Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Born-again Friar: Saint Francis of Assisi among Evangelicals

Born-again Friar: Saint Francis of Assisi among Evangelicals

Last updated on: May 17, 2023 at 12:01 am by David Swartz

0 Comments

Born-again Friar: Saint Francis of Assisi among Evangelicals 2023-05-15T15:13:35-04:00 David Swartz

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I’m pleased to introduce Paul Foth (@paulrfoth), an independent scholar focusing on twentieth and twenty-first-century evangelical and charismatic Christianity. He has an M.T.S. in Church History from Trinity Western University. He lives and leads bird-watching tours in 100 Mile House, BC.

***

Ten years ago in March 2013, the newly elected Argentine Jesuit pope took the name Francis. He quickly gained a reputation for his simplicity, his love for the poor, and his ecumenical overtures. Evangelicals took note. Writing in Christianity Today in June 2013, evangelical theologian Timothy George praised the new pope for imitating Saint Francis of Assisi’s reforming impulse, humble obedience to Christ, and evangelistic zeal. Recalling evangelical-Catholic cooperation in the pro-life movement, George called for a strong partnership with this new pope.[1] In a Sojourners article a year later, Shane Claiborne offered his praise of Pope Francis’ compassion and humility. “I can’t help but think Francis of Assisi (the pope’s radical namesake),” Claiborne states, “and all the angels and saints in heaven must be smiling as they look down on our brother Jorge Mario Bergoglio, whom we now fondly call ‘Pope Francis.’”[2] Both Claiborne and George were particularly excited by the idea that the Pope Francis might be following in the footsteps of Saint Francis.

St. Francis of Assisi (c.1182-1220) 1642 (oil on canvas) by Ribera, Jusepe de (lo Spagnoletto)

With increasing openness to Christian spirituality outside of Protestantism, a growing number of evangelicals in the US and elsewhere adopted Saint Francis of Assisi as their own beginning in the late twentieth century. Leaders, writers, activists and musicians throughout evangelical networks claimed to be stirred by the saint’s authentic faith, exuberant spirituality, committed discipleship, and compassionate love. Evangelicals from John Wimber to John Perkins to John Piper claimed Saint Francis as an inspiration. For my master’s thesis at Trinity Western University, I researched evangelical interest in Saint Francis in several movements or sub-groups within evangelicalism: the spiritual formation and “ancient-future” movement; the evangelical left and evangelical environmentalism; the charismatic movement; establishment neo-evangelicalism; new monasticism; and the “emergent” or “emergent church.” From different corners of the fragmented evangelical world came wildly divergent pictures of Saint Francis. But these ideologically diverse evangelicals all came to see Saint Francis as a quintessential, authentic Christian, and a new exemplar of evangelical faith in the changing evangelical world.

Tony Campolo

Some evangelical leaders invoked Saint Francis to support of their own projects for spiritual renewal. Saint Francis was a frequent character in Richard Foster’s many writings about recovering classical spiritual traditions. Tony Campolo declared that Saint Francis’ embrace of the leper taught him the path of mystically encountering Christ through the poor: “To Francis,” he claims, “the poor were sacramental.”[3] Vineyard leader John Wimber and co-author Kevin Springer appealed to Saint Francis and other historic Christians in their defense of charismatic practices to their skeptical evangelical audiences. Taking this idea further, itinerant California charismatic leader John Crowder sought to connect ecstatic charismatic practices with historic Christian mysticism. Crowder praised Saint Francis for his premodern “nature mysticism,” his boisterous joy, his populist reforming impulse, and even his receipt of the stigmata. All these, for Crowder, were experiences available to contemporary charismatic Christians who are “saturated in God’s Spirit.”[4]

Evangelical interest in Saint Francis was most obvious within the evangelical political left, who believed that Saint Francis offered a voice of peace, simplicity, compassion, and radical discipleship during decades marked by injustice, militarism, and consumerism. Sojourners founder Jim Wallis spoke of watching Franco Zeffirelli’s Saint Francis biopic Brother Sun, Sister Moon as something of a conversion experience. “The evangelical poverty of Francis,” Wallis claimed, “had evangelized me to the depths of my soul.”[5] Without necessarily sharing broader political progressive causes, other evangelical environmentalists using the language of “stewardship” and “Creation care” cited Francis as a model of intimacy with creation.[6]

