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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 230
EAN num: 9780142196250
ISBN number: 0142196258
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 272
Printing Date: September 30, 2003
Publishing house: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Release Date: September 30, 2003
Sale Popularity Level: 295610
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Acclaimed biographer Donald Spoto strips away the legends from the life of Francis of Assisi to reveal the true story of a man who has too often been obscured by pious iconography. Drawing on unprecedented acess to unexplored archives, plus Francis's own letters, Spoto places Francis within the context of the multifaceted ecclesiastical, political, and social forces of medieval Italy, casting new light on Francis and showing how his emphasis on charity as the heart of the Gospel's message helped him pioneer a new social movement. This nuanced portrait reveals the multifaceted character of a man who can genuinely be said to have changed the course of history.
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Rated by buyers 
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This is an amazing book that shows how Francis was a real human being, not the figure of legend that we've all grown up to believe. It shows how he struggled his entire life trying to figure out what God's will was for him and how he failed repeatedly. This gives us a Francis we can actually relate to. But don't buy the DVD that's supposedly based on this book. It's terrible, leaving out huge amounts of important information and done with really cheesy production values.
Rated by buyers 
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I hate to write this, but I have to be honest. This book is nicely written, but it really tells us nothing about the real Francis - the human being behind all the myth and fanciful legend. Perhaps that is simply not possible to do, since all the source material is written by purveyors of the Francis cult. But there are so many imponderables, so many holes in the popular story of his life...yet this author doesn't even adopt a skeptical approach.
Rated by buyers -
I have been enjoying reading this book because not only do we learn about francis, but we also have the opportunity to learn about the society in which he lived in and its values, etc. And what I also love is that francis is portrayed as the human he was and not as some fantasy land, high in the clouds character. You will enjoy this book!!!
Rated by buyers -
St Francis is a model saint. Donald Spoto wrote a thorough and moving account of his life. It is hard to get in the mind of another person but this book certainly provided a framework of St Francis's life and thought process. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to further understand the life of this very spiritual saint.
Rated by buyers 
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Donald Spoto's Reluctant Saint is good introduction of the life of Francis of Assisi. It pulls together many of the "lives" of this saint written by original sources and the modern reflection on his life.
One of best features of the book is clearly breaking the chapters into dates so you can sequentially go through Francis's life and compare with the events occurring at the time in the rest of Europe.
The book does not have the emotion and passion of some the "lives" of this saint but this somes times makes his subject closer to us.
Clearly shows Francis as both a man of his times but also one for ours.
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