Appearance
St. Francis of Assisi
Chesterton writng is for the scholarly reader. His discourse is more question and answer to the theological and philosifcal issues surrounding Francis than a history or biography. As my readings enlarge my scope I will go back to this title and hopefully appreciate the discourse more than at it's first reading.
St. Francis of Assisi
The reason I went away disappointed with Chesterton's work on St.Francis of Assisi is because I expected it to be a thorough biography full of chronological details like that of Augustine by Peter Brown or the two volumes of George Whitefield's biography by Arnold Dallimore. Instead, Chesterton only provides a sketch of Francis Bernadone and plenty of analysis on the man in chapter 1, his contributions in chapters 2 and 10. The remaining sections of the book only cover the highlights of Francis' ministry and how he got there. This book cannot be viewed as a biography but more of an introduction of who Francis is, as Chesterton himself acknowledges (p. 79).Chesterton depicts Francis as a humble man who loved to help the poor so much that he swore before God that he would never all his life refuse to help a poor man (p.19). In his young age, he was a failure as a soldier when he was sent home due to sickness, an event he called a descent into the valley of humiliation (p.24). But the worst was yet to come when, disappointed with his failed military career, he decided to steal some clothing from his father's store and sell it so the money could be used to rebuild the ruins of the Church of St. Damien. As a result, Pietro, Francis' father took the whole matter to court and put Francis in prison. Francis then gave himself to the Catholic Church to be a monk and established the mendicant Franciscan order. Chesterton did not elaborate much what this order was all about. He barely discusses "The Rule of St. Francis" and what the Franciscan friars did. The impression I received from Chesterton is that Francis was a very kind and courteous yet strange mystic. He treated everyone with respect and did not seem to ever hesitate to help anyone in need. On the other hand, he seemed to think that animals and inanimate objects understand human language. He treated each tree as "a separate and almost sacred thing, being a child of God and therefore a brother or sister of man" (p. 47). His communication to the fire and the birds strikes me as odd yet hilarious. When his eyes were about to be cauterized with a red hot iron as a remedy to prevent blindness, Francis pleaded to the fire in the branding iron, "Brother Fire, God made you beautiful and strong and useful. I pray you be courteous with me" (p.51). In addition to preaching to the birds, perhaps another famous account of Francis is that he received the stigmata, the wounds of Christ (p.75). Whether or not this account is true is disputable. I am not sure what Francis' theology looked like since Chesterton barely covers it. He only mentions that Francis tried to end the Crusades by attempting to convert the Muslims which he failed to do in his evangelistic effort to the Sultan of the Saracens (p.50, 71). I only learned a glimpse of Francis' theology somewhere else, namely from his famous prayer that God would use him as an instrument of his peace, which again, Chesterton does not mention.The conclusion I arrived at after reading Chesterton's brief sketch of St. Francis of Assisi is as follows. First, I am afraid the readers would be disappointed if they expect Chesterton's treatment goes like a story in a movie or a novel, because as I have pointed out, this book is more of an introduction or a biographical sketch or review. Second, if there is anything to imitate from St. Francis, it is not his excess mysticism or visions and dreams, but his life of simplicity and full of gratitude and praise in the midst of the abyss of poverty and suffering as well as his good manner, kindness and generosity. As I thought about the hypothetical prospect of being a Franciscan, I actually don't mind joining such an order committed to simplicity, study and helping people if only the Catholic Church holds to reformed theology or even their pre-medieval theology. The only ground for hesitation is that I'm not sure if I can live by asking people for money, food and clothing all the time like the Franciscans did back then. Anyhow, since I am not very happy with Chesterton's version of St. Francis' biography, I was thinking of trying "The Lessons of Saint Francis: How to Bring Simplicity and Spirituality into Your Daily Life" by Talbot and Rabey or "St. Francis Assisi: A Biography" by Omer Englebert.
St. Francis of Assisi
If you like Chesterton then you'll probably like this book. However, he can get on my nerves. I was wanted to learn about Francis. When I finished the book I thought, "You know, I didn't learn a thing. Chesterton told me the little I already knew about Francis." Yet for some reason it took Chesterton 158 pages to tell me so little. This isn't a biography. It is GK's commentary on what he thinks about Francis in relation to modernity.
