Panel on "At the Origin of the Christian Claim"

Earlier this year, I was in Sydney at the kind invitation of Communion and Liberation on the release of a new revised edition of founder Luigi Giussani’s At the Origin of the Christian Claim.

I thought this a unique opportunity, not only because it allowed me, as someone not formally involved in Communion and Liberation but still engaged with its materials (particularly that of Luigi Giussani and Julian Carron), to speak into my experiences of bringing those materials to bear in seminary and school-based formation. It also was, even if unofficially, the first foray of Awkward Asian Theologians in public speaking, since Daniel was also part of that same panel, which also included Fr John O’Connor of Food for Faith in New Zealand, as well as Arianna Vignati, who is Associate Professor of Design at Torrens University.

Time meant that we had to focus on the aspects of At the Origin… that resonated with us the most, especially in light of our respective experiences, be they family, work or scholarly. When it came to my turn to speak, I began with the notion of Christ as the sympathetic presence and in particular, the sympathetic presence that addresses what Giussani called the disproportion between the Heart and Reality, or as I put it, our desires and our circumstances, which gives rise to so much restlessness (as Augustine was keen to observe).

More than sympathetic, that presence was for Giussani something generative, something that presented something new and unique, and more particularly, something new and unique to me. This uniqueness, as I mentioned in the presentation, formed the beating heart of the certainty that underwrites the Christian claim. The certainty of doctrines are only epiphenomenal, in light of the certainty that came with this unique presence that, because it is so unexpected, breaks into my experience in ways I did not expect, and creates new horizons I could not ever conceive.

The Catholic Weekly have kindly published a write up of the event by Prof. John Kinder, which you can read in full here.

I have provided the raw audio of the panel, which you can listen to in full below (please note the sound quality is not the best as I did not bring any recording equipment with me as I was not expecting to record).