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The Religious Sense |
eBook Available
A new translation of one of Giussani's seminal works.
The Religious Sense, the fruit of many years of dialogue with students, is an exploration of the search for meaning in life. Luigi Giussani shows that the nature of reason expresses itself in the ultimate need for truth, goodness, and beauty. These needs constitute the fabric of the religious sense, which is evident in every human being everywhere and in all times. So strong is this sense that it leads one to desire that the answer to life's mystery might reveal itself in some way.
Giussani challenges us to penetrate the deepest levels of experience to discover our essential selves, breaking through the layers of opinions and judgments that have obscured our true needs. Asserting that all the tools necessary for self-discovery are inherent within us, he focuses primarily on reason, not as narrowly defined by modern philosophers, but as an openness to existence, a capacity to comprehend and affirm reality in all of its dimensions.
Part of the so-called new religious revival, The Religious Sense avoids any sentimental or irrational reduction of the religious experience. It is a forthright and refreshing call to reassess our lives.
Giussani challenges us to penetrate the deepest levels of experience to discover our essential selves, breaking through the layers of opinions and judgments that have obscured our true needs. Asserting that all the tools necessary for self-discovery are inherent within us, he focuses primarily on reason, not as narrowly defined by modern philosophers, but as an openness to existence, a capacity to comprehend and affirm reality in all of its dimensions.
Part of the so-called new religious revival, The Religious Sense avoids any sentimental or irrational reduction of the religious experience. It is a forthright and refreshing call to reassess our lives.
Details
186 Pages, 6 x 9
ISBN 9780773516267
October 1997
Formats: Cloth, Paperback, Paperback, eBook
Monsignor Luigi Giussani (1922-2005) was professor emeritus of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, Italy, and the founder of the Catholic lay movement Communion and Liberation, which is flourishing in Italy and has spread to over sixty countries throughout the world, including Canada, the United States, and Britain.
Foreword / Jean Bethke Elshtain / ix
Introduction / J. Francis Stafford / xi
Preface / xv
L The First Premise: Realism / 3
Our Subject / 3
The Method of Research Is Imposed by the Object: A Reflection on One's Own Experience /4
Experience Implies an Evaluation / 6
Criterion for the Evaluation / 6
Elementary Experience / 7
Man, the Ultimate Judge? /9
Ascesis for Liberation / I0
2 The Second Premise: Reasonableness / I 2
Reasonableness: A Structural Requirement of Man / 12
Reductive Use of Reason /14
Diversity of Procedures / 16
A Particularly Important Procedure / 17
An Application of the Method of Moral Certainty: Faith / 21
3 The Third Premise: The Impact of Morality on the Dynamic of Knowing / 23
Reason Inseparable from the Unity of the "I" / 23
Reason Bound to Feeling / 24
The Hypothesis of Reason Without Interference / 26
An Existential Question and a Question of Method /27
Another Point of View / 27
The Morality of Knowing / 30
Preconception /32
4 The Religious Sense: The Starting Point / 34
Premise / 34
How to Proceed / 34
The "I"-in-Action / 35
Involvement with Life / 36
Aspects of the Involvement /37
A Double Reality / 40
Corollary / 41
The Materialistic Reduction / 42
5 The Religious Sense: Its Nature / 45
Premise / 45
The Level of Certain Questions / 45
At the Core of Our Being / 46
The Need for a Total Answer / 47
Disproportion Before the Total Answer / 48
Structural Disproportion / 49
Sadness / 5 1
The Nature of the "1" as Promise / 53
The Religious Sense as a Dimension / 55
Conclusion /57
6 Unreasonable Positions Before the Ultimate Question: Emptying the Question / 59
Premise / 59
The Theoretical Denial of the Questions / 59
The Voluntaristic Substitution of Questions / 62
Personal Praxis / 62
Utopianism / 63
The Social Project / 64
The Practical Denial of the Questions / 64
7 Unreasonable Positions Before the Ultimate Question:
Reduction of the Question / 7°
The Aesthetic or Sentimental Evasion / 7°
The Desperate Negation / 72
The Impossible Aspiration ("The Impotent Hope") /73
Reality as Illusion / 74
Nothingness as Essence /75
Alienation / 76
8 Consequences of the Unreasonable Positions Before the Ultimate Question / 80
The Break with the Past / 80
Incommunicativeness and Solitude / 83
Loss of Freedom / 87
9 Preconception, Ideology, Rationality, and the Religious
