Some biographical info. of Fr. Thompson, O.P.:
Fr. Augustine Thompson, O.P. (born New York, 1954), is a Catholic priest of the Order of Preachers and ... holds a Ph.D in medieval history from the Univ. of California, Berkeley CA. His books and publications focus on medieval Italy and medieval religious history.Maybe he actually knows something about the time that St. Francis lived in?
From one of the reviews of the book: (emphasis mine)
A common pitfall faces all the biographers of Francis of Assisi: how reliable are the early legends about the saint? How does one find the 'historical' Francis behind sources that have theological points to make, standard hagiographical tropes to draw on, and political arguments to press? Augustine Thompson, O.P., is acutely aware of this problem and takes a very interesting and unique approach to overcoming it. In this very well-written book, he first gives us a biography of Francis based on the best use of the sources as he understands them, then assesses the biography itself in light of the sources and the scholarship about them. He brings to his examination the careful eye of a trained medieval historian.From another review:(emphasis mine)
Writing a biography on Saint Francis, is a challenging task. Most historical treatments of Francis leave little left of the poor saint, while others tend to be too hagiographic. Fr. Augustine provides a scholarly account of Francis that balances the historical figure and the saint well. Although many a joke can be had of a Dominican writing a book on Francis, however he brings fresh insights to Francis thanks in part to his knowledge of medieval history and experience as a brother mendicant.As someone who has read many biographies on Francis, this one is a refreshing balance. As a Franciscan friar and seminarian, this biography will remain on the book self with Francis' collected writings. His extensive notes in the second part of the book will prove helpful to anyone interested in deepening their understanding and scholarship on Franciscan Studies.
it seems that Fr. Thompson regards the prayer as a forgery; for "Francis would not have written such a piece, focused as it is on the self, with its constant repetition of the pronouns 'I' and 'me,' the words 'God' and 'Jesus' never appearing once."
No, he found that "The “Peace Prayer” is modern and anonymous, originally written in French, and dates to about 1912, when it was published in a minor French spiritual magazine, La Clochette." And he probably has the citation(s) in the bibliography to substantiate his claim.
Which, were this true, would be deeply distressing to me: For I say this prayer at least once a day, and have done so for the past ten years at least
Fr. Thompson also said that the prayer has noble sentiments. It is just that it was not written by St. Francis. Whomever the author was should not change the effect the prayer has on you or for you.
P.S: Fr. Zuhlsdorf's characterization of Francis of Assisi as a "mediaeval peacenik" is, to me, totally ludicrous.
Let's look at what Fr. Zuhlsdorf said. (emphasis mine)
... we should consider who Francis of Assisi really was, what he did and said. He wasn’t the bunny-hugging bird kisser that people think he was from their viewings of garden statues and Brother Sun, Sister Moon. (Remember that?)St. Francis of Assisi, some think, was a medieval peacenik. However, Francis went to the Egypt and confronted Sultan al-Kamil, a nephew of Saladin.
Notice that he said "some think" of St. Francis as a peacenik. That is his way of saying that he doesn't agree with that characterization. If he agreed with it, he would just say so in a straightforward manner.
Forgive me for being skeptical on this point, but exactly how does Fr. Thompson know for a certain fact that St. Francis didn't "write" this prayer? Certainly he seems very "fact-based" in his approach to St. Francis.
But there are limits to that sort of thing. Even if Fr. Thompson had each and every detail of the saint's life and a thorough knowledge of his cultural setting (so very, very different than our own and impossible in any case), I see no reasonable expectation that, by simply adding them all up, we can get a complete picture of St. Francis. "The sum of the parts" — biographical items verified by expert analysts — do not and cannot give a full, complete description of who St. Francis is.
IOW, the authenticity of St. Francis, and the meaning of his mission to the world, cannot be discovered by reducing him to a catalogue of biographical and cultural "facts" as determined by even the most highly-qualified experts....
As you are probably well aware, ELS, the Church has a long tradition of something called fides quarens intellectum, or faith in search of its reason, or reasons. I believe St. Anselm typifies this approach to the reconciliation of faith and reason, all enabled by the Holy Spirit in "dialog" with the soul — thus faith comes first. It seems Fr. Thompson's method reverses this order, which amounts to finding reasons to believe.
Does this make any sense to you, dear ELS?
May God bless you and all your dear ones on this holy day!
Happy Easter!