Brian McLaren and other emerging church figures embraced a progressive version of Saint Francis. McLaren uses Saint Francis’ example of brotherhood with creation as a foil to popular “Evangelical-dispensational ‘left behind’ eschatology.”[7] McLaren upholds Francis as a model for spiritual disciplines in the vein of Foster[8] and as a model for authentic selfhood with “the freedom to be who we are, what we are, as we are.”[9] For McLaren, Saint Francis’ embrace of the Egyptian sultan points to the possibilities that Abrahamic religions could “dream a dream of peace together.”[10] Emerging church novelist Ian Cron’s Chasing Francis dramatizes the same themes, telling the unsubtle story of a burned out megachurch pastor rediscovering faith and authenticity by retracing Saint Francis’ steps in Italy.

Longtime Christianity Today editor Mark Galli, who had been perpetrating a pattern of sexual harassment during his tenure, waged an interpretive battle with McLaren and other progressives over the meaning of Saint Francis. In frequent articles and one book about Saint Francis, Galli repeated the refrain that popular sentimentality and progressive interpretations of Saint Francis were out of line. “Though Francis revered all creatures,” Galli states, “he was not a vegetarian.”[11] Like other saints, Francis did not let “the cult of tolerance” keep him from direct, even mean confrontation of sin and error.[12] Galli’s Francis was shaped primarily by strict biblical obedience viewed through a Bonhoefferian lens of costly discipleship (and perhaps a dose of John Wayne). In a more evenhanded scholarly book on Saint Francis, Christianity Today journalist Wendy Murray echoed similar critiques. “God is the recipient [of the praise]” in Saint Francis’ “Canticle of the Sun,” claims Murray. “It is not pantheism.”[13]

Young evangelicals in new monastic movements in the 1990s and 2000s displayed the most striking adoptions of Franciscan ideals. Inspired by Brother Sun, Sister Moon, contemporary Christian musician Rich Mullins formed the “Kid Brothers of Saint Frank” in the 1990s, a small group of musicians practicing modified Franciscan vows as Protestants. The Kid Brothers wrote and produced a musical based on the life of Saint Francis set in the old West. “The Canticle of the Plains” was released as a CD featuring other contemporary Christian musicians and was performed as a play at Wheaton College, starring a young Shane Claiborne.[14] Claiborne became the popular face of new monasticism in the 2000s, as “intentional communities” of young evangelicals and others multiplied in urban poor neighborhoods. Many new monastics saw themselves as continuing the Franciscan mission for peace and love for the poor. According to Claiborne, Saint Francis was “one of the first critics of capitalism, one of the earliest Christian environmentalists, a sassy reformer of the Church and one of the classic conscientious objectors to war.”[15] Canadian Mennonite new monastic Jaimie Arpin-Ricci penned The Cost of Community, a reflection on community based on the life of Saint Francis (with a significant nod to Dietrich Bonhoeffer). “Francis’s commitment to live in solidarity with the poor as an expression of his allegiance to Christ” and his “commitment to live the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount” inspired Arpin-Ricci’s own embrace of community among the poor in downtown Winnipeg.[16] Leaders of the 24/7 prayer movement founded in the UK called themselves “New Friars.” Opening prayer rooms in urban communities, they also claimed to follow Francis, who “formed his Franciscan movement out of an increasing frustration with organized religion.”[17] For new monastics, Saint Francis was a reformer, rebel, and a saint to emulate even in his monasticism.

Rich Mullins

Saint Francis of Assisi’s ubiquitous presence in popular American culture and in the evangelical world elicited an array of responses. Separatist fundamentalists David Cloud mourned that evangelical leaders were falling victim to “a false sacramental gospel of faith-works.”[18] On the other side of the spectrum, early Christian musician John Michael Talbot, the example of Saint Francis led him to join the Catholic Church, form a monastic community and sport a brown habit. Most evangelicals landed somewhere in between. Many of Saint Francis’ evangelical admirers held significant misgivings about the Saint’s example, especially around wealth and poverty. Richard Foster counseled moderation for Christians trying to follow Saint Francis’ way of life. [19] Dallas Willard and C. Peter Wagner were highly critical of Francis’ denunciations of the evils of wealth, instead invoking the positive role of money and generosity (and, in Wagner’s case, prosperity and influence).[20] Other evangelicals (though not all) simply ignored ideas that might be troubling, such as Saint Francis’ papal allegiance.

