Chapter 1: The Religious Creativity of Man
Faced with the ultimate enigma, man has sought to imagine, to define such a mystery in relation to himself, to conceive, therefore, of a way of relating to it, and to express all of the aesthetic reflexes aroused by his imagination of the Ultimate. (11)
Religion is the "place" where man relates to mystery. His imagination, or creativity, constructs a place where he can know and interact with the Other. It is not wrong for him to do this, in fact it emanates from his unquenchable desire for the Unknown. He must make a "place," because he realizes that while the world is real, it is only a sign pointing to a greater reality, and he is unable to soar over the horizon of ultimate meaning to meet the Other.
Every religion depends on "people's temperament, their environment, and their particular historical moment" (12), however throughout human history man has tried to address certain basic needs within religion. Giussani gives several examples of how various civilizations have tried to establish a relationship with the Unknown.
Obedience to the order of natural harmony was very present in religious periods in China, Wei, and Sumer. The Unknown remained mysterious and beyond any understanding, so the attempt to be reconciled with the flow of the seasons, life and death, and the cycles of celestial objects became the focus of religion. In the case of the Hittites, a sense of a contract or a pact is fostered between man and the powers that guide the world. J. Reis states that "Sacredness entailed entering into a relationship: man must be able to approach the gods.... Intervention by consecrated personages is indispensable" (15).
On the other hand, much of Greek religious thought held that "negotiation with the gods is impossible" (15). Human beings are always struggling against some evil, whether it be starvation or disease. People are not creatures of a Creator and have no hope of intimacy with the Unknown. Ancient Romans held a more positive view of their relationship with the sacred. Religion "allows the universe to be structured and establishes how the relationships between men and the gods will function" (16). It is a way of organizing meaning.
The next examples show that man imagines the Unknown as something that he cannot know, but trusts to be benevolent. The Other is mighty and even dangerous, but "in the reciprocal service relationship, in Egypt as elsewhere, gratitude and piety go hand in hand with hopeful expectation" (16). Man's normal disposition is to trust in the Unknown and render service in exchange for providence. Giussani writes that in the Koran and the Islamic liturgy have this trust, "In the name of the merciful and benign God." The book of Hosea shows this appeal to "divine kindness."
When Israel was a child I loved him, out of Egypt I called my son.
The more I called them, the farther they went from me, Sacrificing to the Baals and burning incense to idols.
Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, who took them in my arms;
I drew them with human cords, with bands of love; I fostered them like one who raises an infant to his cheeks; Yet, though I stooped to feed my child, they did not know that I was their healer. (Hosea 11:1-4)
Across the wide gamut of religions, one element is common to all: the attempt. A religious construction, if sincere, is always the result of man's effort to seek and understand the absolute to the best of his ability.
Although there are many similar ideas across religions, so too are there so many differences. If man is once again sincere in his search to know the ultimate mystery, then he will be faced with the question of truth. How does man find which religion has the most value - the real truth - and not just smoke and mirrors?
One way would be to examine every religious construction and compare each one to the others. By knowing all religions man could make an educated choice with his reason. At first glance this idea seems like a possible solution, but it is both theoretically and practically flawed. This method is "not an ideal but rather a utopia.... the assumption that we must know all religions produced by the history of man in order to make a rationally dignified choice is an abstract criterion, impossible to apply" (18-19).
Perhaps man could at least know the major religions with large followings to base our decision? But here still we have an unreasonable criterion. If I lived in Rome two thousand years ago I would have to ignore the small sect of "Christians" since they were only a tiny fringe group. I would never know if that religion contained the truth. "If a criterion is true, it should be able to be applied in all cases" (19).
Another method which is prevalent today is the "syncretic notion." This effort continually takes the best parts of different religions and combines them like a melting pot. Far from being a universal religion, the result is simply another religious construct. Who decides which parts are added or discarded? It is a religion synthesized by a few. "Here we find the typical presumption of a society whereby people must prostrate themselves before the will of a group of 'enlightened' ones" (19).
A more reasonable way to approach religion is to follow the religious tradition that one is born into. For man, "it is highly probably that the religion his surroundings profess will be the expression best suited to his temperament" (20). This is not meant to be a definitive rule; we should not be chained to an ancestral religion. By being receptive to all of life we may encounter an idea, a teaching, a feeling that invites us to deepen and intensify our relationship with the Mystery as it really is. In this sense we are in a constant state of conversion, in which we are always attracted to an encounter with truth.
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