Etty Hillesum: Essential Writings (Modern Spiritual Masters)

I first read Etty Hillesum: An Interrupted Life "the Diaries & Letters from Westerbork, which is a MUST READ. I followed up with this book. I love Etty. I loved this book, it touches your heart. It shows the range of our human condition. Your heart will soar and your heart will crumble. In the end hopefully make you a better person. Thank you Etty.

Etty was an amazing Jewish girl with a very interesting and full, short life! You will be challenged and entralled. It will make you think.

Deep, meaningful and healing book.

They seem to alter some of her real actions and notations in the unabridged version to fit the religious basis of the group from whom the publication comes from.

Incredible book....

This is the second collection of the writings of Etty Hillesum I have read, the first being An Interrupted Life. Etty was a young Jewish woman living in occupied Holland during World War II. In 1943 she was deported to Auschwitz where she was murdered.In this collection of her diaries (and some letters), Etty Hillesum: Essential Writings, editor Annemarie S. Kidder culls passages from Etty's diaries that fit into a Christian mold. She divides each set of writings by topic, "The Self", `The World', "The Self and the World" moving the diary entries out of chronology order.This collection, in highlighting Etty's spiritual struggles, provides a strong dose of her mystical tendencies, which we see growing stronger as she approaches what she knows will be her death. This is the collection's strong suite: the closer Etty gets to death, the more she feels God's presence within her. Her union with God is directly related to the suffering and pain she sees around her. God and death become twin companions, and her prose soars and we, the reader, get the full visceral picture of this woman, her life, and ultimately, her death. Etty is moving toward a point where she will not return, and her joy in the munificence of the presence of God within overwhelms her.The problem with this collection is that it cherry picks from the larger body of the diaries. From what I have read, Etty was an eclectic searcher; she was Jewish, but had Christian leanings, mainly through the lens of her mentor, Julius Spier, and her reading of Rilke and Jung. Certainly, those are treated in this volume, but by subdividing them into nearly monastic categories, the impression is given the Etty was something that she was not: a Christian adept. From my reading, she was spiritual eclectic.Her voice was unique. She does not fit into any tradition with any degree of comfort. Even mystic fails to encapsulate the beauty and truth her diaries convey.

Great to have her more spiritual thoughts together in a volume.

This gem of a book by Etty Hillesum is a must-read for anyone on a journey of self-discovery. It is a primer on self-analysis and finding rich meaning in one's life.

Profundo y serio contenido

This in't the kind of book that anyone can read lightly or indeed quickly. It is in every real sense the journal of a soul. Rowan Williams in his book Tokens of Trust says that Etty Hillesum is one of the most striking believers of the 20th century. Etty is one of the many who made God believable by their resistance to the nightmares of totalitarianism and violence as demonstrated by Hitler and his followers. Etty Hillesum was a young Jewish woman, in her twenties when the Nazis occupied Holland. She wasn't a pious or conventional religious person with a specific commitment to a church or synagogue. These excerpts from her diaries from 1941 to 1943 show how during this terrible time in the history of her country and people, she became more and more conscious of God's hand on her life. It was a time when most would have been likely to feel more deeply sceptical about God. She was murdered at Auschwitz in the gas chambers of the Third Reich.

Brilliant and moving real life story - very inspiring

excellent

Very deep thought. It will take time to absorb the teaching.