Evangelical interpretations of Saint Francis ran the ideological gamut from progressive to conservative, from religiously exclusivist to pluralist, and from high church to no church. Saint Francis could be an ideal Christian to imitate or an admirable but distant saint. In the late twentieth-century evangelicals had been fraying politically, theologically and culturally (if they ever had truly been as united as neo-evangelical institution builders had hoped). Charismatics, liturgical renewalists, political progressives and theological conservatives all sought influence in wider evangelical networks. Their many versions of saint Francis reveal a desire for new authorities and models of Christian faith in this changing religious landscape.

There were commonalities that emerged too. Influenced as they were by biblical literalism, some evangelicals were quick to accept the historicity of Saint Francis’ miracle stories. Many evangelical interpreters depicted Saint Francis as a reformer, even a proto-Protestant. Most evangelical admirers of Francis cited his unadulterated form of Christian faith, often connecting him to an ideal age of pre-Constantinian Christianity. So ubiquitous was the view of Saint Francis as a quintessential Christian that a banner of Saint Francis was included alongside Protestant reformers at the Billy Graham Museum’s “rotunda of witnesses.”[21] Above all, Saint Francis was admired for his authenticity, illuminating an ongoing shift in evangelical values, especially among evangelical elites. This gradual shift from strongly emphasizing biblical literalism, evangelism and conversion toward values of authenticity, discipleship and holistic spirituality was perhaps best captured by a saying of Saint Francis frequently cited by evangelicals: “Preach the gospel at all times and, if necessary, use words.” Only Saint Francis never said this. The quotation originated from sources unknown in the 1990s and made the rounds among evangelicals. Historically precise or not, Saint Francis was born again as a hero for an evolving evangelical world.

Notes

[1] Timothy George, “Our Francis Too,” Christianity Today, June 2013, 65.

[2] Shane Claiborne, “The First Year of the Pope’s Revolution,” Sojourners, March 14, 2014, https://sojo.net/articles/first-year-pope-s-revolution.

[3] Tony Campolo, Wake Up America! Answering God’s Radical Call While Living in the Real World (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1991), 24.

[4] John Crowder, Miracle Workers, Reformers and New Mystics (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image, 2006), 94-101.

[5] Jim Wallis, “An Explosion of Love,” Sojourners, January 1981, 3.

[6] Peter De Vos, et. al, Earthkeeping in the ‘90s: Stewardship of Creation, rev. ed., ed. Loren Wilkinson (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1991).

[7] [7] Brian McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I am a Missional, Evangelical, Post/Protestant, Liberal/Conservative, Mystical/Poetic, Biblical, Charismatic/Contemplative, Fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Green, Incarnational, Depressed-yet-hopeful, Emergent, Unfinished Christian (El Cajon: Emergent YS, 2004), 237.

[8] Brian McLaren, Finding Our Way Again (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2008), 194.

[9] Brian McLaren, Naked Spirituality (San Francisco: Harper One, 1989), vii-viii.

[10] McLaren, Finding Our Way Again, 199.

[11] Francis of Assisi: Did You Know?” Christian History 42, 1994, https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/uploaded/50cf8154cf2b67.43105470.pdf.

[12] Mark Galli, “Saint Nasty,” Christianity Today, June 1996,

[13] Wendy Murray, A Mended and Broken Heart: The Life and Love of Francis of Assisi (New York: Basic Books, 2008), 145.

[14] Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006), 98.

[15] Shane Claiborne, “Praying with Francis, the Radical Christian Peacemaker,” The Blog*, Huffington Post,* October 3, 2011, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/shane-claiborne/st-francis-radical-christian-peace_b_992545.html.

[16] Jamie Arpin-Ricci, The Cost of Community: Jesus, St. Francis and Life in the Kingdom (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2011), 16.

