Review by Choice Review
Spoto (an independent scholar) aims to clear away the legends and to portray realistically Francis's pilgrimage from playboy to reluctant saint. To reconstruct Francis's thoughts and feelings, Spoto lays out in rich detail the cultural influences that were part of his consciousness. A picture emerges of a very human Francis, convinced that he was in the hands of a loving God, that conversion was not a thing of the moment but the process of a lifetime, and that his mission was to social outcasts, lepers, the poor, and the destitute. Like Adrian House's Francis of Assisi (CH, Oct'01), this biography is well written and informed by the most recent scholarship. However, House describes what Francis said and did, whereas Spoto focuses on the saint's inner life. Although neither biography is a hagiography, Spoto is more skeptical than House, questioning, for example, the stigmata. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers; students and scholars at all levels. P. L. Urban Jr. emeritus, Swarthmore College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Celebrity biographer Spoto again limns a figure who far transcends celebrity and, as with The Hidden Jesus (1998), produces a serious, thought-provoking book. Like Jesus, Francis of Assisi had no wish for fame; he became, however, one of the foremost men of his time, the thirteenth century. Like Jesus' fame, his arose from abandoning the zeitgeist; born into a newly rich family (another parallel with Jesus, if Spoto is correct about the status of carpenters in ancient Judea) in a viciously acquisitive era, he spurned all possessions. Also like Jesus, Spoto maintains, though he fasted and largely avoided even reasonable comfort, Francis revered the material world, including the human body, as being intrinsically good because God created it. Because flesh as well as soul is good, Francis served the sick, not stinting at becoming sick himself, one might say, as a result of committed compassion. As he relates the dramatic events of Francis' life, Spoto shows that the blessing of the Incarnation was what most animated the saint's fabled gentleness, courtesy, and faith. --Ray Olson
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
It does not seem possible that the world needs another biography of St. Francis of Assisi, but Spoto (The Hidden Jesus) makes a credible case for adding to the glut of books and articles about the medieval saint. (Spoto cites one count taken nearly 40 years ago that puts the number at 1,575.) He argues that new discoveries in several fields and the latest Franciscan scholarship justify this new biography. Although the findings of his research required Spoto to strip away some of the romance surrounding Francis's familiar story, he manages to report them without detracting from the integrity of the saint. He raises, for example, questions about whether Francis actually bore the stigmata, or wounds of the crucified Christ, pointing out that sources interviewed for Francis's canonization denied that he had the marks. Spoto suggests that Francis may actually have suffered from leprosy and that his companions interpreted those wounds as a sharing in Christ's suffering. Spoto's chronological recounting of Francis's life is sufficiently engaging to retain the interest even of those familiar with the basic facts of the saint's story. Occasionally however, he lapses into seemingly misplaced preaching pedagogy, such as when he holds forth on the subject of conversion in a section about Francis's spiritual transformation- but given the saint's diverse appeal, this book should interest a wide audience. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Spoto is a sometime teacher of theology and a biographer of Alfred Hitchcock, Lawrence Olivier, Tennessee Williams, and Ingrid Bergman. In this life of Francis of Assisi, Spoto's elegant wordsmithing creates a "reality TV" sense of Francis's life-the elaborate details are based on an actual time and place, but the overall effect feels staged. This is nevertheless a very readable portrait of a hope-filled eccentric whose lifelong process of conversion brought him to a never unconfused but always faithful way of life under God's ordinance. There are some things Spoto doesn't get right: on the dedication page, he ascribes to St. Benedict a quote traditionally attributed to St. Augustine, and he fails to appreciate the literary genre of the medieval exemplary story, among other things. But he is a fine writer who provides insight into the saint as well as into the secular and ecclesiastical cultures of the 12th century. One of the best of the modern books to reflect upon Francis, and even to get inside his head and measure his spirit, is G.K. Chesterton's St. Francis of Assisi. Spoto's book is suitable for libraries with a circulation of nonacademic religious books.-David I. Fulton, Coll. of St. Elizabeth, Morristown, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
In an approachable biography, Spoto (The Hidden Jesus, 1998, etc.) shows how the saint was both a product of a historical moment and transcendent of it. Francis was a "popular and endlessly inventive wastrel," as one acquaintance remembered him as a young man: he was a participant in the burghers' revolt, an aspirant to knighthood, a classic example of the every-man-for-himself type of the early mercantile economy. But he became disillusioned with life and deeply depressed-so goes Spoto's reading of the documents. He also lived at a time when revelations were taken seriously, and Francis was ripe for the voice that called him to service in the tiny chapel of San Damiano. That call, to repair the chapel, was just a stepping stone to a larger perspective, to renovate the entire churchly institution, quietly and by example. Spoto takes up the pivotal moments in Francis's life as they're caught in the historical record and looks at them within their medieval context. He suggests how Francis's commitment to the poor could fit within the chivalric tradition, situates his actions before the Bishop of Assisi within the popular methods of medieval argument, and shows how his mastery of the inclinations of the flesh found echoes in the ages-old custom of ascetics in their pursuit of spiritual clarity. That his fraternity devolved into schisms and hierarchy hardly reflected Francis's conviction of his role: "The Lord told me what He wanted: He wanted me to be a new kind of fool in this world." That is, a jester, a wandering minstrel of God running against the grain of wealth and privilege, full of generosity, forgiveness, and good works. For Spoto, he attained "a condition of spiritual integrity that always upsets public presumptions and counters the selfishness and madness of power." Spoto insightfully demonstrates that far from taming the man, Francis's canonization made his life and example a wonderful embarrassment to the church.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
