Etty Hillesum

Love Calls for Spiritual Discernment

Authors

  • Alexandra Pleshoyano Université de Sherbrooke, Québec Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/rsth.v28i2.241

Keywords:

Auschwitz, comprehension of love, experience of God, spiritual eros, agape

Abstract

Etty Hillesum, a young Jewish woman living in Amsterdam, died on November 30th 1943 in Auschwitz when she was twenty-nine years old, leaving behind a diary (eleven exercise books) and seventy-eight letters which have drawn responses across the world in the form of books, reviews, articles, documentaries, plays and visual art. By adding this essay to the body of literature on Hillesum’s writings, I hope to change the process of recuperation so that her texts may be read differently. What I hope to contribute is a pluralist and universal’s perspective on the comprehension of love in Hillesum’s writings. This subject has not as yet been given enough thought and attention. And yet, when one tries to understand Hillesum’s spiritual path it is mandatory to interpret what she understood by the so common word of “love.” Hillesum’s writings do indeed articulate a remarkable experience of God in times when many just abandoned a faith that seemed so useless.

References

Augustin. 1922 Des Heiligen Augustin Bekenntnisse. Jena: Eugen Diederichs.

De Certeau, Michel. 1975 Comme des nomades. Culture et foi, 43/44: 9.

Gaarlandt, Jan-Geurt. 1989 Men zou een pleister op vele wonden willen zijn. Reacties op de dagboeken en brieven van Etty Hillesum. Amsterdam: Balans.

Hillesum, Etty. 2008 Etty. De nagelaten geschriften van Etty Hillesum 1941–1943. 5th edition. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Balans.

McGinn, Bernard. 1991 The Foundations of Mysticism, Origins to the Fifth Century, New York: Crossroad.

The Growth of Mysticism, New York: Crossroad.

Nygren, Anders. 1937 Eros and Agape. A Study of the Christian Idea of Love. London/New York: The MacMillan Co.

Pleshoyano, Alexandra. 2009 J’avais encore mille choses à te demander. L’univers intérieur d’Etty Hillesum. Montréal/Paris: Novalis/Bayard.]

Etty Hillesum: l’amour comme “seule solution”. Une herméneutique théologique au cœur du mal. Münster: Lit Verlag.

Published

2010-05-12

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Pleshoyano, A. (2010). Etty Hillesum: Love Calls for Spiritual Discernment. Religious Studies and Theology, 28(2), 241-268. https://doi.org/10.1558/rsth.v28i2.241