Francis of Assisi: A Man of His Time

Abstract

The suggestion that Francis of Assisi was a man of his time is, on one level, supremely banal. After all, we are all of us, to a greater or lesser extent, people of our time, individually shaped— or stunted—by the same historical, cultural, and spiritual forces that shape or stunt our contemporaries. We might argue that what makes certain individuals stand out and speak to us so effectively across the centuries is precisely the extent to which they stand out against their time rather than being of it. ‘Francis our contemporary’ might on the face of it seem a more fruitful approach, certainly a better sound bite. ‘A Saint for all seasons’ would have the additional advantage of being pleasingly alliterative. I, however, have stripped him of his sainthood, which is absent from the title of this chapter, and tied him—and us—firmly to his time.