Chasing Francis by Ian Morgan Cron

I like the concept of this book, introduce a saint to modern Christians through story and not just biography.  Saint Francis, was a transitional Christian and is very relevant to today’s Christians, maybe especially to evangelicals.  But many evangelicals are ignorant (or openly hostile) to saints because they are tied to Catholicism.  This book tried to pull one saint out of Christian history and make him relevant to modern evangelicals.  I am very much in favor of that.

The weakness is that it isn’t great literature.  It is not a bad book, I enjoyed it, read it fairly quickly and would buy it again.  But one point the book talks about the purpose of great art to be the great art and not propaganda and occasionally this seems to dip to propaganda instead of focusing on the art.

The positive is that it does what I perceive as its purpose, it makes you reconsider your understanding of the church, your role as a Christian, Christ and especially Francis.

I would recommend it.  I have been reading a lot of heavier works on the spiritual disciplines and this was a good contribution as well as balance.  Story, as I have been learning from authors as diverse as Donald Miller, Ayn Rand, and Tolstoy can be some of the most important and meaningful ways to communicate the gospel and all other important truths in this world.