„Uns ist ein Kind geboren“

Abstract

The term natality which Hannah Arendt discussed in her work The Human Condition (German: Vita activa) has been intensively received in theology, in the period after the turn of the millennium. This contribution examines the process of reception, focussing on the question, whether Arendt should be understood as an initiator of the term only or whether she shows a deeper religious Jewish/Christian understanding in her work that would justify theological interpretations. The latter should rather be questioned. Meanwhile, the concept of natality can be continued theologically with regards to an ethics of fragility and dependency.