Sense / 94
Preconceptions: Clarifications / 94
Ideology / 95
Reason / 97
The Religious Sense and Rationality / 98
10 How the Ultimate Questions Arise: The Way of the Religious Sense / 100
Awe of the "Presence" / 100
The Cosmos / 103
"Providential" Reality / 104
The Dependent "I" / 105
The Law of the Heart / 107
Conclusion / 108
II The Experience of the Sign / 110
Provocation / 110
The Sign / 111
Irrational Denial / 112
Life as Need / 113
You, the Supreme Sign / 115
The Discovery of Reason / 116
Openings / 118
12 The Adventure of Interpretation / 120
The Factor of Freedom Before the Ultimate Enigma /121
The World as Parable / 123
13 An Education in Freedom / 125
Education in Freedom as Responsibility / 125
An Education in Learning How to Ask / 126
The Experience of Risk / 128
14 Reason's Energy Seeks to Penetrate the Unknown /132
Reason's Driving Force / 132
A Vertiginous Position / 134
Reason's Impatience / 135
A Distorting Point of View / 135
Idols / 137
A Consequence / 138
Dynamics of the Identification of the Idol/ 138
Conclusion / 139
15 The Hypothesis of Revelation: Conditions for Its
Acceptability / 141
Notes / 147
Subject Index / 155
Author Index / 163
Permissions / 165
Introduction / J. Francis Stafford / xi
Preface / xv
L The First Premise: Realism / 3
Our Subject / 3
The Method of Research Is Imposed by the Object: A Reflection on One's Own Experience /4
Experience Implies an Evaluation / 6
Criterion for the Evaluation / 6
Elementary Experience / 7
Man, the Ultimate Judge? /9
Ascesis for Liberation / I0
2 The Second Premise: Reasonableness / I 2
Reasonableness: A Structural Requirement of Man / 12
Reductive Use of Reason /14
Diversity of Procedures / 16
A Particularly Important Procedure / 17
An Application of the Method of Moral Certainty: Faith / 21
3 The Third Premise: The Impact of Morality on the Dynamic of Knowing / 23
Reason Inseparable from the Unity of the "I" / 23
Reason Bound to Feeling / 24
The Hypothesis of Reason Without Interference / 26
An Existential Question and a Question of Method /27
Another Point of View / 27
The Morality of Knowing / 30
Preconception /32
4 The Religious Sense: The Starting Point / 34
Premise / 34
How to Proceed / 34
The "I"-in-Action / 35
Involvement with Life / 36
Aspects of the Involvement /37
A Double Reality / 40
Corollary / 41
The Materialistic Reduction / 42
5 The Religious Sense: Its Nature / 45
Premise / 45
The Level of Certain Questions / 45
At the Core of Our Being / 46
The Need for a Total Answer / 47
Disproportion Before the Total Answer / 48
Structural Disproportion / 49
Sadness / 5 1
The Nature of the "1" as Promise / 53
The Religious Sense as a Dimension / 55
Conclusion /57
6 Unreasonable Positions Before the Ultimate Question: Emptying the Question / 59
Premise / 59
The Theoretical Denial of the Questions / 59
The Voluntaristic Substitution of Questions / 62
Personal Praxis / 62
Utopianism / 63
The Social Project / 64
The Practical Denial of the Questions / 64
7 Unreasonable Positions Before the Ultimate Question:
Reduction of the Question / 7°
The Aesthetic or Sentimental Evasion / 7°
The Desperate Negation / 72
The Impossible Aspiration ("The Impotent Hope") /73
Reality as Illusion / 74
Nothingness as Essence /75
Alienation / 76
8 Consequences of the Unreasonable Positions Before the Ultimate Question / 80
The Break with the Past / 80
Incommunicativeness and Solitude / 83
Loss of Freedom / 87
9 Preconception, Ideology, Rationality, and the Religious
Sense / 94
Preconceptions: Clarifications / 94
Ideology / 95
Reason / 97
The Religious Sense and Rationality / 98
10 How the Ultimate Questions Arise: The Way of the Religious Sense / 100
Awe of the "Presence" / 100
The Cosmos / 103
"Providential" Reality / 104
The Dependent "I" / 105
The Law of the Heart / 107
Conclusion / 108
II The Experience of the Sign / 110
Provocation / 110
The Sign / 111
Irrational Denial / 112
Life as Need / 113
You, the Supreme Sign / 115
The Discovery of Reason / 116
Openings / 118
12 The Adventure of Interpretation / 120
The Factor of Freedom Before the Ultimate Enigma /121
The World as Parable / 123
13 An Education in Freedom / 125
Education in Freedom as Responsibility / 125
An Education in Learning How to Ask / 126
The Experience of Risk / 128
14 Reason's Energy Seeks to Penetrate the Unknown /132
Reason's Driving Force / 132
A Vertiginous Position / 134
Reason's Impatience / 135
A Distorting Point of View / 135
Idols / 137
A Consequence / 138
Dynamics of the Identification of the Idol/ 138
Conclusion / 139
15 The Hypothesis of Revelation: Conditions for Its
Acceptability / 141
Notes / 147
Subject Index / 155
Author Index / 163
Permissions / 165
