Author Topic: Book Club- St. Francis of Assisi (Read 4815 times)

s2srea · « **on:** May 05, 2012, 08:03:50 AM »

Hello all- at the advice of some other members, we are going to start a book 'club'. What this will entail is as follows:
-A book will be chosen to be read collectively by whomsoever would like to participate.
-The completion date, the time given to finish reading each book, will differ by book according to its length; reading time will err on the side of being slow for the sake of members who are unable to get much time in reading.
-Reading will be organized by x amount of chapters read in a given week. At the end of each week, we will try to have a discussion on what was read. Individual interpretations, sharing information we may have sought out beyond the footnotes of the book, etc.

This is all I can think of for now, but as I think of more I will post it.

The First book we will be reading is The Life of St. Francis of Assisi, by Paul Sabatier.

I will be using this version by Project Gutenberg:
http://archive.org/details/lifeofstfranciso18787gut

But there are Kindle versions, like this one by Harvard:
http://archive.org/search.php?query=francis%20of%20assisi%20sabatier

All of the versions can be found here:
http://archive.org/search.php?query=francis%20of%20assisi%20sabatier

Reading for this book will be organized as follows:
There is a total of 20 Chapters. Since this is the first book we will be reading, I will purpose we read 2 chapters per week, however, that we finish this book in 2 months, not two and a half; two undetermined weeks, we will read 3 chapters. At the beginning of each week, I will come on this thread, and state which chapters we will read. If, during the week you come accross some interesting information- say you were reading a part of the book discussing the home of St. Francis as a boy, and were interested about researching it further,and found a website of the home of St. Francis with pictures- come on here and share it with other members. At the end of each week, and beginning of a new week, we will try to have some discussion over what was read. Perhaps sharing ideas that stood out to us. I may, and you may feel free to as well, post some questions to help spur discussion.

Questions?

theology101 · « **Reply #1 on:** May 05, 2012, 11:36:12 AM »

Quote from: s2srea

Hello all- at the advice of some other members, we are going to start a book 'club'. What this will entail is as follows:
-A book will be chosen to be read collectively by whomsoever would like to participate.
-The completion date, the time given to finish reading each book, will differ by book according to its length; reading time will err on the side of being slow for the sake of members who are unable to get much time in reading.
-Reading will be organized by x amount of chapters read in a given week. At the end of each week, we will try to have a discussion on what was read. Individual interpretations, sharing information we may have sought out beyond the footnotes of the book, etc.

This is all I can think of for now, but as I think of more I will post it.

The First book we will be reading is The Life of St. Francis of Assisi, by Paul Sabatier.

I will be using this version by Project Gutenberg:
http://archive.org/details/lifeofstfranciso18787gut

But there are Kindle versions, like this one by Harvard:
http://archive.org/search.php?query=francis%20of%20assisi%20sabatier

All of the versions can be found here:
http://archive.org/search.php?query=francis%20of%20assisi%20sabatier

Reading for this book will be organized as follows:
There is a total of 20 Chapters. Since this is the first book we will be reading, I will purpose we read 2 chapters per week, however, that we finish this book in 2 months, not two and a half; two undetermined weeks, we will read 3 chapters. At the beginning of each week, I will come on this thread, and state which chapters we will read. If, during the week you come accross some interesting information- say you were reading a part of the book discussing the home of St. Francis as a boy, and were interested about researching it further,and found a website of the home of St. Francis with pictures- come on here and share it with other members. At the end of each week, and beginning of a new week, we will try to have some discussion over what was read. Perhaps sharing ideas that stood out to us. I may, and you may feel free to as well, post some questions to help spur discussion.

Questions?

Ah, too bad it's not the one by Chesterton- I just got it. But I see you have provided a link! Francis is one of my favorites, though I don't appreciate the fact that the liberals have adopted him as the saint of all things liberal. I will read this book as I am able, though it's finals next week, so it might take a while.

theology101 · « **Reply #2 on:** May 05, 2012, 11:42:53 AM »

Well I just looked and it appears that in the Gutenburg project link, after the introduction, the book starts at chapter 5??

s2srea · « **Reply #3 on:** May 05, 2012, 12:31:12 PM »

That's odd. Try it again. It doesn't do that for me. If not try another link.

theology101 · « **Reply #4 on:** May 05, 2012, 12:47:43 PM »

Well this one has it all. The first time, I clicked on the last link that said HTML, because it was a bigger size so I figured it had more there. But the first HTML link has the first chapters. Cool

MaterDominici · « **Reply #5 on:** May 05, 2012, 02:54:50 PM »

I got a Kindle copy from this page and it seems to work fine as well.
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18787

theology101 · « **Reply #6 on:** May 05, 2012, 07:59:30 PM »

Quote from: MaterDominici

I got a Kindle copy from this page and it seems to work fine as well.
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18787

Ah, cool, I didn't see an epub version. Now I have it on my Nook.

jen51 · « **Reply #7 on:** May 05, 2012, 08:28:05 PM »

Yay! A book club!

I'd like to participate. Thus my first question is, when does it start? I'm partial to hard copies, as opposed to reading it online, so if you start before I get my copy, I'll chime in a bit later.

Sigismund · « **Reply #8 on:** May 05, 2012, 08:32:50 PM »

This is not meant in any way to discourage this book, which I think is a beautiful one, but I think Sabatier was a Protestant?

Thorn · « **Reply #9 on:** May 05, 2012, 08:55:03 PM »

Mark Twain wrote "The Personal Recollections of St. Joan of Arc" which was the best book I've ever read. Maybe one good thing about a prot writing about a saint is that I doubt that they'd sentimentalize or unduly glorify them that a Catholic might be prone to do. In other words I think they may do a 'just the facts, ma'am' thing.

Sede Catholic · « **Reply #10 on:** May 05, 2012, 09:06:39 PM »

It is a sin to read this book.

No one should read this book.

Quote

Paul Sabatier's Life of St. Francis of Assisi was placed upon the Index of Forbidden Books by the Catholic Church because of the unreliable retelling of the saint's story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Sabatier

Sede Catholic · « **Reply #11 on:** May 05, 2012, 09:13:25 PM »

If a book is on the Index of Forbidden Books (the one from before the death of Pope Pius XII) it is a sin to read it without special permission.

The Catholic Church has judged that this book by Paul Sabatier is a bad book, and therefore it should not be read by Catholics.

Capt McQuigg · « **Reply #12 on:** May 05, 2012, 09:22:43 PM »

Not to side track this thread, but how did St. Francis of Assisi become such a folk hero to the liberal/left/modernists?

Did St. Francis of Assisi leave behind any writings?

s2srea · « **Reply #13 on:** May 05, 2012, 09:27:02 PM »

Sede Catholic- you are right. Thank you for catching this. I had no idea. I will find another work.

s2srea · « **Reply #14 on:** May 05, 2012, 09:28:48 PM »

Quote from: Capt McQuigg

Not to side track this thread, but how did St. Francis of Assisi become such a folk hero to the liberal/left/modernists?

Did St. Francis of Assisi leave behind any writings?

Capt McQ-

I believe the modernists like him because of what they perceive his life was in direct contrast to the Protestant movement, 'pray and get rich' that is rampant these days. Again, this is just my perception, but I think its right.