Vivere Sine Proprio: The Relevance of Franciscan Spirituality for Today’s Big Questions

Dear Colleagues,

The aim of this Special Issue is to discover an original approach to the wicked problems of our time by bringing them into dialogue with the spirituality of Francis of Assisi. Francis did not solve any of the problems of his time, such as poverty, social exclusion, and wars. And yet, his form of life lifted problems to a higher plane, the level where the mystery behind the problem becomes tangible. Poverty became living without property, exclusion became boundless brotherhood, and the war camp became a place of encounter. Of course, the wicked problems in Francis’ time were different from ours. That is why we need to actualize the dialogue to the problems of today. We need to understand the nature of these problems, and where they differ from the problems of Francis’ time. We may expect to find—and, in fact, we have found (Speelman 2022)—an insoluble contrariety at the heart of the problems, a contrariety that changes its face when approached differently.

My questions are:

1. What are the wicked problems of today, and what is the nature of their wickedness?
2. What are the presuppositions of our dealing with these issues, and which one of these presuppositions is an insoluble contrariety (e.g., inclusion/exclusion, oneness/diversity, weakness/strength)?
3. How did Francis or his followers approach this problem in their own time? What are the differences and similarities between today’s issues and the issues in their time? And how did they cope with the same insoluble contrariety?
4. What light does Franciscan spirituality shed on today’s issues and what perspectives does the dialogue reveal?
5. In retrospect, what does this dialogue teach us about Franciscan spirituality?

Wicked problems are usually approached as challenges to solutions. But if problems are not only problems, then another approach must be possible: an original and spiritual approach. This other approach studies the problems not by analyzing them as deficits that must be eliminated, but by listening to their message and bringing these messages into dialogue with the spirituality of Francis of Assisi and his followers. Every problem conceals a mystery, says Gabriel Marcel (1949:111), and therefore the problem can also be approached as a mystery.

A prominent characteristic of Franciscan spirituality is the vow to live without property, vivere sine proprio. This vow is to be taken in every sense; no money, no goods, no house, no land will be taken in possession, and further, no art, no knowledge, no future, nothing that would evoke the inclination to protect it by force from those who would want to take their share.

Vivere sine proprio is related to other characteristics of Franciscan spirituality, of which I will name two. The first is Francis’ discovery of a boundless brotherhood, which silences the insoluble issue of inside and outside the community and excludes no one, not even a lifeless creature, and in his Canticle of the Creatures, not even an element. The second is that Francis is always ‘following in the footprints of the Lord’, sequi vestigia eius (1 Peter 2:21), which gives his spirituality its itinerant and bodily character. We are pilgrims and strangers on the road, searching for the right direction. Vestigia can also mean impressions, as in following the impressions that the divine has left in his heart (Augustin, Confessions XI,18,23).

These and other characteristics of Franciscan spirituality may shed new light on the questions with which the world is confronting us. What happens if we approach the problem of climate change in such a way that there is absolutely nothing in the process that we consider our property? What if the new loneliness in a digitalized world is approached with the question of whose impressions one is following? What if poverty were not only approached as a problem to be solved, but also as a brotherhood to be rediscovered?

Another characteristic of the spirituality of Francis is that he himself has been confronted with all of these questions, in the form that they appeared in his time. He did not set out to solve the problem of social exclusion, but he met a leper and—which is essential here—engaged in an encounter with him. Solving a problem presupposes a distance between you and the problem, but you can only hear the message of the mystery behind that problem if you let it “get to you” (Taylor 2007:38). Paraphrasing Paul in Galathians 3:13, he met with the curse and turned it into a blessing.

Wicked problems cannot be solved in the way other problems are solved (Rittel & Webber 1973), perhaps because they are more than problems: experiences of a lack that nevertheless contain a promise of plenitude (Long 2000:265).

I would like to invite you to choose a wicked problem of our time, describe the issue, follow how Francis dealt with that same issue in his time, discover which mystery becomes apparent in the way he dealt with it and consider if this sheds a new light on this wicked problem. To make this invitation concrete, I will mention eight wicked problems, and suggest how Francis was confronted with them and listened to the message that they contained. I only do this to clarify the question, and in no way want to take possession of the issues.