[17] Andy Freeman and Peter Grieg, Punk Monk: New Monasticism and the Ancient Art of Breathing (Ventura: Regal, 2007), 39.

[18] David Cloud, “Billy Graham and Rome,” Way of Life Literature, February 1, 2006, https://www.wayoflife.org/database/billy_graham_and_rome.html.

[19] Richard J. Foster, Money, Sex and Power: The Challenge of the Disciplined Life (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1985).

[20] Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines, 195-196. Wagner, The Church in the Workplace, 121.

[21] “Francis of Assisi: Banners from the Rotunda of Witnesses,” Wheaton College, accessed June 18, 2018, https://www.wheaton.edu/about-wheaton/museum-and-collections/billy-graham-center-museum/exhibits/rotunda-of-witnesses/francis-of-assisi/.

Billy Graham

David Swartz

Evangelicalism

St. Francis of Assisi

Previous Post

May 16, 2023

Holy Folly: On the Billy Graham Rule, Twitter Feuds, and the Idolatry of Reputation

Next Post

May 18, 2023 Plethon's Renaissance

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"I love horror but would have to acclimate back to Lovecraft and especially Machen. Have ..."

Terry

Fairies, Witches, Folk Horror, and the ..."

"Very good point about MacDonald.I am certainly a Machen fan!"

philipjenkins

Fairies, Witches, Folk Horror, and the ..."

"The Scottish author George MacDonald integrated fairy world into his fiction in a way that ..."

Terry

Fairies, Witches, Folk Horror, and the ..."

"I like the idea that we can have different streams. The coffee analogy is genius."

