Risk of Education Book

This is the most important book I've ever read on education, and it is one of the most important books I've read in recent years. Giussani himself is a warm and wise teacher with one thing in his vision at all times: the transformative Christ event.

I came across Fr Giussani's name in one of Stratford Caledecott's books ("Beauty for Truth's Sake"), and was intrigued by this book title. That is all I knew about him when I purchased it and began reading it. Now, I can honestly say that Fr Giussani's ideas will be significantly influential to my vocations as teacher, pastor, and father. I want to read everything he wrote.

Rather than include a summary of the book, I will offer four of the most important points Giussani makes in the book that left deep impressions:

1) Tradition is a working hypothesis. By this Giussani means that the Christian tradition (the "Regula Fide" as gathered from the storehouse of Christian teachings contained in the Scriptures and spiritual writings of the last 2,000 years) demands to be tested by young people. If the Christian tradition is passed along as something other than a workable structure, then young people will never allow it to be flexed in the face of challenges; rather, they will drop it quickly in the face of them and move onto skepticism or apathy. This hypothesis must be lived; otherwise, it's dead.

2) Faith is rational. Faith in Christ, so argues Giussani, answers the needs of the human heart in a way that nothing else does. It is the highest step on the ladder of rationality, because it is the step that brings us to God Himself. This is a major theme throughout his career. Faith is neither an assent to doctrinal teachings nor a reduction to mere moralism; it is, rather, the embrace of a Person, the continued relationship to Christ Jesus as He makes Himself known in every single moment.

3) The educator must be personally and passionately invested in his or her teachings and students. If education is about aiding the student into entering the totality of the real, then the educator must also be seeking this totality. He or she is not a hired hand, passing along information, but a leader who has an existential commitment.

4) The Christian has nothing to fear from the various systems of the world because in everything, God makes Himself known. It is only a weak and limpid theology, afraid of change and challenge, that is constantly on the attack. A secure theology sees the glimmer of God in absolutely everything, and is eager to grow, to learn, to evolve.

This is a book that changes one's life.