ETTY HILLESUM AND HER “CATHOLIC WORSHIPPERS”: A PLEA FOR A MORE CRITICAL APPROACH TO ETTY HILLESUM’S WRITINGS* Copyright 2011. Brill. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. Ria van den Brandt (Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands) “The reception of Etty Hillesum is clearly a complicated story,” Solange Leibovici declares in a Dutch newspaper.1 In the same text—a comment on Sylvie Germain’s Etty Hillesum2 and De moed hebben tot zichzelf (“Having the Courage towards Oneself”) by Ton Jorna, Denise de Costa and Marijn ten Holt3—Leibovici presents a simplification of this complex story. According to Leibovici, from the beginning Hillesum’s texts arrived at “the wrong quarter,” meaning: “predominantly Catholics and former Catholics, followers of mystical movements or at least people seeking religious and ethical principles appropriate to presentday life.” Leibovici remarks that the readers of Etty Hillesum are not Jewish and that her diaries have been received in Jewish circles “with suspicion and even hostility,” certainly by the Jewish commentator Henriëtte Boas.4 Leibovici herself looks at Etty Hillesum’s personality from a more psycho-analytical perspective, namely as “a fascinating woman, full of contradictions, a glutton, hysterical, hypochondriacal, * This article is a revision of my Dutch article “Etty Hillesum en haar ‘katholieke vereerders’: Pleidooi voor een meer kritische benadering van een bijzonder document,” in: Etty Hillesum in facetten, Etty Hillesum Studies 1, eds. Ria van den Brandt & Klaas A.D. Smelik (Budel: Damon, 2003), 57–75. The revised text is translated by Erik Dyckhoff. 1 Solange Leibovici, “De belle juive: Etty Hillesum als Soefi-meesteres,” De Groene Amsterdammer (19 January 2000) [the quotations are translated from Dutch into English]. 2 Sylvie Germain, Etty Hillesum, Chemins d’éternité (Paris: Pygmalion 1999). Dutch translation: Etty Hillesum: Een spirituele biografie (Amsterdam: Balans, 2001). 3 Ton Jorna, Denise de Costa & Marijn ten Holt, De moed hebben tot zichzelf: Etty Hillesum als inspiratiebron bij levensvragen (Utrecht: Kwadraat, 1999). 4 Cf. Henriëtte Boas, “Etty Hillesum in niet-joodse en joodse ogen,” in: Neveh Ya‘akov: Jubilee Volume presented to Dr. Jaap Meijer on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, eds. Lea Dasberg & Jonathan N. Cohen (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1982), 255–279. Regarding the Jewish reception of Etty Hillesum in the Netherlands in general, see: Piet Schrijvers, “Etty Hillesum in joodse contexten,” in: Etty Hillesum in facetten, 37–55. EBSCO Publishing : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 11/20/2020 3:51 PM via FAULKNER UNIV AN: 346130 ; Smelik, K. A. D., Brandt, Ria van den, Coetsier, Meins G. S..; Spirituality in the Writings of Etty Hillesum : Proceedings of the Etty Hillesum Conference at Ghent University, November 2008 Account: faulku.main.ehost 216 ria van den brandt someone with an obsessive, almost masochistic, passivity, but also with an incredible lust for life, and with an enormous sexual drive and curiosity.” Choosing to live being “the ultimate and only form of resistance” according to Leibovici, Etty Hillesum chose death. Leibovici’s evaluation of both Etty Hillesum’s œuvre and its reception is based on a clear supposition, namely: life has “objectively no meaning.” With that, the literary critic ridicules in advance every religious or ethical discourse about Etty Hillesum. Leibovici criticizes both the half-hearted canonization by her “Catholic worshippers” and the interest in Hillesum shown by Dutch humanistic circles. Leibovici does not even accept the more humanistic approach, Etty Hillesum’s writings as a “source of inspiration concerning vital questions.” She thinks that all tendencies to paint Etty Hillesum as “guru, Zen teacher, Sufi master, high priest and cult figure of the New Age movement” are to be rejected. While busily condemning the more religious as well as the humanistic reception of Etty Hillesum’s work, Leibovici ironically ignores the complexity she herself observes. To obtain insight in one of the aspects of this complexity, I direct my attention in this contribution to a number of publications from Dutch and Flemish authors of Catholic theological origin during the nineties of the last century. Twofold “Canonizing” The reception of Etty Hillesum in Dutch-language Catholic theological discourses5 happened in a twofold partly overlapping manner. We can distinguish a so-called double ‘canonization.’ On the one hand, Etty Hillesum’s legacy has been inscribed in mystical canons, on the other hand her work has been inscribed in feminine canons as a work of empowerment.6 An example of the first form of ‘canonization’ 5 The terminology ‘Catholic theological discourses’ is not to be interpreted in a strict sense. It is not referring to severe orthodox Roman-Catholic discourses, but rather to spiritual reflections, written by Dutch and Flemish authors, disciplinary trained in Roman-Catholic theology. 6 At all events, the works of Etty Hillesum have also got this significance of empowerment in the Italian and American reception. See the contributions by Gerrit Van Oord (“Italiaans enthousiasme: Het dagboek van Etty Hillesum in Italië”) and Anouta de Groot (“Aandacht voor identiteit, spiritualiteit en verbondenheid: Centrale thema’s in de Amerikaanse literatuur over Etty Hillesum”) in: Etty Hillesum in facetten, 111–127, 129–151. EBSCOhost - printed on 11/20/2020 3:51 PM via FAULKNER UNIV. