The Franciscan Intellectual Tradition in Your Course
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The Franciscan Intellectual Tradition in Your Course 1 Would you believe/welcome an intellectual tradition that: 1. Addresses the deepest concerns that tear at the heart of humanity today? 2. Confirms the inviolable dignity and inalienable rights of the human person no matter what spiritual or cultural household? 3. Gives Franciscan vision of what it means to be human? Custodians of the Tradition 2 Would you believe/welcome an intellectual tradition that: 4. Experiences creation with awe and reverence acknowledging that each creature expresses something of God that can be expressed by no other? 5. Creates no other possibility but to be “ecologically literate” in the healing of the earth? 3 This course is designed to offer AFCU Faculty an opportunity to learn some foundational information about the Franciscan Intellectual Tradition and how to incorporate that tradition into courses that they teach. Participants will learn what the FIT is and gain an understanding of resources that offer them and their students a better understanding of the tradition. 4 LEARNING OUTCOMES The faculty member will be able to: 1. articulate the key elements of the Franciscan Intellectual Tradition; 2. locate and utilize resources in the Franciscan Intellectual Tradition; 3. identify options for including the Franciscan Intellectual Tradition in a specific course that they teach; 4. access, share, and collaborate on Franciscan Teaching Resources. 5 COURSE OUTLINE The course is organized into the following modules. Module I: Saint Francis: A Brief Look into His Life (Slides 8-43) Module II: Development of the Franciscan Intellectual Tradition (Slides 44-86) Module III: Saint Francis as a Student and Teacher (Slides 87-103) Module IV: Francis as a “Vernacular Theologian” (Slides 104-127) Module V: Sample Courses Utilizing the FIT (Slides 128-143) Module VI: Developing Learning Activities (Slides 144-177) 6 WORKING THROUGH THE COURSE You should be able to complete each module in about a week’s time within your normal workload. Of course, you may choose to accelerate this pace or take more time with each module, depending on your particular needs and interests. There are reflection questions interspersed through the course. You may find it helpful to keep a journal of reflections to guide your application of the FIT to your courses. You might also find it helpful to keep a record or chart of connections you see between the FIT and what you are already teaching. There are links to other resources that will require an internet connection. You may work through the material in any way you see fit, but the presentation is designed to promote reflection. We recommend you view the presentation in Slide Show mode and click to advance individual slides. Animations are set to occur automatically on each slide to emphasize individual points and encourage engagement with the material. If you have questions about the course while working through the material, you can email them to [email protected]. 7 St. Francis A Brief Introduction to His Life 8 Potential Problems in Learning about Francis • The “Franciscan Question” — any attempts to reconstruct a life of Francis are necessarily interpretations. Our questions and interests shape how we see Francis. • He was a Catholic saint, so finding the “true” Francis requires digging behind the hagiographies of his time, and of ours. • As a saint, he can seem so holy that he is impossible to imitate. Source: Augustine Thompson, Francis of Assisi, A New Biography 9 Potential Problems in Learning about Francis (continued) • There is always a temptation to use Francis as a mouthpiece for our own ideas. We often try to domesticate him for our own purposes. • An in-depth investigation into Francis can make us uncomfortable, as there is much about him that is deeply challenging to the lives we live. 10 Early Life • Born in winter of 1181/1182 to Pietro and Pica Bernardone, in Assisi. Mother named him Giovanni (John), but Pietro named him Francesco (“Frenchy”). • Received a basic education and became fluent in French. Note: This timeline follows the one detailed by Augustine Thompson in Francis of Assisi, A New Biography 11 Early Life • Around age of fourteen began to work in father’s cloth business. • Known for friendliness, generosity, and charisma with friends, as well as his enjoyment of partying. 12 Francis the (failed) warrior • In November of 1202, Francis joins the war between the cities of Assisi and Perugia. • Captured in the battle at Collestrada. • Held as prisoner of war in Perugia for a year, until father ransoms him. • Comes back a changed man, slightly withdrawn from his former life. 13 War again? • In spring 1205, he prepares to go back to war in southern Italy. • Gets to Spoleto, has a mystical dream from God, abandons trip to the war, sells his war gear, and returns on foot to Assisi. 