This volume presents the early writings (1951–1964) of Luigi Giussani, collected according to three different groups: writings concerning “the education to the Church” in the area of education; writings on ecumenical issues, aimed at the investigation of Protestantism and Orthodoxy; and writings dealing with important aspects of Christian life. While addressing different themes and addressing a non-homogeneous audience, these texts start from an identical awareness or, as the Author would say, an “enlightening idea,” namely the profound certainty that Jesus Christ works and acts, not only as the initial Creator, but in every circumstance and at all times, hic et nunc. On closer inspection, this content of faith is the force of synthesis, but also of critical analysis, of all the topics considered by the Author: from the “Catholic presence” in state schools to the wish for new free schools; from the problems posed by the great schisms to the difficulties of an ecumenical work; from a correct definition of Christian hope to the fundamental human need that is prayer.

1. Educating to the Church

This section opens with a very brief essay from 1959, Beata quae credidisti, in which the Author identifies Mary as the creature who most abandoned herself and made herself available to the Lord: human fulfillment (this concept will later be taken up again during the analysis of the figure of Abraham) is accomplished to the extent one adheres to the Creator’s will. The way in which Our Lady loved and adhered to the will of the Lord turns out to be the guideline, though not mentioned, of the writings collected in this section.

In the next two essays, Come educare al senso della Chiesa (1960) and Per un’educazione dello spirito cattolico (1960), Luigi Giussani sets out to observe the original feature of the Church’s method in order to gather some practical directions for educational activity. Such feature is “the obedience to an irrecusable fact”: this obedience to a fact involves the great shift from the “theory about God to the experience of God in Revelation.” The verification not of an idea but of an experience implies the involvement of one’s entire life, especially where life urges the most, and this means in the “environment” (school, work or home or else); to live the environment, according to the original features of the Church’s method, we need: a missionary spirit, a communal dimension and charity. 

In the essay Crisi e possibilità della gioventù studentesca (1961), the origin of the deep malaise of the student world is traced according to two points: 1. The absence of convictions, i.e., of a unitary hypothesis that can hold together the subjects that are being dealt with and one’s own life (a lack that is not accidental, but attributable to a laicist and rationalist thinking); 2. The lack of ethicality, i.e., of commitment to being, to life. Within this context, desired by the dominant culture, the religious proposal offered to students is incomplete in three respects: 1. The “profound relevance of Christ to everything” is not suggested; 2. There is no suggestion to strive to understand, but it is accepted that young people want to “understand before striving”; 3. “The change people undergo at a certain age is not dealt” (no care is taken that young people may critically and loyally consider tradition). The points for an “energetic educational action” are then listed: 1. Suggesting Christ as the “resolving principle” of all things; 2. Vitally verifying the first point; 3. Reawakening to perspectives “of universal responsibility”; 4. Instilling the profound sense of community. 

In the essay Valore educativo della scuola libera (1969), the basic concept of a “unitary explanatory hypothesis of reality” is taken up as the working point of a true and free school, since only by proposing a unitary hypothesis can the person grow and not get stuck in a “pseudo-judgment”: “It (a free school) alone as a norm can create truly open consciences and truly free spirits.” 

In the other essays collected, L’universalità del messaggio cristiano (1961), L’educazione ecumenica (1961), Cristianesimo aperto (1960), Educazione missionaria dei giovani (1962), the themes set forth by the first essays are retrieved and deepened, with greater breadth of treatment and a particularly attentive look at the missionary and communality aspect: the operative synthesis of these contributions is represented by the writing Che cosa è Gioventù Studentesca (1964), in which the principles that brought it into being are clearly affirmed.

2. Perspectives on Protestantism and Orthodoxy

The scholarly essays collected in this section are arranged along two lines: the first is the investigation with respect to Protestant and Orthodox attitudes regarding the dogma of the Assumption (and generally regarding Mary) and the sacrament of the Eucharist; the second is the ecumenical and intercommunal effort among the schismatic Churches. 

The essays Atteggiamenti protestanti e ortodossi davanti al dogma dell’Assunta (1951), L’Eucarestia presso gli orientali (1953), L’eucarestia nella Chiesa Anglicana (1953), Maria nell’Oriente cristiano (1954) belong to the first line; the essays Da Amsterdam ad Evanston. Cronaca ecumenica (1954), Il problema dell’«Intercomunione» nel protestantesimo attuale (1954) belong to the latter line. In these essays, it is clear that the scandal on the Protestant side with respect to the proclamation of the dogma of the Assumption (1950) originated from two doubts: 1) that there is no living authority “deputed to define […] what is contained in God’s saving revelation”; 2) “whether man can cooperate with God in the work of salvation.” Protestantism basically does not mean that the Catholic Church “by glorifying Mary, ultimately pays more complete homage to that one Redemption of Christ who was able to draw out of sin such a blessed Being.” The issue is more ambiguous as far as the Orthodox attitude is concerned and finds its discriminating point mainly in the fact that the competent authority to proclaim this dogma (which is considered not strictly necessary) would not be the Chair of Peter. 

