The Life of St. Francis of Assisi

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Summary: chesterton or francis?
Review: Chesterton is undoubtedly a fine writer and one can't help admiring his style. As a biographer, though, he is inadequate. True, Chesterton is not writing a traditional biography; he is writing an extended essay, full of meditative insights on a prominent Christian saint. However, a good biography should combine both facts and insights, with the latter deriving from the first. Chesterton's insights come mostly from himself; consequentially, this book tells us much more about its author than its subject.
This book has some value because it gives us a peek inside Chesterton's head. It's an interesting view, even if we see a few things that aren't very pleasant. But if we want to learn about Francis of Assisi, we'd best go elsewhere.

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Summary: More essay than biography, but what an essay!
Review: Chesterton's book on St. Francis of Assisi was "avowedly only an introduction to St. Francis or the study of St. Francis. Those who need an introduction are in their nature strangers. With them the object is to get them to listen to St. Francis at all ... ." [Chpt. 9] But Chesterton, in 1924, expected an audience familiar with a variety of subjects--the Investiture Controversy, the Adamite Heresy, The Provencal Moment, for example--unfamiliar to most of us today. I think, therefore, that "St. Francis of Assisi" can no longer serve as a general introduction for the general reader.

If you are only interested in a chronological outline of St. Francis' life, this book is probably not yet for you.

Nonetheless, you would be remiss if you pass on this book because it is a wonderful work of art.

Intellectually "St. Francis of Assisi" serves mostly as a brilliant meditation on the man, his role in the Catholic Church, and his influence on the intellectual history of the West. But it best serves as an example of how one might write and write well. Nearly every sentence is a delight and nearly every page a piece of rhetorical flash and filigree.

Chesterton sometimes chooses sound--especially alliteration--over sound reasoning and makes more than one straw man argument. But you need not be a Christian to appreciate the skill with which he makes his case. Sometimes it sounds so good or so funny that you simply wish it true. To whit:

"In short, he [the writer attempting to write a life of St. Francis] may try to tell the story of a saint without God; which is like being told to write the life of Nansen and forbidden to mention the North Pole." [Chpt. 1]

"To write history and hate Rome, both pagan and papal, is practically to hate everything that has happened. It comes very near to hating humanity on purely humanitarian grounds." [Chpt. 2]

"It was a rude and simple society and there were no laws to punish a starving man for expressing his need for food, such as have been established in a more humanitarian age; and the lack of any organized police permitted such persons to pester the wealthy without any great danger." [Chpt. 3]

"Shelley, when he wished to be a cloud or a leaf carried before the wind, might have been mildly suprised to find himself turning slowly head over heels in mid-air a thousand feet above the sea." [Chpt. 6]

"The modern mind is hard to please; and it generally calls the way of Godfrey ferocious and the way of Francis fanatical. That is, it calls any moral method unpractical, when it has just called any practical method immoral." [Chpt. 8]

"A man in Voltaire's time did not know what miracle he would next have to throw up. A man in our time does not know what miracle he will next have to swallow." [Chpt. 9]

Whatever you think of Chesterton's broader themes, "St. Francis of Assisi" is a profound and insightful investigation into the psychology of the saint which would be helpful to anyone trying to figure how to think about the man. It is also wondrous writing.

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Summary: Don't be put off
Review: Don't be put off by the reviewers who complain this book has too much Chesterton and not enough Francis. If you want a book only on St. Francis, then this might not be the book for you --- but anyone who has ever had the pleasure of reading Chesterton knows that you always read Chesterton because of Chesterton! He revels in paradox and turns all your notions of history and how the world works upside-down. Basically he was an Edwardian C.S. Lewis. His opinions and observations about Christianity and modernity are the whole point of reading the book. Hope this helps. Enjoy!

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Summary: A thing of beauty...
Review: 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).

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Summary: A Rake on a Rake . . .
Review: G.K. Chesterton is one of the most interesting people who ever lived. His prodigious output and outlandish appearance have made him an unforgettable part of Western culture. But in this book, we have the eccentric Chesterton writing about the even more astounding character of St. Francis of Assisi. Chesterton goes through several interesting sketches of St. Francis' life (which are interesting by themselves) and then draws all sorts of fantastic conclusions from the episodes. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is curious about Chesterton's writing and Francis' life.

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Summary: Not enough Francis
Review: 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.

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Summary: Better to read Nikos' St. Francis
Review: This typical Chesterton work, is a short and insightful essay on the life of St Francis of Assisi, one of Christianity's greatest saints. While it is not a biography in the true sense of the word, it is, nevertheless, a refreshing and witty sketch St Francis' life and influence, all set behind the backdrop of his times. This is certainly a unique portrait of St Francis, and it is definitely worth reading.

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Summary: More an essay than a biography
Review: When I bought this book, I was looking for a really inspirational biography about St. Francis of Assisi and his spirituality. I found SOME in this book, but I would suggest looking in other places. The first chapter or two are a virtually meaningless introduction to St. Francis of Assisi. The story of his life is pretty good, but under the classification of a biography, it lacks the biographical data needed for that title.