Finding Francis: An Invitation

Abstract

More than thirty years ago, I made the decision that I would devote my scholarly career to the study of Francis of Assisi and the Franciscans. After three books and numerous articles about things Franciscan, I constantly tell myself that pretty soon I am going to have something worthwhile to say about Francis! I say that only a bit tongue-in-cheek. Francis is a hard person to figure out. When I read a new biography of Francis, almost a full-time job it sometimes seems, I usually put it down and ponder that while I certainly learned something, the author did not take into account something without which it is impossible to know Francis profoundly. Whether the particular life of Francis I have just read is a comic book or a multi-volume study of some 2,000 pages, I sense something missing, a certain lack of the essence of the man.