Giussani Glossary

While reading Fr. Giussani's works, it can be helpful to have a glossary of the important terms that he uses.

abstraction.
category.
criterion. Criterion for the judgment of our existential inquiry. See original experience.
elementary experience. See original experience.
event. “Jesus Christ dead and risen” [Scola 13].
existential inquiry. Reflection on myself, concerning the religious sense [Religious Sense 5]. Used as the method of knowing the religious sense.
fact. See event.
freedom. The possibility of exercising the religious sense [Albacete 42].
judgment. Judgment of our existential inquiry [Religious Sense 7]
method. The method of knowing the religious sense [Religious Sense 5]. For Giussani, this is the “sacramental method” [Scola 16].
moralism.
original experience. Primordial needs, “for example, the need for happiness, the need for truth, for justice, etc.” [Religious Sense 7]. Used as the criterion for the judgment of our existential inquiry.
presence. “reality as other” [Albacete 40].
protestantization. “subjectivistic reduction” [Scola 12].
realism. “an entire, passionate, insistent ability to observe the real event, the fact” [Religious Sense 4].
reason. “the capacity to become aware of reality according to the totality of its factors” [Religious Sense 12].
religious sense. “openness to the encounter with Christ” [Albacete 42].
sign. Sacrament. The Church is “the sign (sacrament) of the Christian Event” [Scola 7].



Essays from A Generative Thought: An Introduction to the Works of Luigi Giussani:
Albacete, Lorenzo. The Spirituality of Luigi Giussani.
Scola, Angelo. A Style of Thought.