By Yale University Press
In Francis of Assisi: The Life of a Restless Saint (link is external), award-winning historian and Yale Divinity School professor Volker Leppin reconstructs one of one of the most famous figures in Christian history, uncovering the man behind the myths.
Below, Volker Leppin, Horace Tracy Pitkin Professor of Historical Theology, and translator Rhys Bezzant discuss how Saint Francis grappled with what Christianity seemed to be in his time, and how this may inform Christians today who are similarly challenging traditions in times of change.
In the foreword to Francis of Assisi, you wrote that you had read Leppin’s books “with great profit” in the past, and you created this translation in the hopes that “others would read church history…with the expectation of personal growth and deepening joy.” Can you elaborate on this?
RSB: We live in an age without deep roots, so to read church history is to discover our theological or ecclesiastical identity and to work out where we belong. It is so important to develop secure attachments to cultivate a healthy sense of personal and Christian wellbeing, which is nurtured through the biographies of Christians from ages past.
January 29, 2025