Vita activa

Vita activa refers to the Christian ideal of a life of active charity, a life for others, which grew out of monasticism. This requires that one puts one's own needs aside and turns to others (the needy, the weak, the sick or the elderly). The tasks of vita activa can also include preaching the Gospel. This ideal of the vita activa is still practised today by members of active religious orders, deaconesses, workers in diaconia and caritas.

The counterpart to the vita activa is the vita contemplativa, which requires turning away from worldly things (e.g. wealth, honour, power, drives) and radically turning towards God.

In 1958, the philosopher Hannah Arendt published one of her most famous books under the title "The Human Condition". In it, she analyses the three basic human activities of working, producing and acting, starting with the Greeks and the beginning of Western metaphysics. This is necessary in order to understand "what we actually do when we become active". She distinguishes work from production in that production leaves behind a permanent product (handicrafts/art), whereas the results of work are immediately consumed again (domestic economy/agriculture). Action, on the other hand, forms a unit with language and is only possible in a social context (especially social and political action).

Literature

• Hannah Arendt: The Human Condition. Second edition. University of Chicago Press 1998. ISBN 978-0-226-92457-1.