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use etty hillesum and her “catholic worshippers” 217 is the title of the book of theologian and journalist Arjan Broers: Van Hadewych tot Hillesum: Dwarsliggers in naam van God (“From Hadewych to Hillesum: Troublemakers in the Name of God”). This publication was combined with a Dutch television series about mystics.7 An example of the second form of ‘canonization’ is God in de beleving van vrouwen (“God in the experience of women”), a work written by the theologian Annie Imbens-Fransen.8 This theologian wrote her study after many years of counselling women and noticing the frequently negative influence of patriarchal images of God on women’s self-experience and self-esteem. She pleas for a ‘spirituality of women,’ that is to say: a spirituality that is experienced, depicted or expressed by women and having a rulebreaking, humanizing and liberating value. In that specific context, the work of Etty Hillesum acts as an example of empowerment: reading Etty Hillesum’s positive personal and religious development could yield ‘new impulses’ for women to give life ‘meaning and direction’ in their own way. It should be noted, by the way, that in the Dutch-language cultural domain Etty Hillesum’s writings are especially popular among women. Indeed, Etty Hillesum seems to be—as Gerrit Van Oord postulates about the Italian reception of Etty Hillesum—a “female affair”9 and in fact theologians prove this rule. Within theological faculties, a strikingly high number of master theses about Etty Hillesum are written by women.10 It is obvious that female students of theology identify more often with texts written by Etty Hillesum than their male colleagues do. Etty Hillesum’s texts sometimes seem to be a primary source of inspiration for female theologians and form an essential part of the 7 Arjan Broers, Van Hadewych tot Hillesum: Dwarsliggers in naam van God (Baarn: Ten Have, 2002). This publication, although published in 2002, can be considered as representative of the nineties. Cf. the chapter about Etty Hillesum: 125–131. The Dutch television series was broadcasted by the KRO (= Katholieke Radio Omroep). 8 Annie Imbens-Fransen, God in de beleving van vrouwen (Kampen: Kok, 1995). See the text about Etty Hillesum: 60–64. 9 “Etty Hillesum in Italy: A Female Affair.” Title of Gerrit Van Oord’s lecture at the conference Lire Etty Hillesum in Metz (4–6 April 2002). Cf. Van Oord, “Italiaans enthousiasme.” 10 For example: T.G.M.G. Brouns-Wewerinke, Liefhebben in vrijheid: Het volkomen leven van Etty Hillesum (thesis Theology, Catholic University Tilburg, 1985); A. Lagerwey, Een vrije vogel vogelvrij: Etty Hillesum: spiritualiteit in dialoog? (thesis Theology, Catholic Theological Institute Amsterdam, 1986) and J. van der Molen, Goed en Kwaad: Een studie naar de vraag in hoeverre dagboekschrijfster Etty Hillesum (1914–1943) in haar denken over goed en kwaad geïnspireerd en beïnvloed is door literatuur van psychiater Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) (thesis Theology, University of Amsterdam, 2001). EBSCOhost - printed on 11/20/2020 3:51 PM via FAULKNER UNIV. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use 218 ria van den brandt personal canon of many women. Concerning this form of canonization, the theologian Jonneke Bekkenkamp remarks : “Women/human beings need stories that give sense and cohesion to their life, stories that contribute to the formation of their identity, stories that can be read ‘religiously’ without them at first being obliged to decode or translate.” According to Bekkenkamp, “texts of faith” are “texts or books that inspire, that express a value of faith, that possess a kind of ‘revelation merit.’ ”11 The posthumous work of Etty Hillesum possesses, in that sense, a ‘revelatory power,’ not only limited to women and/or theologians. The theologian Maria ter Steeg points out that the writings of Etty Hillesum are also highly attractive to young people who, like Etty Hillesum, were not socialized or educated in a religious way. She writes: “The sources are not opened to them. They learned neither the words nor the symbols, which give direction and expression to certain experiences. They experience ‘something’ (something ‘more’, something ‘greater’ ) and they cannot name it, it remains ‘anonymous’.”12 The texts of Etty Hillesum offer them a tool, a religious vocabulary that articulates their experiences. Most of the Dutch-language Catholic theological authors of the 1990’s confine themselves to a retelling of Hillesum’s spiritual journey, considering the Christian or mystical tradition as the most important referential framework for interpretation. Frequently, their writings appear to be strongly motivated exegeses of Etty Hillesum’s texts as a bible du savoir vivre for a broad circle of readers, where secondary literature about Etty Hillesum does not play an important role. Many of these theologians refer again and again to the first selection of texts by Etty Hillesum, the edition of Het verstoorde leven (‘The Interrupted Life’ ),13 even after the Dutch publication of the complete and scholarly edition in 1986. 11 J. Bekkenkamp, Canon en keuze: Het bijbelse Hooglied en de Twenty-one love poems van Adrienne Rich als bronnen van theologie (Kampen: Kok Agora, 1993), 46, n. 1. [The quotations are translated from Dutch into English.] 12 M. ter Steeg, “Etty Hillesum,” in: M. ter Steeg, and others, De verlokking van de liefde: Eenzaamheid en erotiek bij mystieke vrouwen (Aalsmeer: Dabar/Luyten, 1994), 26. [The quotations are translated from Dutch into English.] 13 Etty Hillesum, Het verstoorde leven: Dagboek van Etty Hillesum 1941–1943 (Haarlem: De Haan, 1981). Regarding the peculiarities of this publication, see the contribution of Geurt Gaarlandt in this volume. Cf. also Klaas A.D. Smelik, “Gedenken is doen: Van een bundel cahiers tot een wereldwijde publicatie,” in: Etty Hillesum in facetten, 21–35, esp. 26–29. EBSCOhost - printed on 11/20/2020 3:51 PM via FAULKNER UNIV. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use etty hillesum and her “catholic worshippers” 219 The publication of the Het verstoorde leven was an overwhelming success, but it was also a very selective and suggestive one, feeding hagiographic clichés of Etty Hillesum. Most Dutch and Flemish theological authors, reading the introduction of Het verstoorde leven, accepted the alleged biographical facts, which fit well with the aura of a female mystic. And many of them stated—as if they had known Etty Hillesum personally—that ‘Etty’ (not: Etty Hillesum or Hillesum, but always: Etty) followed her “summons” for Camp Westerbork “without hesitation,” that she was a “shining personality” in Camp Westerbork and that she had consciously chosen—as a real martyr—her own death.14 She acted like a female sacrificing mystic: she went, completely selfless, full of God and divine love, her sacrificing way of compassion. Hillesum’s historical and complicated biography was reduced to a manageable and simplified framework: she became a two-dimensional cliché. This paradigm implicitly informed many theological discourses and hampered—for some time—a critical and scholarly reception of Etty Hillesum’s texts. In the following paragraphs, I pay attention to a number of Catholic theological discourses that approach and articulate Hillesum’s work from within the referential framework of Christian mysticism. 14 Cf. Gaarlandt’s introduction in: Het verstoorde leven, 8. Whoever studies the texts of the integral edition, will be confronted with very different comments of Etty Hillesum about her future. Next to texts about the certainty of her death are many other texts about her future and her expectations. Based on her textual heritance we cannot postulate—as Leibovici does without any reticence—that Etty Hillesum wittingly made the choice to die. See the contribution of Manja Pach in this volume and of the same author: “Een dierbaar woord uit het werk van Etty Hillesum: ‘later,’ ” in: Praktische Humanistiek 9 (1999) 1, 47–51, esp. 49: “Although Etty Hillesum is convinced that the national-socialists aim at destroying the Jews and she also reckons with enduring that fate herself, she does not stop creating an image of a future for herself in a world after the war: ‘after a great many years I’ll be a matron.’ ” See also Schrijvers, “Etty Hillesum in Joodse contexten,” in: Etty Hillesum in facetten, 49: “Contrary to some allegations in the Dutch press [. . .] I do not believe that Etty completely understood and could foresee the crimes the Nazi’s planned to offend the Jews. [. . .] It is impossible that she could completely imagine the reality of the total, systematic, industrial genocide.” [The quotations are translated from Dutch into English.] A full discussion of this topic can be found in: Klaas A.D. Smelik, “De keuze van Etty Hillesum om niet onder te duiken,” in: Etty Hillesum in context, Etty Hillesum Studies 2, eds. Ria van den Brandt & Klaas A.D. Smelik (Assen: Van Gorcum, 2007), 59–73. EBSCOhost - printed on 11/20/2020 3:51 PM via FAULKNER UNIV. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use 220 ria van den brandt Etty Hillesum and the Christian Mystical Tradition Dutch and Flemish theologians who explicitly use the mystical tradition as a referential framework, frequently consider ‘mysticism’ as a way of criticizing dominant traditions of culture and religion. Mystical experiences, they say, turn everything upside down. They consider mystical texts as disturbers of order and breakers of dogma. The same assumption is also present in the valuable text of the theologian Frans Maas. In his study Spiritualiteit als inzicht: Mystieke teksten en theologische reflecties (‘Spirituality as Insight: Mystical Texts and Theological Reflections’ ), he dedicates a chapter to Etty Hillesum.15 The other chapters are dedicated to Meister Eckhart, St. John of the Cross, Theresia of Lisieux and Dag Hammarskjöld; Eckhart and Saint John defined as being “great men of the mystical tradition,” Theresia of Lisieux and Dag Hammarskjöld and Etty Hillesum as “readers of mystical literature.” Maas writes about the last three authors: These three authors stand closer to us in time. Current questions of meaning, especially concerning suffering, influence the framework in which they viewed quality of life. While the last two are from Jewish and Lutheran backgrounds respectively, they too can be seen as representative of the mystical tradition. In their writings, one can see an unmistakable growth to an extraordinarily intensive experience of God which enables them to face life with a more than ordinary power and inspiration. Maas defines a mystical text as an expression in language of that which overflows from an overwhelming and life-changing experience. This experience interrupts the familiar way of life. The language itself carries the traces of this interruption so that: the idea of the unequivocal nature of language is no longer possible. Paradoxes and even contradictions become inevitable. Through metaphor and the displacement of meaning, the text is stretched and acquires the power to undermine our previously obvious understanding of how things are so that the new experience can accompany us. In Christian mysticism, this experience is seen as related to God. This 15 Frans Maas, Spiritualiteit als inzicht: Mystieke teksten en theologische reflecties (Zoetermeer: Meinema, 1999). See the chapter concerning Etty Hillesum: 112–140, and the introduction of this study: 12–19. This book was translated by Cia van Woezik & sr. Magan Macrina Walker of Kooningsoord Abbey: Spirituality as Insight: Mystical Texts and Theological Reflection (Leuven: Peeters, 2004). Chapter concerning Etty Hillesum: 112–145; introduction of this study: 1–13. EBSCOhost - printed on 11/20/2020 3:51 PM via FAULKNER UNIV. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use etty hillesum and her “catholic worshippers” 221 new experience of existence which comes to us through the text can take on many contours: a consciousness of overwhelming abundance, of being transformed, being fully alive with hardly anything to sustain us, an intense desire, an unprecedented courage to withstand suffering and adversity, thriving in a limitless love. Mystical texts possess the ability to offer the reader insights about all of existence: These texts can speak to our often latent suspicions that our outlook on our life’s project, of its purpose and meaning, although not untrue is nevertheless only half the truth. These texts can magnify a crack in our respectable existence, which we had hardly noticed until this point. Through it, the light can shine. What was seen as good order, comes to be seen in another light and becomes very relative. According to Maas, this lighting and deregulating force is a characteristic of Hillesum’s work. Hence, Maas’ referential framework for interpreting the writings of Etty Hillesum is the Christian mystical canon, especially the above mentioned authors. One could interpret this as a premature reduction of the text, but for Maas this form of canonization shows the exceptional power of Hillesum’s writings: they bring about extreme spiritual insights. These insights are by no means a confirmation of proper order; they disturb the order, and show us the relativity of traditional truths. From this viewpoint, the ‘canonization’ of Etty Hillesum in the mystical canon can signify a revitalization of religious insights. This does not imply that Maas considers Hillesum a Christian mystic. Hillesum’s thoughts obviously fit into a religious-anarchistic discourse. Hence, Maas stresses that for Hillesum—as for Theresia of Lisieux and Dag Hammarskjöld—images of God and doctrinal tradition are not central themes. The role of the more traditional doctrines is in the first place mediating: they make the power of faith accessible, without being the centre of faith. And in the case of Etty Hillesum, we are, according to Maas, dealing with “the possibility of human dignity exceeding natural forces.” And that “possibility of human dignity” is the central point of his story about Etty Hillesum. Maas wants us to see how Hillesum “out of her relation with God remains upright during the devastations of the holocaust.” The attitude of Etty Hillesum towards suffering is, according to Maas, a mystic-inspired answer. In the mystical tradition, such answers of great inner resistance to evil are to be found and insights on the subject of “the quality of life” are given. The writing of Etty Hillesum is a testimony to this. EBSCOhost - printed on 11/20/2020 3:51 PM via FAULKNER UNIV. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use 222 ria van den brandt Maas offers us a valuable retelling of the diary and the letters, using the Christian mystical tradition as a model for interpretation. The theologian gives a detailed and delicate description of the personal development of Etty Hillesum, at first indicating how Etty Hillesum found an “inner form” by writing her diary. Secondly, he describes “the religious dimension” of this inner form, referring to the resemblance between Meister Eckhart and Etty Hillesum, as other authors did before him.16 Both Eckhart and Hillesum write about the divine presence in the deepest layers of the soul. According to Maas, Etty Hillesum belongs to the mystics who seek God in their innermost being, and thus stands “in a sound mystical tradition.” The author almost seamlessly interweaves the vocabulary of Etty Hillesum into the vocabulary of a mystical process: the process of introspection, letting go, exercising, learning to kneel and pray, the discovery of God within and the resulting power and love for all people. Maas describes how Etty Hillesum mobilizes a firm inner strength and resistance in a short time span. According to him, Hillesum’s inner resistance to suffering is constantly present in her writings. Hillesum’s answer to this suffering—she does not choose hatred, but love—stands once more in the mystical tradition. So Maas says, with a reference to the terminology of Meister Eckhart: Etty is convinced that something—‘their better nature’—is present in every human being, and that this is a strength that enables people not to succumb to outward suppression. This is a conviction that she shares with the mystical tradition, which refers to it as the soul, the ground of the soul or the spark of the soul. That is where a person touches upon God’s infinite love and power. Most people ignore this possibility within themselves, this ‘deeper rhythm.’ It is her inner strength that makes Hillesum resistant against evil and suffering. In his argument, the theologian stresses that Etty Hillesum never loses sight of her sense of reality nor the “Suffering of Mankind.” On the contrary, being in the mystical nearness of God and confronted with the God-filled space in her soul, she can accept this reality and 16 See Loet Swart, “Etty Hillesum en de mystieke traditie,” in: ‘Men zou een pleister op vele wonden willen zijn’: Reacties op de dagboeken en brieven van Etty Hillesum, ed. J.G. Gaarlandt (Amsterdam: Balans, 1989), 133–145; Ria van den Brandt, “‘Ik heb hem gebracht de schriften van Meister Eckehardt’: Het Eckhartbeeld van Etty Hillesum,” De Gids 159 (1990), 3, 182–192. EBSCOhost - printed on 11/20/2020 3:51 PM via FAULKNER UNIV. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use etty hillesum and her “catholic worshippers” 223 the “Suffering of Mankind,” and even more: she wants to be “a balm for many wounds.” She becomes a fellow-bearer of the suffering. The discourse of Maas fruitfully articulates the spiritual vocabulary of Etty Hillesum in the context of the Christian mystical canon but also shows how his interpretation subtly creates an implicit myth shaping of Etty Hillesum. The theologian starts his chapter on Hillesum with a citation about “dignified human suffering” and thereafter poses that Etty Hillesum chose the “cruel fate” of the Jewish people. Apart from the questionable validity of this supposition,17 his claim produces a strong rhetorical effect. It evokes the image of a young woman sacrificing herself and voluntarily choosing to suffer for her people. A woman with a “boundless dedication to others,” regardless of the threat of her own death. Maas reads and unintentionally interprets Hillesum’s legacy in the light of an implicit martyrdom and as an interpreter goes ‘beyond’ the ambiguous textual data. He repeats this very clearly, when he recalls a good deed attributed to Etty Hillesum. He is confident that the person Etty Hillesum has indeed been “a balm for many wounds” and dealt in the suffering of other people.18 Maas echoes without hesitation the hagiographic elements of the introduction of Het verstoorde leven. That introduction has for some time disturbed the critical sense of many interpreters and created clichés of Hillesum. Many interpreters of the 1990’s had no further questions about the historical person and circumstances. There was no critical and close reading of the (at that time available) complete and scholarly edition of Hillesum’s work in Dutch and there was no dialogue with other (different) discourses on Hillesum. Therefore, Maas’ valuable text evokes a non-historical and simplified image of Hillesum.19 Unfortunately, this one-sided image undermines his nuanced discourse on Hillesum’s attitude towards suffering. As I mentioned before: underlying hagiographic clichés of the self-sacrificing Hillesum have hampered for some time a more serious and scholarly reception of Hillesum’s rich and many-layered textual testimony. In public debates, Catholic theologians have been often accused of Christian Cf. note 14. Hillesum herself (as ‘worker’ of the Jewish Council, in this way for some time ‘protected’ ) is not without self-criticism concerning her ‘helping’ role in Camp Westerbork. Moreover, not all witnesses of Camp Westerbork think highly of Hillesum’s help. 19 Frans Maas assured me that it has not been his intention to create a hagiographic image of Hillesum. 17 18 EBSCOhost - printed on 11/20/2020 3:51 PM via FAULKNER UNIV. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use 224 ria van den brandt appropriation of Hillesum’s legacy. The Dutch translation of Sylvie Germain’s Etty Hillesum—a fascinating French study that nevertheless evokes a rather hagiographic image of Hillesum in Camp Westerbork20—did not really help to nuance these public debates on Hillesum. Neither did the Dutch translation of Paul Lebeau’s interesting Etty Hillesum: Un itinéraire spiritual (“Etty Hillesum: A Spiritual Search) in which the Belgian Jesuit Lebeau compares (the meaningfulness of ) Hillesum’s suffering with the (meaningfulness of the) suffering of Christ.21 It is not unreasonable that some “Catholic worshippers” of Etty Hillesum have been criticized. Nevertheless, valuable theological discourses on Hillesum’s spirituality have been written. Etty Hillesum and the Theme of Mystical Love The theological retellings of Etty Hillesum within the referential framework of mystical traditions focus on the theme of love. Etty Hillesum’s attitude toward life is not one of hatred, but of love. So for his booklet about Etty Hillesum, published in 1993, the Flemish theologian Jos Snijders chose the title: Ik heb zo lief (‘I love so much’ ).22 Snijders is convinced that a mystical experience was present in Hillesum’s life. For him, a mystical experience is “the conscious, acute, passive experience of God’s presence” and he recognizes this experience in Etty Hillesum’s life of prayer. Through divine touch and transformation, she entered a process of release and unlimited loving at all times. Snijders would not label Etty Hillesum a saint, but—concluding his story— suggests a bit of a saint grew in her during this transformation. A second example of attention to the theme of love in Etty Hillesum is De verlokking van de liefde: Eenzaamheid en erotiek bij mystieke vrouwen (‘The Enchantment of Love: Mystic Women’s Loneliness and Eroticism’ ) 20 Cf. Ria van den Brandt, “Sylvie Germain, Etty Hillesum et le mal,” in: Mariska Koopman-Thurlings (ed.), Sylvie Germain: Les essays, CRIN (Cahiers de recherches des instituts néerlandais de langue et littérature française) vol. 56, 2010. 21 Paul Lebeau S.J., Etty Hillesum: Un itinéraire spirituel (Brussels: Éditions Racine, 1998), 225. Dutch translation: Etty Hillesum: Een spirituele zoektocht, tr. Jeroen De Keyser (Tielt: Lannoo & Baarn: Ten Have, 1999), 181. See also the contribution of Paul Lebeau in this volume. 22 Jos Snijders, Ik heb zo lief: De menselijke en gelovige groei van Etty Hillesum (Averbode: Altiora & ’s Hertogenbosch: KBS, 1993). EBSCOhost - printed on 11/20/2020 3:51 PM via FAULKNER UNIV. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use etty hillesum and her “catholic worshippers” 225 from 1994.23 In this publication, Etty Hillesum appears as a mystic between Hadewych, Teresa of Avila and the Song of Songs. The volume was written by four female theologians. Though a definition of mysticism is missing in the introduction, the religion-critical aspect of mysticism is once again emphasized, namely that mystics mostly experience “that the beaten tracks were flattened, and that religiosity so to say had been degraded.” “Mystic persons,” according to the writers of the introduction, are persons who “have been lured away from their safe homes—their living patterns and models of imagination—and have gone a new way. And they took their own responsibility for their love, without having a safe and coherent framework of this love.” While the introduction occasionally strikes a rather dramatic tone, the chapter by the theologian Maria ter Steeg about Etty Hillesum is marked by soberness. She states at the very beginning of her text that—since the