This volume, introduced by the “Nota di edizione” (pp. 7-9) is the first part of a course of lessons organized in three books (it was to be followed by All’origine della pretesa cristiana. Volume secondo del perCorso, 1988; Perché la Chiesa. La pretesa permane. Volume terzo del perCorso, tome 1, 1990; Perché la Chiesa. Il segno efficace del divino nella storia. Volume terzo del perCorso, tome 2, 1992).

The Course was initially devised as the basis of the lessons in religion held by Father Giussani at the Berchet Classical High School in Milan in 1954: it was subsequently developed by the author and used for his lectures in Introduction to Theology at the Università Cattolica, also in Milan.

The present edition is the result of this process and completely renews the work published in 1966, enriching and developing it in depth (Il senso religioso, Jaca Book, which in turn can be considered a further development of Senso religioso, GIAC, 1957).

In 1994 Jaca Book republished the text in the first of the two volumes that contain the author’s writings published under its imprint (Opere 1966-1992. Vol. 1. Il PerCorso, Il Senso religioso [Works 1966-1992. Vol. I. The Course, The Religious Sense], pp. 1-186).

The three volumes of PerCorso were given their definitive format in the Rizzoli edition (1997-2003).