{"product_id":"2940013709027","title":"St Francis of Assisi","description":"A sketch of St. Francis of Assisi in modern English may be written in\u003cbr\u003eone of three ways. Between these the writer must make his selection; and\u003cbr\u003ethe third way, which is adopted here, is in some respects the most\u003cbr\u003edifficult of all. At least, it would be the most difficult if the other\u003cbr\u003etwo were not impossible.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFirst, he may deal with this great and most amazing man as a figure in\u003cbr\u003esecular history and a model of social virtues. He may describe this\u003cbr\u003edivine demagogue as being, as he probably was, the world's one quite\u003cbr\u003esincere democrat. He may say (what means very little) that St. Francis\u003cbr\u003ewas in advance of his age. He may say (what is quite true) that St.\u003cbr\u003eFrancis anticipated all that is most liberal and sympathetic in the\u003cbr\u003emodern mood; the love of nature; the love of animals; the sense of\u003cbr\u003esocial compassion; the sense of the spiritual dangers of prosperity and\u003cbr\u003eeven of property. All those things that nobody understood before\u003cbr\u003eWordsworth were familiar to St. Francis. All those things that were\u003cbr\u003efirst discovered by Tolstoy could have been taken for granted by St\u003cbr\u003eFrancis. He could be presented, not only as a human but a humanitarian\u003cbr\u003ehero; indeed as the first hero of humanism. He has been described as a\u003cbr\u003esort of morning star of the Renaissance. And in comparison with all\u003cbr\u003ethese things, his ascetical theology can be ignored or dismissed as a\u003cbr\u003econtempory accident, which was fortunately not a fatal accident. His\u003cbr\u003ereligion can be regarded as a superstition, but an inevitable\u003cbr\u003esuperstition, from which not even genius could wholly free itself; in\u003cbr\u003ethe consideration of which it would be unjust to condemn St. Francis for\u003cbr\u003ehis self denial or unduly chide him for his chastity. It is quite true\u003cbr\u003ethat even from so detached a standpoint his stature would still appear\u003cbr\u003eheroic. There would still be a great deal to be said about the man who\u003cbr\u003etried to end the Crusades by talking to the Saracens or who interceded\u003cbr\u003ewith the Emporer for the birds. The writer might describe in a purely\u003cbr\u003ehistorical spirit the whole of the Franciscan inspiration that was felt\u003cbr\u003ein the painting of Giotto, in the poetry of Dante, in the miracle plays\u003cbr\u003ethat made possible the modern drama, and in so many things that are\u003cbr\u003ealready appreciated by the modern culture. He may try to do it, as\u003cbr\u003eothers have done, almost without raising any religious question at all.\u003cbr\u003eIn short, he may try to tell the story of a saint without God; which is\u003cbr\u003elike being told to write the life of Nansen and forbidden to mention the\u003cbr\u003eNorth Pole.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSecond, he may go to the opposite extreme, and decide, as it were, to be\u003cbr\u003edefiantly devotional. He may make the theological enthusiasm as\u003cbr\u003ethoroughly the theme as it was the theme of the first Franciscans. He\u003cbr\u003emay treat religion as the real thing that it was to the real Francis of\u003cbr\u003eAssisi. He can find an austere joy, so to speak, in parading the\u003cbr\u003eparadoxes of asceticism and all the topsy-turveydom of humility. He can\u003cbr\u003estamp the whole history with the Stigmata, record fasts like fights\u003cbr\u003eagainst a dragon; till in the vague modern mind St Francis is as dark a\u003cbr\u003efigure as St. Dominic. In short, he can produce what many in our world\u003cbr\u003ewill regard as a sort of photographic negative; the reversal of all\u003cbr\u003elights and shades; what the foolish will find as impenetrable as\u003cbr\u003edarkness and even many of the wise will find almost as invisible as if\u003cbr\u003eit were written in silver upon white. Such a study of St. Francis would\u003cbr\u003ebe unintelligible to anyone who does not share his religion, perhaps\u003cbr\u003eonly partly intelligible to anyone who does not share his vocation.\u003cbr\u003eAccording to degrees of judgement, it will be regarded as something too\u003cbr\u003ebad or too good for the world. The only difficulty about doing the thing\u003cbr\u003ein this way is that it cannot be done. It would really require a saint\u003cbr\u003eto write about the life of a saint. In the present case the objections\u003cbr\u003eto such a course are insuperable.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThird, he may try to do what I have tried to do here; and as I have\u003cbr\u003ealready suggested, the course has peculiar problems of its own. The\u003cbr\u003ewriter may put himself in the position of the ordinary modern outsider\u003cbr\u003eand enquirer; as indeed the present writer is still largely and was once\u003cbr\u003eentirely in that position. He may start from the standpoint of a man who\u003cbr\u003ealready admires St. Francis, but only for those things which such a man\u003cbr\u003efinds admirable. In other words he may assume that the reader is at\u003cbr\u003eleast as enlightened as Renan or Matthew Arnold; but in the light of\u003cbr\u003ethat enlightenment he may try to illimunate what Renan and Matthew\u003cbr\u003eArnold left dark. He may try to use what is understood to explain what\u003cbr\u003eis not understood.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47177724264688,"sku":"2940013709027","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013709027_p0.jpg?v=1763584573","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013709027","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}