Congratulations to Fr. Augustine Thompson, OP on winning the 2013 Flaiano Internatioal Prize for Italian Studies for his book “Francis of Assisi. A New Biography”, published in 2012 by Cornell University Press, and the official candidate of the Italian Institute to this year’s Prize.
“Francis of Assisi. A New Biography” is a recent and sound biography dedicated to one of the most venerated and beloved saints of the Catholic tradition in Italy and worldwide. Fr. Augustine Thompson, a Dominican scholar and author of the book, researched the historical Francis, making a close scrutiny of hagiographic legends and theological or cultural interpretations.
On the model of the “Jesus quest”, this “Francis quest” also begins with debunking a series of typical reconstructions of the personality of the Saint, from the various modern – catholic or lay – versions of an ecologist, romantic, animal and nature mystic, hippie, pacifist or feminist Francis to the many theological interpretations piled up about the Saint’s biography.
This historical and philological biography intends to accomplish, in an original way, the unfinished well-known work by Raoul Manselli on the Saint (1982).
As a result, Thompson’s work is a great book that includes, in the first 145 pages, the best scientific biography of the Saint. The rest of the volume analyzes the philological basis of the biographic reconstruction, through an accurate criticism of the written sources.
Fr. Augustine Thompson, OP is professor of History at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, Berkeley, CA.