God's Fool : The Life of Francis of Assisi

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Summary: a portrait of a saint
Review: There are few books that deserve a full five stars as much as God's Fool. I love this book. Julien Green has written a compelling, thoughtful, and moving picture of St. Francis. Green lovingly synthesizes a ton of material about Francis into a story about what can happen to a fully human, fully sinful person when they are touched by the love of God. God's Fool was a joy to read. There are not many books that I have enjoyed more. I recommend it wholeheartedly to everybody.

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Summary: Thoughtful, inspiring, human view of St. Francis of Assisi.
Review: This book is one of the best written about St. Francis of Assisi. Unlike many saint biographies that make their subjects so virtuous they are stripped of their humanity, "God's Fool" gives us an inspiring, human role model to which we can all relate. This book inspired me and countless others to become secular Franciscans and attempt to follow his example.

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Summary: An Almost Perfect Biography of St. Francis
Review: This book is sometimes a bit too reverent for its own good. Julien Green is a Catholic and his attitude is understandable, but a more impartial approach would have made God's Fool, a great book as it is, even better. In spite of that, this is a heartfelt and beautifully written accound of Francis of Assisi's life and times. The writer is clearly in awe of Francis, but his analysis of the Saint's attitudes, motivations and contradictions help you understand this fascinating figure and make him more human and accessible to the contemporary reader. Special note must be made of the beautifully poetic prose and of the way the author deals with the uglier aspects of Francis's life, which are sometimes glossed over in other biographies. Despite its flaws, this is a wonderful book on an extraordinary individual.

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Summary: A Very Good Book for Bringing Francis Down to Size
Review: This book is truly a mixed blessing. Let me first state that the principle of following Christ in the Gospel to the fullest extent is it's greatest, and almost only, asset. The other good thing about the book is that it does not hide who Francis was with his faults, before and after his conversion. Francis was a highly immoral youth and the leader in Assisi of immoral youth. Many other biographers try to hide this fact. Green must be commended for being truthful in this. After his conversion, he still had glaring faults which Green rightly exposes. What is truly disturbing about the book is the blind acceptance on the part of Francis of immoral ministers and his respect and submission to them. What is more disturbing is the fact that Francis considered the Word of God as virtually unneeded for his followers-and even dangerous to his cause. His own cause must then have been not God's cause, for God's cause is only found in the Bible and Francis wanted almost nothing to do with the Bible. He based his rule of order on randomly opening the Bible three times and pointing to verses (clearly a superstitious, and forbidden, approach to scripture). His knowledge of the Bible did not go much beyond these three passages. He forbid his followers to have a Bible or even a Psalter (which contains the inspired praises of God) with which to sing because he felt that even too much knowledge of the Bible was dangerous to spirituality. Francis nor Green evidently ever read Romans 10:17. In fact, Green makes it clear that Francis knew virtually nothing of what the Bible says. In essence, Francis forbid his followers to learn from the only book that could guide them in God's will. Although Green sought to present a good, honest presentation of Francis for the purpose of promoting the Franciscan way of life, he actually gives every reason not to follow the Franciscan way. The Franciscan way, according to Francis, and as accurately reported by Green, is to know as little of the Bible as possible and to submit to known immoral ministers. What is most dangerous about the positive approach to this book is it's promotion of Francis' salvation by earning it and purchasing it (which the Bible clearly denies as possible), and it's promotion of Francis' salvation by means other than the only one given by God--free mercy fully purchased by Christ alone. Francis' failure to know the Gospel as found in the Bible and thus teach another gospel is strong evidence to his ignorance of God and His truth as a whole. This book is an important text in learning the truth about Francis of Assisi. One must read it with great discernment, for in accurately portraying the philosophy of Francis, it also accurately exposed Francis' complete denial of what the Bible teaches about salvation and many other important doctrines. Green shows that Francis denied the use of the Bible, probably to the eternal detriment of his and his followers' souls. Mr. Green has accomplished in this book what he did not intend: an exposure of the Franciscan way as unbiblical and as a way that denies the Bible of the very God they claimed to worship and follow. Mr. Green shows much of the reason why Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the Wittenburg door. Mr. Green, thank you for being open enough to reveal the truth, even the truth that exposes Francis of Assisi as someone other than you see him to be. This book gets 5 stars for exposing the truth of Francis of Assisi, and 1 star for being a book that can be trusted to lead people into the truth of the Bible.

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Summary: It was a wonderful book
Review: This book was the first that I had ever read about St. Francis - and in that context, it stunk. In the first few pages you repeatedly read "Well, since everyone knows about the (whatever) incident, I won't describe it, but it affected Francis like this..." This continues throughout the entire volume, and left me wondering why I had bothered to read the book. If you are already well acquainted with St. Francis, this book may interest you, although the author's "smarter than thou" ego bleeds through the pages. It does have a lot of information which claims to be absent in other works on the saint, but aside from that, I would not recommend the book. If you are looking for an introduction to St. Francis, look elsewhere.