St. Francis of Assisi
G.K. Chesterton is one of the best Christian writers of the twentieth century. Prolific and artistic, he had the knack for combining a classic British commentary sense to any historical Christian subject, making it both the object of cultural interest and often historic reverence. As St. Francis of Assisi was one of the primary influences on Chesterton's decision to convert to Roman Catholicism (Chesterton once described his conversion as being largely due to wanting to belong to the same institution that had produced St. Francis), it makes sense that Chesterton would devote considerable energies toward this biography.Chesterton said that there are essentially three ways to approach a biography of a figure such as St. Francis - one can be dispassionately objective (or at least as much as can pass for such a stance), looking at things from a 'purely' historical standpoint; one can go to the opposite extreme and treat the figure as an object of devotion and worship; or one can take a third path (and you've guessed correctly if you assumed this was Chesterton's route) of looking at the character as an interested outsider, someone in the modern world but still one involved in the same kinds of structures and virtues as the one being studied.Chesterton's prose is snappy and lively, witty and bit sardonic at times. Chesterton is not afraid to digress to make his own points, and like the intellectual critic who cannot contain the myriad of responses to particular points, Chesterton treats us to a generous collection of tangential observations. One discovers, for instance, Chesterton's opinion of modern British history (that it reads more like journalism than like a developed narrative) - he makes the observation that journalists rarely think to publish a 'life' until the death of the subject; this of course cannot be helped in the case of Francis of Assisi, but the method of the media serves to highlight the difference in world-view between then and now.This is a spiritual biography - it does not simply go from event to event in Francis' life, but rather looks as the development of his spirituality, his calling, his order and his influence in later church (and more general) history. In his discussion, he looks at miracles and poetic production, political realities and logical fallacies, ancient sentiments and present-day practices. Francis is seen in many ways as the Mirror of Christ (not quite the same thing as the WWJD fad of the current day, but approximating the sense in some regards), but this sets up an interesting logical situation - if Francis is like Christ, then Christ is in some ways like Francis. Chesterton points out the importance of the difference, likening it to the difference between creator and creature, but there is still the interesting development in history where some tried to make Francis a second Christ (something Francis himself would have opposed bitterly).Fun, fascinating, spiritual without succumbing to kitsch, intellectual without being overblown, this book is a classic on Francis, and a classic by Chesterton, a small miracle of Francis (in the many sense of the term).
St. Francis of Assisi
The first time I read this book, I felt almost as impatient with Chesterton's "verbosity" and "hot air" as some of the reviewers below. In regard to the bare facts of Francis' life, one comes to feel a bit as Chesterton said of the Troubadours' lovers: "The reader realises that the lady is the most beautiful being that can possibly exist, only he has occasional doubts as to whether she does exist." Moments came when I found myself thirsting for dry facts. But I think the problem is that Chesterton assumes his readers, as educated persons of his period, know the story already, and only need to be enlightened as to its meaning. One can get facts anywhere. Few can take us inside the thinking of a man like Francis. And absolutely no one I know writes with such entertaining flair, of a healing kind so different from modern books and movies that wound our souls with their pleasures.On second reading, I find I enjoyed this episode about as much as the biography of Dickens -- which was very much. Chesterton looks at Francis, in varying cadences, from the inside, to help us think and feel as he did, then from the outside, as children of the Enlightenment, a two-perspective approach that gives us a rounded figure. Those of us who have no other knowledge of Francis may sometimes wonder how much of that figure is Francis and how much Chesterton, (who was, after all, probably the more rounded of the two). But the insights are always brilliant. And many still cut like daggers. (Or rather scalpels, to heal.) "We read that Admiral Bangs has been shot, which is the first intimation we have that he has ever been born." "The moment sex ceases to be a servant it becomes a tyrant." "All goods look better when they look like gifts." "There is only one intelligent reason why a man does not believe in miracles and that is that he does believe in materialism." Anyone who finds such digressions merely "hot air," would be best advised to keep to dry-as-dust historical commentaries, or skeptical comic books, as the case may be.This book is not so much a biography of a single man, as an episode in Chesterton's ongoing spiritual biography of mankind. It is one in a series of what Solzhenitsyn called "knots" and Thomas Cahill calls "hinges" of history. The series continues with Chesterton's equally subjective but enlightening biographies of Chaucer, Dickens, Joan of Arc, and modern "Heretics." He gives the outline of the project in the Everlasting Man, which is one of the most brilliant and wisest books of the century.As a non-Catholic Christian ("Protestant" would place the emphasis in the wrong place), I don't agree with Chesterton's take on the Albigensian Wars, and am more ambivalent about the Crusades than he. But he does not exactly justify the Inquisition, as the reader below implies; he admits that in later stages it was a "horrible thing that might be haunted by demons." How many modern leftists admitted that much about, say, the Russian Revolution? But I agree he may try to "understand" the sins committed by his side a little too hard.author, Jesus and the Religions of Man (July 2000)[email protected]
St. Francis of Assisi
G.K. Chesterton's "St. Francis of Assisi" is not your conventional timeline of the events in a man's life. Instead, Chesterton focuses on Francis' relationship with God and his historical context, background and impact. I first read this book a year ago and have just read it again - it's one of those books that are so rich that you discover something new each time you pick it up. If you've ever read "The Little Flowers of St. Francis" (about the events in Francis' life), this is the book to read next. It is a great aid to understanding Francis as a person and not just as "the bird bath saint". I highly recommend this book.