publication of the diary—there has been “a rather exaggerated idolization” and she abstains from further beatification. Although the context of the study stresses the notion of mysticism, this notion is scarcely present in the vocabulary of this author. She does not explicitly name Etty Hillesum a “mystic woman,” but admits— following the conclusions of Loet Swart—that there are some mystical elements in her writings, such as the motive of replacement: the willingness to take over or to share the suffering of other people. The comparison of Etty Hillesum to a mystic such as Teresa of Avila is justifiable, says Ter Steeg: the resemblances between both women are greater than the differences. According to Ter Steeg, they resemble each other in temperament and spiritual development. For both, eros, the desire for love, is a central theme. In her chapter, the author pays attention—along with other themes—to Hillesum’s notions of love. According to Ter Steeg, Etty Hillesum, partly by the disciplining of her sexual feelings, discovers the meaning of “transcendence,” namely: “rise up, expect something more, something else than the usual.” And so, concludes the author, Etty Hillesum at the end discovers a form of love “not being something you get, or that you expect from other people. But love is something that is inside yourself, available for others, in spite of these others being lovable or not.” Ter Steeg, De verlokking van de liefde. See for citations of the introduction (written by Lia Koppens, Piet Leenhouwers and Frans Maas): 6–8; see for citations of the chapter by Maria ter Steeg about Etty Hillesum: 9–27. [The quotations are translated from Dutch into English.] 23 EBSCOhost - printed on 11/20/2020 3:51 PM via FAULKNER UNIV. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use 226 ria van den brandt Ter Steeg does not explicitly connect her analysis of Hillesum’s love to Hillesum’s religious experiences. The theologian Grietje Dresen, on the contrary, makes this explicit connection in her essay “De vrijheid van een grote liefde, of: De paradox van de overgave” (“The Freedom of a Great Love, or: The Paradox of Surrender”).24 Her text explains clearly the theological relevance of Hillesum’s spiritual legacy. Using technical terms of the Christian mystical tradition, Dresen is able to articulate the vocabulary of Etty Hillesum as having mystical potential, without annexing Hillesum’s world view as a Christian world view. Based on the Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique, Dresen describes the phenomenon of the religious or the mystical surrender (in French: abandon) and the theme of love.25 Next, she shows how this mystical form of surrender is applicable to the narrated experiences of Etty Hillesum. According to the Dictionnaire, Dresen says, real surrender arises from love. Love does not only ask to let go from oneself, the own attachments, but [is] a real donation, as is implied in the French word abandon [. . .]. The spiritual attitude of surrender is not just a rational letting go or setting free from the own attachments, originating from a stoical view on avoiding suffering, but a generous gift or surrender of oneself, from the confident conviction that the reality to which one has surrendered—in the Dictionnaire called the will of God—finally aims at goodness, is set out to be good. Based on the Dictionnaire, Dresen stresses that in mystical surrender the “purpose” exists to make room in one’s own heart, for the activity of love as a higher or more vigorous power; a power that comes to meet or conquer us, but is already present in the heart of ‘people of goodwill,’ and wanting to be roused. The process of mystical surrender concerns not a unique action or development, but a laborious, lengthy process of learning to let go (one’s own fears and anxieties), and at the same time a susceptibility (to the vocation and the grace coming from outside). All mystical and spiritual literature deal mainly with that process, that never goes automatically or without struggle. 24 “De vrijheid van een grote liefde, of: De paradox van de overgave.” Introduction of Overgave in vriendschap, mystiek, lijden en politiek, ed. Greetje Dresen (Baarn: Gooi & Sticht, 1998). This booklet was published, in collaboration with the Thomas More Academy (Nijmegen). See for the citations of Greetje Dresen: 7–26. [The quotations are translated from Dutch into English.] 25 The lemma ‘abandon’ can be found in the first volume of the Dictionnaire de Spiritualité Ascétique et Mystique (Paris: Beauchesne & fils, 1937), 1–49. EBSCOhost - printed on 11/20/2020 3:51 PM via FAULKNER UNIV. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use etty hillesum and her “catholic worshippers” 227 The consequences of this surrender are, according to the Dictionnaire, not only detachment, but also freedom and joy and the mystical literature witnesses this state of mind. Based on this description, Dresen concludes that Hillesum’s texts are about a religious and mystical form of surrender. She considers Hillesum’s texts a great testimony of a “difficult but impressive growth to surrender as an attitude toward life.” The development experienced by Etty Hillesum can, according to Dresen, be described as a progression from a situation in which she is dominated by strong desires of physical nature, to a form of mental surrender borne by love and compassion. Dresen says: “The most striking feature in her writings is the combination of kneeling and strength, of detachment and flooding of ‘that great feeling of love that is in me.’ ” Utterances of Etty Hillesum that refer to an overflowing feeling of love, are, according to Dresen, not signs of a stoic mind-set, but of a mystical form of surrender, and Dresen interprets the gesture of kneeling as crucial. Just like Maas and others, Dresen refers to the resemblance between Etty Hillesum and Meister Eckhart, as they both talk about the unity with the divine being the deepest element of the soul. As previously stated, it was not Dresen’s aim to appropriate Hillesum’s thinking into the Christian tradition. Rather, she rather wanted to articulate Hillesum’s attitude toward a life of surrender as a mystical attitude.26 Dresen is very explicit in her thesis that Etty Hillesum’s image of God is not reducible to a specific religious background and that she was not at all oriented to the person of Jesus. According to Dresen, Etty Hillesum’s unfinished image of God, among other things, added to her popularity in the 1980’s, a period where familiar images of God crumbled and new forms of spirituality became attractive again. Positively stated, Etty Hillesum’s texts offered and offer room for new religious vocabularies about the divine. Dresen gives an important comment concerning the reception of Etty Hillesum. According to her, the writings of Etty Hillesum could not really have become popular in the first decades after the Second World War. The essential values of emancipation, participation, autonomy and the making of society 26 This articulation of the mystic attitude can, of course, also be discussed on the base of other vocabularies, perspectives and religious traditions. Cf. the contribution of Frits Grimmelikhuizen in this volume and Yokohata’s essay on Hillesum’s image in Japan, especially the Buddhist reception; cf. Yuhiko Yokohata, “Het beeld van Etty Hillesum in Japan,” in: Etty Hillesum in context, 95–115, esp. 101–106. See also the contribution of Meins Coetsier in this volume. EBSCOhost - printed on 11/20/2020 3:51 PM via FAULKNER UNIV. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use 228 ria van den brandt probably would have collided with the values of love and surrender in the texts of Etty Hillesum. Simultaneously, the after-the-war theological discourses were rather reluctant to talk about surrender, not only because it could be a perversion within the Christian culture, but also because the traditional ‘object’ of surrender, namely the will of God, had become very problematic after Auschwitz. Dresen’s perception (again) confronts the actual reader of Etty Hillesum with the question of Hillesum’s relevance today. Is contemporary society in urgent need of mystical stories about love and surrender? Is it necessary for theologians to interpret the story of Etty Hillesum as such or do they have to read her story in a completely different way? Reading in a Different Way First of all, theologians should read the works of Etty Hillesum differently. They should also read more relevant secondary literature, such as the dissertation of Denise de Costa (1996), not because this study tells the final truth about Hillesum, but because it offers different and challenging perspectives on Hillesum’s legacy. In the 1990’s, Dutch and Flemish theologians were inclined to neglect this work. With her book Anne Frank and Etty Hillesum: Inscribing Spirituality and Sexuality,27 De Costa challenges the common and more traditional images of Etty Hillesum. She focuses on the complexity and the richness of Hillesum’s manylayered texts. Inspired by philosophies of ‘sexual difference’—like the philosophies of Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray and Hélène Cixous—De Costa analyzes Hillesum’s texts, starting from the context of the persecution of the Jews as well as the female subject position. An important starting point of De Costa is that Etty Hillesum represents ‘the other’ in two different ways, namely as being Jewish and as being a woman. She shows us, besides other things, how Hillesum, originally not educated in the Jewish nor in the Christian faith, develops a “nomadic consciousness” and—not being member of any—relates liberally to the different cultural traditions and uses them as a source of inspiration. Cixous, De Costa quotes, calls this voler (‘stealing,’ ‘flying’ ): Denise de Costa, Anne Frank and Etty Hillesum: Inscribing Spirituality and Sexuality, trs. Mischa F.D. Hoyinck & Robert E. Chesal (New Brunswick and London: Rutgers University Press, 1998); original Dutch edition: Denise de Costa, Anne Frank en Etty Hillesum: Spiritualiteit, schrijverschap, seksualiteit (Amsterdam: Balans, 1996). 27 EBSCOhost - printed on 11/20/2020 3:51 PM via FAULKNER UNIV. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use etty hillesum and her “catholic worshippers” 229 mostly outside of the dominant cultural inheritance, a woman has no other choice than to relate to it as an intruder and a thief. Etty Hillesum, by origin and education, was a very special outsider and “thief.” Her “stolen booty” became a very special mosaic of texts originating from different traditions. Concerning the spiritual development of Etty Hillesum, De Costa uses the notion of ‘becoming divine’ invented by the Walloon philosopher Irigaray. Luce Irigaray postulates that the female species can unfold a free, autonomous and sovereign subjectivity only with the assistance of the divine, but only if the infinity can be experienced as an ideal infinity. In the Jewish-Christian tradition, mainly men have seized the chance to project their ideals onto God as the unknown Other; women must now get the chance to project their ideals onto (their) God. According to De Costa, we could say that Hillesum ‘becomes divine’ in the sense of Irigaray, that is to say: the God of Etty Hillesum is born at the moment Etty Hillesum chooses herself. And De Costa adds: “This God is not perceived as a fatherfigure, but as her own essence, her deepest self.”28 These and other findings of De Costa’s book are relevant to theological discourses on Hillesum’s spirituality. My suggestion to start reading Etty Hillesum in a different way is a recommendation addressed not only to theologians. When Leibovici says that the reception