Responding to St. Francis

“The reason Francis seems to have captured the imaginations of people is because who he was as a man was someone who was always reaching out for those on the fringe, reaching out for those who were broken,” said Wendy Murray, adjunct professor in Gordon’s Orvieto semester, in a chapel service September 15 titled “Five Ways Francis of Assisi Changed His World (and Ours).” Murray told the story of St. Francis, his life and conversion, and how he changed the world around him.
In an article printed November 18 in The Christian Century, Murray is discussed as one of the modern writers on St. Francis of Assisi:
“Evangelical journalist Wendy Murray begins A Mended and Broken Heart by arguing that Francis’s theology, as well as his personality, was complex. This is unusual as most writers have trouble discerning much theology in Francis at all. I believe that this is one of the secrets of the saint’s popularity in every age: he’s mostly praxis. . . . Murray seems to feel challenged by Francis in ways that Catholic readers will not. For instance, she mentions that her students at Gordon College, an evangelical school in Massachusetts, questioned whether Francis was really a Christian because he ‘didn't seem to apply to himself the principles of grace and mercy.’”

To listen to the podcast of Murray’s chapel talk, visit the Gordon on iTunes U site.