At the Origin of the Christian Claim

Monsignor Luigi Giussani (1922-2005) was the founder of the Catholic lay movement Communion and Liberation in Italy. His works are available in over twenty languages.

• Foreword by David L. Schindler / viiPreface / xiIntroduction / 3The Religious Factor and Life / 3The Dizzying Human Condition / 5Reason in Search of a Solution / 81 Man’s Religious Creativity / 9Some Attitudes of Religious Constructiveness / 10A Range of Hypotheses / 122 The Need for Revelation / 15Some Examples / 16Facing an Unimaginable Claim / 193 The Enigma as a Fact Within the Human Trajectory / 21A Radical Overturning of the Religious Method / 23No Longer Just a Hypothesis / 24A Problem That Must Be Solved / 25A Problem of Fact / 274 How the Problem Arose in History / 29The Fact as Criterion / 29Concerning the Method / 32The Starting Point / 345 A Profound Certainty in Time / 39The Itinerary of Conviction / 39A Question Arises, A Certainty Breaks Forth / 44A Case of Moral Certainty / 466 The Pedagogy of Christ’s Self-Revelation / 48The Essentials of the Pedagogy of Christ’s Self-Revelation / 51For His Sake: The Core of Freedom / 52The Moment of Identification / 557 The Explicit Declaration / 59The First Dawning of Explicitness / 61A Challenge / 62The Conclusive Declaration / 65The Discretion of Freedom / 678 Christ’s Conception of Life / 68A Premise: Education in the Morality Necessary for Understanding / 68Human Stature / 71Human Existence / 75An Awareness Expressed as Asking / 76The Law of Life / 80Conclusion / 859 Facing the Claim / 87The Mystery of the Incarnation / 87An Extraordinary Historical Reality / 88The Terms of This New Reality / 90Instinctive Resistance / 91Conclusion / 92Notes / 95Subject Index / 113Author Index / 117