The Religious Sense

Translated by John Zucchi.

(The book is also available for purchase through HAB Books)

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. In this revised edition, John Zucchi offers a new translation of this seminal and best-selling work.

I express my personal gratitude for the good it did for me, as a priest, to contemplate some of Fr Giussani's books... and I do so also as universal Pastor for all that he knew how to sow and spread everywhere for the good of the Church.
Pope Francis, adress to the members of Communion and Liberation, St Peter's Square, 15 October 2022.