Introduction : Meanings of resistance -- The Dis/Continued dialogue with the enlightenment -- The ongoing edification of the self -- The transcending consciousness of the other -- Between ecumenism and anti-Judaism -- Stein and Weil : diverging responses to Jewish and Christian traditions -- Stein and Weil : between self-affirmation and self-renunciation -- Frank and Hillesum : identity and the search for God -- Where art and self meet -- Stein and Weil : displaced autobiographical selves -- Frank and Hillesum : the diarists as growing artists -- Gender consciousness in the rule of terror -- Stein and Weil : women's nature and destiny -- Toward intellectual and emotional maturity.