Why the Church?

by Luigi Giussani

Giussani begins by focusing on the Church as a community composed of people who are aware of themselves as defined by the gift of the Spirit, from which they derive a new conception of existence, the fruit of conversion. He then describes the Church's developing self-awareness of its dual elements of the human and divine. Concerned with verifying the Church's claim to embody Christ, Giussani situates the locus of verification in human experience, arguing that a different type of life is born in those who try to live the life of the Church. Why the Church? is a seminal study that will engage both the scholar and the general reader.

Genres: Theology, Religion, Catholic, Spirituality, Christianity

288 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2000

About the author

Luigi Giussani was born in 1922 in Desio, a small town near Milan. His mother, Angela, gave him his earliest daily introduction to the faith. His father, Beniamino, a member of an artistically talented family, a carver and restorer of wood, spurred the young Luigi always to ask why, to seek the reason for things. Fr. Giussani has often recalled episodes from his family life, signs of an atmosphere of great respect for persons and of an active education to keep alive the true dimensions of the heart and reason. An example is an episode when, still a young child, he and his mother were walking in the pale light of dawn to morning Mass, and his mother suddenly exclaimed softly at the sight of the last star fading in the growing morning light, “How beautiful the world is, and how great is God!” Or the great love of his father, a Socialist anarchist, for music, a passion that led him not only to try to lessen the impact of difficult moments in the family by singing famous arias, but also to prefer to the few comforts affordable in a modest economic situation the habit of inviting musicians home with him on Sunday afternoon so as to hear music played live.

At a very young age Luigi Giussani entered the diocesan seminary of Milan, continuing his studies and finally completing them at the theological school of Venegono under the guidance of masters like Gaetano Corti, Giovanni Colombo, Carlo Colombo, and Carlo Figini.

Besides the cultural training it offered, and his relationships of true esteem and great humanity with some of his masters, Venegono represented for Fr. Giussani a very important environment for the experience of the companionship of some “colleagues,” like Enrico Manfredini—the future archbishop of Bologna—in the common discovery of the value of vocation, a value that is enacted in the world and for the world.

These were years of intense study and great discoveries, such as reading Leopardi, Fr. Giussani recounts, as an accompaniment to meditation after the Eucharist. The conviction grew in him in those years that the zenith of all human genius (however expressed) is the prophecy, even if unaware, of the coming of Christ. Thus he happened to read Leopardi’s hymn Alla sua donna [To his Woman] as a sort of introduction to the prologue to the Gospel of St John, and to recognize in Beethoven and Donizetti vivid expressions of the eternal religious sense of man.

From that moment, reference to the fact that truth is recognized by the beauty in which it manifests itself would always be part of the Movement’s educational method. One can see in the history of CL a privileged place given to aesthetics, in the most profound, Thomist sense of the term, compared to an insistence on an ethical referent. From the time of his years in the seminary and as a theology student, Fr. Giussani learned that both the aesthetic and ethical sense arise from a correct and impassioned clarity concerning ontology, and that a lively aesthetic sense is the first sign of this, as evidenced by the healthiest Catholic as well as the Orthodox tradition.

Observance of discipline and order in seminary life became united with the strength of a temperament that, in his dialogue with his superiors and the initiatives of his companions, stood out for its vivacity and keenness. For example, Giussani promoted together with some fellow students an internal newsletter, called Studium Christi, with the intention of making of it a kind of organ for a study group dedicated to discovering the centrality of Christ in every subject they studied.

After ordination, Fr. Giussani devoted himself to teaching at the seminary in Venegono. In those years he specialized in the study of Eastern theology (especially the Slavophiles), American Protestant theology, and a deeper understanding of the rational reasons for adherence to faith and the Church.

In the middle of the 1950s, he left seminary teaching for high schools. For ten years, from 195

Reviews

[Chris Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really good book about why the church is necessary. It is very dense however and is much better to discuss in a group.

[Doug Schreiber · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a book! Guissani is obviously a great SCholar. THe logic and presentation of material in this book is thorough and inclusive! So why do i give it only three stars???? Luigi tries to cram everything into this 260 pages. It covers a lot of ground and does so with the premise that why not use 6 words to describe something when only one will do the job nicely. Shorter - to the point with the same theological excellence and passion would cover the topics for mopre people. He uses a lot of the great church scholars as referneces. THis is good, but does not in most ases make the point more clearly or with greater accuracy.
Good read if you have the patience to read it with the care that is needed.

[charles blishen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. An antidote against being scandalised by the human side of the church

Giussani is a lucid and original thinker. This book is the final one in his trilogy, which begins with The Religious Sense and then The Origins of the Christian Claim.

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un pic dificila de urmarit pe alocuri, insa ramane o lectura cu multe reflectii frumoase despre virtuti: credinta, speranta, iubire, saracie, sacrificiu, virginitate etc.

[Kathy Davila · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was wise, but some of the issues he focused on seem outdated now.

[Gary Seaton · Rating 1 out of 5]

I started this on the strong recommendation of my son who is actively involved with CL. I also read from it during my own brief involvement with CL. I chose not to finish it, finding it unnecessarily complex and prolix. It didn’t speak to me. Fr Giussani obviously floats a lot of peoples’ boats, just not mine.