jonmsweeney

A curious claim from Augustine Thompson’s new bio of St. Francis

In Uncategorized on January 29, 2012 at 2:02 pm

The galley for Augustine Thompson, O.P.’s new biography of Francis of Assisi arrived the other day. I am reviewing the book (Francis of Assisi: A New Biography; Cornell University Press, April 2012) for America.

It is a curious book right from the start, as Thompson claims, from page one of the Introduction, to be the first person writing in English (he points to only one to have done this before him in Italian) who has sought to uncover the real, historical Francis behind the legends. He writes: “This life is the first sustained attempt in English to treat these medieval sources for Francis in a consistently, sometimes ruthlessly, critical manner.” An odd claim, certainly, if you consider that Paul Sabatier claimed to have been the first to do the same (although he was writing in French), more than a century ago.

Review of Ian Ker’s Chesterton bio

In Uncategorized on January 25, 2012 at 5:02 pm

I wish that I could link you to my full review, published in the January 30, 2012 issue of America, but here it is and you have to be a print subscriber to read the whole thing…!

Nice comments from Father Benedict Groeschel, CFR

In Uncategorized on January 17, 2012 at 10:12 pm

Paraclete Press just shared with me a great letter that they received from Fr. Benedict J. Groeschel, congratulating them on the new edition of The Little Flowers of Saint Francis, which I recently compiled and translated, and they published this past fall. “I am delighted with this beautiful contribution to the literature of St. Francis,” he wrote. Nice!

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