“The public life amounts to all action and speech, which are coeval and co-equal: the right words at the right moment.”
Speech is a species of action, according to Hannah Arendt in The Human Condition (1958). Speech that is public is tantamount to an action. Speech belongs next to action in that each makes history. And public speech, like action, is indelible–once done, impossible to take back.
“Action and speech show ‘who’ we are in contradistinction to ‘what’ we are.”
The importance of speech lies in its revelatory nature–the word spoken, the word lofted into the assembly, is a marker, identifying its author. We climb out of the sameness of our biological existence into a life of distinction, like being born again.
“With word and deed we insert ourselves into the human world and this insertion is like a second birth. . . .”
By comparison, all interactions in the private life remain hidden in the relationships that produce them.
“Private experiences (our passions, thoughts, desires) lead a shadowy existence until transformed for public consumption through story and art.”
Speech makes us publicly available; in consequence, speech uniquely builds community.
The public life presents unparalleled opportunity for personal development, alike in religion (potentially) as in all other spheres. But there is no public life for the religious layperson–he or she may be observant, but for the most part silently.
Is there no way to correct the privations of religious life? Will we always remain stultified creatures before our God? What could be changed in our religious community life to provide a public platform?
