This book is a tribute to the movement begun by Fancis of Assisi (1182-1226), saint and founder of the Franciscan Order, wonderfully radical commitment to Gospel life. Four nearly eight hundred years the world has been filled with wonder at the charity and good works advanced by Franciscans everywhere. Less obvious is our wonder at their intellectual and creative genius. The following introductory survey is a work chronicling and examining the sense of wonder that began and today informs the Franciscan Intellectual Tradition.

A Pilgrimage Through the Franciscan Intellectual Tradition. edited by Fr. Andre Cirino, OFM and Josef Raischl, OFS336 pages, The Franciscan Intellectual Tradition arose in the ferment of ideas of the 13th and 14th centuries. Questions of what makes an individual, what system of government is best for society, how should the economy be managed, what is the role of experiment in science, property rights and the rights of the individual in society - in short many of the questions that trouble our modern world - were debated with insight, integrity and passion in the context of a theology that was both profoundly orthodox and radical. The Franciscan Intellectual Tradition is not a monolith with a single answer to any problem, but a tradition of enquiry and openness rooted in the insights of the Poor Man of Assisi and his followers in Northern Europe. In the intellectual pilgrimage of this book we find a variety of approaches engendered by that spirit of enquiry and a tradition with the diversity and strength to continue to enlighten our pilgrimage through life today. Philippe Yates OFM, JCD, MA