14 Beginnings of a new life (1205) • On way back to Assisi he stops at San Damiano church, a run-down church outside of Assisi. • Francis spends the night there and leaves the money from the sale of his horse and armor on one of the windows of the church. • Continues to withdraw from life in Assisi. Begins to engage in frequent almsgiving. 15 New beginnings • Makes a pilgrimage to Rome and continues almsgiving there. • Begins to visit San Damiano frequently, praying before the crucifix. 16 Confrontation and Renunciation (1206) • His family becomes worried about Francis’s increasingly erratic behavior and goes looking for him, but Francis hides from them. • Finally, Francis returns to Assisi, where he is met with scorn by its citizens and where his father asks the bishop to intervene • In a public confrontation with his father and in the presence of the local bishop and the citizens of Assisi, Francis strips off his clothes, gives them to his father, renounces his inheritance, and declares that his only Father will be his Father in heaven. 17 Conversion • Naked and poor, Francis wanders in the snow around Assisi until he settles with some lepers outside of Assisi and begins to care for them. • Francis locates his time with the lepers as the beginning of his conversion. 18 Quiet years – 1206-1208 • Francis spends the next two-three years as a penitent. • Lives and works among the lepers. • Repairs the church at San Damiano. 19 First Brothers • In the spring of 1208, Bernard of Quintavalle approaches Francis about joining him. • Wealthy Bernard sells his possessions and begins to follow Francis, along with another man, Peter. • Francis and his new followers consult an altar missal and randomly find three verses that shape Francis’s understanding of his incipient brotherhood. 20 Biblical Basis of Brotherhood • Mark 10:21 — “Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” • Luke 9:3 — “He said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money—not even an extra tunic.” • Matthew 16:24 — “Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” • These verses are the foundation of what will become in a more fully developed way the Franciscan rule of life. 21 Initial Approval • Francis and his followers travel to Rome to get initial approval for their way of life. • In an audience with Pope Innocent III, he gives them provisionary approval to continue and commissions them to preach penance. • Francis and his followers receive the tonsure and return to Assisi, settling initially in an abandoned shed in Rivo Torto, about two miles from Assisi and close to the leprosarium of San Lazzaro. • New recruits begin to join and Francis re- settles the group at a ruined chapel, Santa Maria deli Angeli in the Portiuncula. 22 Early Expansion • Brothers begin to wander throughout Italy, working, begging, worshipping, and occasionally preaching. • Content of their preaching was repentance, moral reform, peace and reconciliation. • Francis begins to develop a reputation throughout Italy as an especially holy person, adept at spiritual direction. • Francis attempts to travel to the Holy Land to preach, but bad weather forces him back to Italy. 23 Clare of Assisi • In 1212, Brother Rufino, a cousin of Clare of Assisi, approaches Francis to tell him that Clare wanted to meet him. • Only 18 at the time, Clare came from a wealthy Assisi family. • After several chaperoned clandestine meetings Clare escapes her family enclave on Palm Sunday 1212 and meets Francis and his brothers at the Portiuncula. 24 First Convent, Second Order • Clare stays with the Benedictines during Holy Week and later with a beguinage community before taking up permanent residence at San Damiano, which became the first Franciscan convent. • Francis gives her a form of life similar to what the brothers followed. Clare would not get a formal rule approved for her order until the end of her life. 25 La Verna • In May 1213, Francis receives a gift of land on Mount La Verna, which he will use as a spiritual retreat for the rest of his life. 26 Fourth Lateran Council • In 1215, Pope Innocent III convened the Fourth Lateran Council, which Francis may have attended. • Calls for religious orders to meet regularly as “chapters”. (#12) • Allows for bishops to appoint persons to preach and take confession, tasks which Franciscans will begin to enact. (#10) • Forbids the formation of new religious orders, though the Franciscans seem to have been exempt from this requirement, perhaps because of their prior approval. (#13) • http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Councils/ecum12 -2.htm 27 Mission Work • By 1217, there were probably fewer than 800 Franciscan brothers.