IF YOU are looking for a quick overview of Franciscan life, this is not it. If you know enough to be curious, this book offers a breadth of information and explanation on St Francis and notable others in the first century or so of Franciscan life. It provides plenty to challenge and to reflect on. Each chapter outlines the key elements of one person’s story, with quotations from the ancient sources and necessary explanations in relation to the medieval context, and connections are made to the present day. (There is a good bibliography too.) Worssam’s stated aim is to show that there is no one way of being Franciscan.

Unsurprisingly, Worssam begins with the Founder, Francis. The other figures show this broad range of ways of being Franciscan: the Companion (Clare), the Hermit (Giles of Assisi), the Penitent (Margaret of Cortona), the Scholar (Bonaventure), the Visionary (Angela of Foligno), and the Poet (Jacopone da Todi). After the first chapter, connections are made back to Francis, highlighting both similarities and differences in the Franciscan tradition.

For example, Worssam presents Francis as obedient to a call to preach despite a yearning for contemplative prayer, whereas Giles, one of Francis’s first companions, moved early from a life of actively serving others to one of being caught up in prayer. Similarly, Francis was very wary of scholarship, knowing that it could be a distraction from devotion to Christ. In contrast, Worssam describes Bonaventure echoing Francis’s love of scripture, but extending that love to scholarship of all sorts, because he believed that wisdom required knowledge as well as affection.

Most of these figures are challenging: for example, the actions and words of the visionary, Angela, would be extraordinary in churches that I know, but Worssam shows her as self-aware, growing in self-knowledge, and taking her Christianity with great seriousness. It is valuable, then, to have searching questions for reflection at the end of the book.

Before that, the final (short) chapter is on the death of Francis and the blessing that he gave to one or more of his followers. The different accounts identify different individuals receiving this blessing, leaving tantalisingly unresolved what makes someone a Franciscan. At the same time, these figures can illumine any Christian’s experience and practice.

Being Franciscan, then, offers a way of thinking about what it means to follow Christ with seriousness, whether or not the calling is Franciscan. I do call myself a Franciscan, and I will be reading the book again.

Dr Anne Spalding is a member of the Third Order of the Society of St Francis, and lives in Suffolk.

Being Franciscan: Living the tradition
Nicholas Alan Worssam SSF
Canterbury Press £14.99
(978-1-78622-430-9)
Church Times Bookshop £13.49