of Etty Hillesum is a “complicated story,” she is right. But in a paradoxical way, this complexity has been nourished by simplifications of Etty Hillesum—a practice not only reserved for interpreters of the “wrong quarter,” as Leibovici remarks. If there is a “wrong quarter,” as Leibovici argues, then the demarcation line is not between interpreters who know that life “objectively has no sense,” and all other interpreters who are not yet aware of that thesis. No, if there is such a boundary, then it exists between careful reading and careless reading, between the use of the integral scholarly edition and the use of selections, between the readiness to involve other discourses about Etty Hillesum in one’s own study and the refusal to do so. The complexity of the reception of Etty Hillesum is maintained by “the conflict of interpretations”29 caused by often rigid positions or fixed opinions. In that sense, Leibovici’s review offers its own unique chapter to this “complicated story.” 28 29 Denise de Costa, Anne Frank and Etty Hillesum, 281. Free after ‘Le conflit des interprétations’ by the philosopher Paul Ricoeur. EBSCOhost - printed on 11/20/2020 3:51 PM via FAULKNER UNIV. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use 230 ria van den brandt For theological interpreters, the suggestion to read Etty Hillesum in a different way means, first of all,: being more sensitive to textual complexities and resisting the temptation to read the texts within a framework of supposed and unverifiable biographical facts. In daily research, this implies, I repeat, that both the study of the complete and scholarly edition and of the relevant secondary literature have to be taken seriously. These elements are necessary for a critical, serious and scholarly reception within theology and other disciplines.30 Most contemporary Catholic theologians will certainly agree that the theological relevance of Hillesum’s legacy is not limited to the resemblance of Hillesum’s vocabulary to traditional mystical vocabularies of introspection, surrender and love, and the revitalizing power that results from this vocabulary. Hillesum’s theological relevance also largely concerns her own way of reporting and expressing her inner search, her looking for the ‘always valid words,’ her eclectic and liberal use of texts from very different sources. She was a voleuse par excellence. She nourished herself with different textual traditions. The texts in her diary notebooks are like mosaics, made up of diverging fragments of wisdom. These fragments provided Hillesum a source of recognition, confirmation and liberation.31 Said another way, for Etty Hillesum herself writing functioned as empowerment. She wrote herself an identity. Also for other people, the reading of her texts turns out to be an act of empowerment: present-day readers feel nourished and strengthened by her words and insights. They often recognize their own way of gathering texts of wisdom. What Etty Hillesum in her texts shows, can be understood as a pioneering act of religious individualization. This fact is one of the reasons why her posthumous writings are so recognizable in our contemporary society and why theologians and non-theologians should be obliged to read her texts: not as an implicit confirmation of one’s own religious tradition but as an example of a very successful 30 The first decennium of the 21th century is characterized by a more scholarly theological reception of Hillesum at Dutch and Flemish universities. Cf. the theological dissertation of Alexandra Pleshoyano: Etty Hillesum: l’Amour comme ‘seule solution’: Une herméneutique théologique au cœur du mal (Münster: Lit Verlag, 2007). See also: Meins Coetsier, Etty Hillesum and The Flow of Presence: A Voegelin Analysis (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2008). 31 Regarding Etty Hillesum’s texts as a mosaic: Ria van den Brandt, “ ‘. . . comme dans mille éclats d’un miroir’: Le ‘bricolage’ d’Etty Hillesum,” in: Religiologiques 26 (2003), 1, 163–174. Cf. also the contribution of Alexandra Pleshoyano in this volume. EBSCOhost - printed on 11/20/2020 3:51 PM via FAULKNER UNIV. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use etty hillesum and her “catholic worshippers” 231 and creative form of religious or philosophical individualization. Beyond that, the testimony of Etty Hillesum is not an arbitrary private ‘text of faith,’ but a text that has been given a universal significance by many readers. The broadness of this appreciation is not only attributable to Etty Hillesum’s unfinished or open image of God but also to the finished aspects of that image of God, through which many readers with different backgrounds can identify with her texts.32 Cf. Jan Oegema, Een vreemd geluk: De publieke religie rond Auschwitz (Amsterdam: Balans, 2003). Oegema’s perceptions of Hillesum’s images of God (233–270) may be a new and challenging starting point for a culture-critical and theological debate about Etty Hillesum and her images of God. Oegema: “Without any doubt, this open image of God contributes to the fact that in the Netherlands Hillesum has become the greatest saint and mystic (in that order) of the public religion around Auschwitz. Her God was a marvellous answer to the democratic demands of a public religion. He [Hillesum’s God] managed to satisfy almost perfectly the needs of different groups.” But Oegema also writes: “Her [Hillesum’s] God was least of all ‘without object’ [. . .] Hillesum maintained several images of God.” (251) [The quotations are translated from Dutch into English.] See also the contribution of Klaas A.D. Smelik in this volume. 32 EBSCOhost - printed on 11/20/2020 3:51 PM via FAULKNER UNIV. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use EBSCOhost - printed on 11/20/2020 3:51 PM via FAULKNER UNIV. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use