Pope Francis’s first papal letter, reflecting on the nature of belief and the need to renew our faith for a bright future of charity and love for all “Precisely because it is linked to love, the light of faith is concretely placed at the service of justice, law and peace. Faith is born of an encounter with God’s primordial love, wherein the meaning and goodness of our life become evident; our life is illumined to the extent that it enters into the space opened by that love, to the extent that it becomes, in other words, a path and praxis leading to the fullness of love.”—Pope Francis “The encyclical letter Lumen Fidei is the great monument of the Year of Faith declared by Pope Benedict XVI and brought to completion by Pope Francis,” writes Scott Hahn in his foreword. “It is a capstone of the year, but at the same time a milestone of a long road, a road we have only begun to travel: the road of the New Evangelization.” Here is an illuminating work inviting all to lead a more spiritual and faith-based life, a reminder that with faith comes service, and with service to others and to God comes heaven on earth.

信仰を単なる主観的な感情ではなく、愛に裏打ちされた真実の光として捉え直す本作は、魂の渇きを癒やす壮大な思索の書です。フランシスコ教皇は、現代の闇の中で信仰を迷信と断ずる風潮に対し、それが人生の進むべき道を照らす灯台であることを力強く説きます。信仰が愛と結びつくことで、知識を超えた生の躍動へと昇華される過程は、まさに圧巻と言えるでしょう。 前任者ベネディクト十六世の思索を継承し、二人の教皇の意志が融合した本作は、理知的な考察と慈愛が見事に調和した文学的傑作です。未来を照らす希望、そして社会の正義へと繋がるその具体的実践を説く言葉は、信じることの深遠な美しさを再発見させてくれます。混迷の時代を生きる全ての読者に贈るべき、魂を揺さぶる至高の指針となる一冊です。