Part One: Ethics and Religious Philosophy

1. Etty Hillesum’s Ethical Consciousness and the History of Jewish Philosophy, Meins G.S. Coetsier
2. Dimensions of Mystical Experience in the Thinking and Behavior of Etty Hillesum, Fulvio Cesare Manara †
3. The Journey of Etty Hillesum from Eros to Agape, Maria Clara Lucchetti Bingemer
4. Etty Hillesum as Moral-Theological Guide: From Fear to Love’s Givenness and At-Riskness, William McDonough
5. The Carnivalesque in the Writing and Spirituality of Etty Hillesum, John Cartner

Part Two: Kindred Spirits

1. Spinoza and Etty Hillesum: Two Different Views of God, Maria Luísa Ribeiro Ferreira
2. The Courage to Write: Biography and Religion in Etty Hillesum and Søren Kierkegaard, Ulrich Lincoln Etty Hillesum and Primo Levi Among the Drowned and the Saved: Experiences of Inner Freedom, Maria Gabriella Nocita
3. Etty Hillesum and Sophie Scholl: Sisters in Fate, Marta Perrini
4. The Phantom of God in the (auto-)biographical writings of Hélène Cixous and Etty Hillesum, Maria Essunger
5. Chipping Away the Ice That Surrounds the Soul: Etty Hillesum and Dorothee Sölle, Jurjen Wiersma

Part Three: Persecution as an Ethical Challenge

1. Etty Hillesum’s Reaction to the Persecution of her People, Prof. Dr. Klaas A.D. Smelik
2. Etty Hillesum’s Views on the Nazis and Their Henchmen, Bettine Siertsema

Part Four: Sources of Inspiration

1. The Influence of the Work of Rainer Maria Rilke on the Mind and Heart of Etty Hillesum, Canon Patrick Woodhouse
2. Newly Discovered Sources of Etty Hillesum, Ria van den Brandt

Notes by The Ethics and Religious Philosophy of Etty Hillesum

• The Ethics and Religious Philosophy of Etty Hillesum: Proceedings of the Etty
  Hillesum Conference at Ghent University, January 2014 (Supplements to The Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy, 28). Edited by Klaas A.D. Smelik, Meins G.S. Coetsier & Jurjen Wiersma. Leiden / Boston, MA: Brill, 2017.
• Order information here.