ABSTRACT
The second of Arendt’s ‘great events’ that again confronts us with the phenomenon of alienation from earth is the Reformation. As this is an altogether different kind of event, the alienation associated with it differs from that discerned in the discovery and appropriation of America. It is similar in that it emerges from a distancing of ourselves from earth, but it diverges from it in its effects. This is because the alienation arises not from a physical distancing of ourselves from the earth but by reducing our relationship with it to a purely utilitarian one. Earth is viewed as something to be used, primarily as a means to our salvation in whatever form this is understood. Therefore it is regarded as something to be ‘worked’ by us, with that work done chiefly for the benefit of our soul and secondarily, for profit.