In the second essay, L’eucaristia presso gli orientali (1953), the elements of the Orthodox faith are investigated according to the following points: The real presence, Transubstantiation, Sacrifice, Unleavened bread, Epiclesis, Communion sub utraque specie, Communion to children, Eucharistic reserve for the sick. While considering that “the doctrine of the Eastern Churches is fundamentally identical to that of the Roman Church,” one fact also painfully emerges: the acknowledgement that “the distance from the source of truth somewhat obscures even the fruits of a doctrine preserved so righteously,” thus allowing the introduction of a kind of practical Jansenism that prevents frequent communion and some acts of devotion.

L’Eucarestia nella Chiesa Anglicana (1953) deals with the complex and ambiguous Anglican history with regard to the sacrament of the Eucharist, taking particular note of the Calvinist drift in the Anglican Church and the profoundly fruitful attempt by some spheres of the High Church—albeit hindered by the Low Church and the House of Commons—to resume a correct and traditional approach with regard to the sacrament of the Eucharist: the points of analysis are the question of the real presence and the mode of the real presence, but also the question of epiclesis, the Eucharistic reserve, the rituals, the sacred furnishings and vestments. The essay’s conclusion notes the indifference, according to the principle of “comprehension,” of the highest Anglican hierarchies regarding how Christ is truly present in the Eucharist: the sign of a Church that is more motivated by the peaceful coexistence of opposing doctrines than by a passion for truth.

In the two essays Da Amsterdam ad Evanston. Cronaca ecumenica (1954) and Il problema dell’«Intercomunione» nel protestantesimo attuale (1954), the Author provides an eager account of the great ecumenical effort of the 161 Protestant and Orthodox Churches that took part in the Amsterdam (1948) and Evanston (1954) assemblies; with deep admiration and amazement, Luigi Giussani gives his account of the great ecumenical effort and the almost insurmountable difficulties (even if only to choose the theme and title of the second assembly) without failing to provide a clear judgment in this regard: the possibility and hope of true unity lies only within true obedience to the fact of Christ and not in the interpretive efforts, however laudable, of individuals. On the other hand, it is precisely with respect to this obedience that the great history of heresies and schisms has always been played out.

3. The Christian’s Hope

The Christian’s hope, perfecting human hope tout court, is itself already a fullness of joy, a starting fulfillment, because Christian men and women, who are already in vocation and obedience to God in their daily life, experience an unprecedented and exceptional greatness of breath and fulfillment. This is the foundation of the essays Dalla speranza alla pienezza di gioia (1961), Vita come vocazione (1959), L’abbandono e il quotidiano (1958). 

In the first essay, we understand, from direct observation of the “human fact,” that humankind “is born as an incoercible urge to self-realization,” that is, as “a promise of fulfillment”; this promise, however, even due to the “strange and tremendous contradictions of life,” clashes with the genial awareness of human impotence: in the face of this dual evidence, promise and impotence, human stances can be summarized in two options: evagatio mentis (distraction) or a Stoic-derived voluntarism. What disrupts, however, these well-traced structures in human history is that Christian hope “is no longer an activity emanating from me, a simplicity of adherence obtained from myself; it is no longer my own initiative of walking toward the infinite, […] but this hope comes to me from outside me, I find it outside me and it penetrates me inside.”

In the second essay, the word “holiness”—a key word in the Christian tradition—is retrieved, clearing it of any anachronistic goodness and binding it inextricably to the concept of perfect obedience to God’s Will and not to the images produced by the mindset of the subject: once again, silently, the great example of Mary is at work.

In the third essay, recovering the figure of Abraham, Father Giussani finds in the Old Testament this very current image of dedication and obedience to God in daily life: just as Abraham followed God’s voice in his being a travelling shepherd, so must contemporary man surrender to God’s great project in his everyday life as a student or worker. The project is great because it involves everyday life, and therein lies the exceptionality: not in a life made extraordinary according to the criteria that romanticism still casts on our minds.

In the essays Alcune cose sulla preghiera (1958) and Osservazioni sullo spirito comunitario e la preghiera (1958), the issue of prayer, understood in its full scope, is taken up again in contemporary life, namely, the great intuition of faith that the vocation to human life and being is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done”: personal and liturgical declinations always affirm this sole content. Moreover, since the Kingdom of God is the ideal of the Christian communal dimension, Luigi Giussani invites us to conceive of community prayer as the gesture most desired by the individual person in order to its true fulfillment. 

In the essay Vita cristiana e realtà missionaria (1963) he reaffirms that man’s destiny is a destiny of Love and therefore by its very nature “communal and missionary,” and recovers, as a teaching for the community, the 1960 reflection Lo Spirito Santo Signore e Vivificatore in which, beginning with the Creed, it is explained how this Gift enables the unity of the Christian community with Christ and the true knowledge of God, “But when the Spirit enters the heart of man, oh, how clear everything becomes, how true it appears that Jesus is the Word, how comprehensible and suggestive are his words, how impressive his thought […]. It is the Spirit of Jesus in us that assures us, ‘It is He.’”