Lisa Clark Diller

How Do You Take Your Evangelicalism?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abolitionism Abortion Abraham Joshua Heschel Abraham Kuyper Abraham Lincoln Academia Activism Adam Renberg Advent Adventist africa African American Religion Agnes Howard Albert Camus American History American Religious History American Revolution American West Anabaptists Ancient History Andrea Turpin Andrei Tarkovsky Anglicanism Annales Ansley Lillian Quiros anti-Catholicism Antisemitism Anxious Bench apologetics Apparitions Arash Azizi Archaeology archives art Artificial Intelligence Asia Asian Americans Augustine Authors Bad Bunny Baptism Baptists Barack Obama Battle of Hastings Benjamin Franklin Bernard-Henri Levy Beth Allison Barr Beth Moore Bethany Mannon Bible Bill Cunningham Billy Graham Black Music Bob Dylan Body Boenhoffer Books Breastfeeding Bruce Springsteen C.S. Lewis Calvinism Cancel Culture Capitalism Carmelites Catholicism Cedric Robinson Cesar Chavez Charismaticism charity Charles Dickens Charles Lindbergh Che Guevara Chicago Children Chinese Christianity Chris Gehrz Christ Christian death Christian Higher Education Christian life Christian Nation Christian Nationalism Christianity Today Christmas Church life Church Practice cinema Civil Religion Civil Rights Movement Civil War civility Classics Climate Change Cold War Colonial Mexico colonialism Comer Communism community complementarianism Conference on Faith and History Congregationalism Conspiracies Conspiracy Conversion Narratives Coronavirus Costa Rica Council of Nicaea Covid-19 Creation Critical Race Theory Crusades Culture culture wars Daniel K. Williams David Barton David Swartz Death Ways death with dignity DEI democracy Democratic Party Devotion Digital Age Diplomacy discipleship diversity Donald Trump Drama Dua Lipa Early Church early modern Early modern Catholicism Easter Eastern Christianity economic exploitation Education elections Elie Wiesel Elizabeth II Elizabeth Taylor emotions Empire Engineering England enslavement Entertainment Episcopal Church Erica Ramirez eschatology Eurocentrism Evangelicalism Evangelicals Exegesis Family Feminism Film Flannery O'Connor folk music Food Foreign Policy founding fathers Franciscans Franciscus Junius fundamentalism Funerals G.K. Chesterton Gender Genocide genre geography George W. Bush George Washington George Whitefield Global Christianity Global church Grief Guadalupe Guest Post guest post gun control gun violence Gustavo Gutierrez Hamid Dabashi Harold John Ockenga Harvest Hate Hawaiian Christianity Healing health care Heather Cox Richardson Hell Heresy Hermeneutics Higher Education Hinduism Hippocratic oath Historical Fiction Historical Methodology Historical Profession Historical Profession Historical Theology Historical Thinking historiography Holidays Holocaust horror movies Human rights Humanitarian Work humanities Hummingbirds Hungary hymns Imago Dei Immigration Injustice Interviews Iran Islam Islamophobia Israel Ivan's Childhood Jacob Randolph James Bratt Janine Giordano Drake Japanese history Japanese Literature Jean Paul Sartre Jesse Miranda Jesus Jesus Christ Jimmy Carter Joan Baez Joan Didion Joanne Freeman João B. Chaves Joao Chaves Joey Cochran John Calvin John Fea John Tillotson John Turner Johnny Cash Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Tran Joseph Smith Josh Howerton Journalism Jr. Judaism Jürgen Moltmann Just War Justice Justin Brierley Karl Barth Katelyn Beaty koi ponds Kris Kristofferson Kristin Kobes Du Mez Latin American Religious History Latino Americans Lectio Divina Leisure Lent Leonard Cohen liberal arts liberalism Liberation Theology Linda Ronstadt Lisa Clark Diller Literature Lou Reed Lynchings Lynneth Miller Renberg Mainline Protestantism Malcolm Foley Marilyn Monroe Maritime history Mark Noll Marriage Martin Luther Martin Luther King Martyrdom Marxism Mary Masih Alinejad mass shootings material culture medieval Christianity Medieval Ethiopia Melissa Borja memory Mennonites Mental Health Mental Illness Methodism Mexican Americans Mexicans Mike Madrid Miles Mullin Min Jin Lee Miscarriage Missionaries Mister Rogers Mitt Romney modernity Monasticism Mormonism Motherhood Mothers of the Church Moving Music Musicals Nadya Williams Nahua Christianity Native Americans Natsume Sōseki New Contributor New England New Year New York Nico Non-Violent Protest Orthodoxy pacifism Paleo Evangelicals Palestinians Parenting Patti Smith Paul Kingsnorth Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pentecostalism Philip Jenkins Phillis Wheatley physician-assisted suicide pilgrimage Pilgrims pluralism Plutocracy Poetry Politics Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV post-modernism prayer preaching Presbyterians prosperity gospel Protest Public history Publishing Puritans purity culture Quakers race Race Massacres Racial Capitalism racial reconciliation racialization Racism Raha Bahloulipour Re-Enchantment reading Reformation Refugees religion and the university religion and war Religious Freedom Religious Nones Religious Pluralism Religious Symbols religious violence Republican Party Revival Rita Coolidge Ritual Roger Williams Roman Catholic church Royalty Russell Moore same-sex marriage Sarah Irving-Stonebraker Scandinavia Science Science and Technology Scopes trial Scriptural Interpretation secularism Selena Quintanilla seminary Seventh-Day Adventists sexual morality Sexuality Sikhs Silence slaveholders theology Slavery Slavoj Zizek social justice Social Media Southern Baptist Convention Southern Religion Spain Spiritual Autobiography Spiritual but not religious Spiritual Discipline Sports Stanley Hauerwas Suffering Summer Camps Sunday Night Odds and Ends Supernatural Supreme Court Syriac Christianity Tal Howard Taylor Swift Teaching Technology Television Thanksgiving The Beatles The Mission theater TheoBros Theology Thomas Dixon Thomas Jefferson Thomas Kidd Thomas Merton Tim Gloege Tim Walz Tom Holland Tourism tradition Tragedy Translation Transnationalism Travel Trump Ukraine Uncategorized Unitarians United Methodist Church US History Vanessa Chan Velvet Underground Verónica A. Gutiérrez Veronica Gutierrez Vikings Violence Virgin Mary Virtue Virtue ethics Visions Voting War WCTU Wendell Berry Westminster Assembly White Evangelicalism Wildfires Winnie the Pooh Witches women Women in Ministry Women's and Gender Studies Work Worship writing Yasunari Kawabata Zena Hitz

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does "Lo-debar" mean in Hebrew?

Select your answer to see how you score.

The Lord’s land The chosen city Valley of rest No pasture