1. Sustainability was not a question in his time, but relation to nature was; Francis left his world entering into the realm of bare life, and devoted his life, in the words of Giorgio Agamben, to life as such (Agamben 2013:142).
2. Healthcare in his time was a different question than it is now, but Francis bore the pains of physical and mental brokenness (Moses 2009); his care, as Clare of Assisi testified, did not focus on the individual body but on the brotherhood as a whole (Regula Clarae 6:4).
3. Poverty in his time had a new and gruesome face in the growing monetary economy of cities; Francis, who had returned his possessions to his father, was met with poverty and turned it into a life without property, which David Burr calls an especially attractive form of being poor (Burr 2001:10).
4. War and peace in his time were often related to the crusades, whereby peace was mainly a strategy to prepare the Christians for war against the enemy (Hoeberichts 1994:19). In our days, peace studies are also mainly about managing conflicts without a clear concept of peace (Mac Ginty 2006:19). Francis, however, had experienced violence and was searching for true peace; he found it in the divine gift that humans can receive and keep in their body and soul (Admonitiones 15)
5. Interreligious relations were a wicked problem, then and now; Francis had no problem in following the vestiges of Christ, and this did not prevent him from entering in a true and meaningful encounter with the number one enemy of his time, the sultan of the Saracens (Muslims).
6. The question of refugees and migrants is highly topical in our time, but it is discussed by people sitting safely in their homes in the own country; Francis had discovered that he was a pilgrim and stranger in this world (Regula Bullata 6:2), which puts this question in a different perspective.
7. Leadership often comes from a call from others, or as Max Weber said, the leader is the one who is obeyed (Weber 1922:122); Francis was called by his brotherhood to be their leader and give them a rule, but he answered that God had sent him as a new fool (Compilatio Assisiensis 80). How does one follow a fool?
8. Social exclusion was already mentioned as an insoluble issue of every community, for a community needs to define itself clearly as an inside in opposition to an outside; Francis accepted the border between one and the other, but he also crossed it, for example, by discovering that the brotherhood was boundless.

There are more wicked problems—such as education, fragmentation, politics and meaninglessness—that can be contemplated in the light of Franciscan spirituality. And there are more ways to characterize Franciscan spirituality and elaborate the dialogue with these issues. Again, I gave my views and thoughts only as a challenge to the elaboration of other views and thoughts

Reference:

1. Agamben. G. The Highest Rule and Form-of-Life. California, CA, USA: Stanford. 2013
2. Burr, D. The Spiritual Franciscans. From Protest to Persecution in the Century After Saint Francis. Pennsylvania, PA, USA: Penn State University Press. 2001.
3. Hoeberichts, J. Franciscus en de Islam. Assen, The Netherland: Van Gorcum. 1994.
4. Long, S. Divine Economy. Theology and the Market. London, UK: Routledge. 2000.
5. Mac Ginty, R. No War, No Peace, The Rejuvenation of Stalled Peace Processes and Peace Accords. New York, NY, USA: Palgrave Macmillan. 2006.
6. Marcel, G. Being and Having. Translated by Katharine Farrer, Westminster, UK: Dacre Press. 1949
7. Moses, P. The Saint and the Sultan: The Crusades, Islam, and Francis of Assisi’s Mission of Peace. New York, NY, USA: Doubleday Religion. 2009.
8. Rittel, H. W., & Webber, M. M. Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning. Policy Sci. 1973, 4, 155-169.
9. Speelman, W.M. Bericht uit Amphia Ziekenhuis. Narratieve analyse van een artikelenreeks uit de Volkskrant over de eerste coronagolf. Religie en Samenleving. 2022, 17, 26-48.
10. Taylor, C. A Secular Age. Cambridge, UK: Harvard University Press. 2007.
11. Weber, M. Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr. 1922

Prof. Dr. Willem Marie Speelman
Guest Editor

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• Franciscan spirituality
• wicked problems
• problem/mystery
• poverty
• social exclusion
• interreligious dialogue
• healthcare
• sustainability
• leadership
• conflict