St Francis of Assisi: A New Way of Being Christian - William Short

⭐ 7.5/10

(Originally written by Joseph)

I love St Francis and in fact I've even put him on my Christian Mt Rushmore. I think his influence is so incredibly positive especially when one considers the context of his ministry. Yet despite my love for him, I have never done all that much reading on his life and work.

Unfortunately I'm not sure I learned all that much in this book. This book is kinda small, and only about half of it deals with St Francis's life with the remaining half more focused on the Franciscan order following his death. Maybe it's just that Francis is so old that there isn't much surviving, reliable records of him, but the author references a lot of various writings that he then never really gets into.

Make no mistake; this book is still really great. The author, though Franciscan, does an admirable job of being objective and impartial, and also does a great job setting up the context with in-depth historical analysis. I just wished he got a little more into the details. I feel bad for giving this a lower score just because I wasn't the intended audience, so I'll also add that I fully recommend this one to anyone who wants a starting point on Francis. But if you already know the basics, you might want a bit more detailed account.