Francis of Assisi Forerunner of Interreligious Dialogue: Chapter 16 of the Earlier Rule Revisited

53 Franciscan Studies 64 (2006) FRANCIS OF ASSISI FORERUNNER OF INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE Chapter 16 of the Earlier Rule Revisited1 Toward the end of his life, Francis reminded his brothers that “for this reason [the Son of God] had sent [them] in the whole world: that [they] may bear witness to His voice in word and deed and bring everyone to know that there is no one who is all-powerful except Him” (LtOrd 9), thus echoing Jesus’ commissioning of his disciples to be his “witnesses . . . even to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) At the time, his brothers had established fraternities in most of the Christian world. He and a few others had ventured beyond the borders of Christendom into Muslim territories. These new experiences left their mark in Chapter 16 of the Rule of life that was being elaborated at the time. The object of this note is to suggest new interpretations of two sections of chapter 162 that could open new avenues in the on-going 1 For a quite complete list of the authors who have written on chapter 16 of the Early Rule, see chapter 3 of Jan Hoeberichts, Francis and Islam (Quincy, IL: Franciscan Press, 1997), 61-134. For the wider context of Francis’s encounter with Islam, see the same author’s bibliography (269-77). To that list has been added recently: Kathleen A. Warren, Daring to Cross the Threshold: Francis of Assisi Encounters Sultan Malek al-Kamil (Rochester, MN: Sisters of St. Francis, 2003) and Jan Hoeberichts, “Francis’ Attitude Toward Islam: A Paradigm For Our Time,” in The Herald of Vatican II in Pakistan: Tribute to Fr. Anselm Moons OFM on His 80th Birthday, Pascal Robert, OFM, ed. (Karachi: National Catholic Institute of Theology, 2004), especially 53-65. 2 For the original Latin text and an English translation, cf. Appendix 1. The Latin text is taken from K. Esser’s critical edition: Die Opuscula des Hl. Franziskus von Assisi, Neue Textkritishe Edition. Zweite, Erweiterte und Verbesserte Auflage besorgt von Engelbert Grau, OFM (Grottaferrata/Rome: Editiones Coll. S. Bonaventurae, 1989), 390-91. For the English translation, cf. Francis of Assisi: Early Documents [Henceforth referred to as FAED] with vol. and page numbers; Regis J. Armstrong, OFM Cap., J.A. Wayne Hellmann , OFM Conv., William J. Short, OFM, eds. (NY: New City Press, 1999-2001); here: 1, 74-75. 54 LAURENT GALLANT effort to understand better what this Franciscan text wanted to convey and, in so doing, throw new light on Francis as a remarkable forerunner of what today we call “interreligious dialogue.” My proposals stem from two questions: – Does the traditional interpretation given to v. 7 not represent a too exclusively Christian approach? – Could verses 7-8 of the present text represent a revision of a former one? 1. The Context of Francis’s Encounter with the Muslim World To understand better Chapter 16 of the Regula non bullata, one should keep in mind some important aspects of the context of Francis’s encounter with the Muslim world. 1.1 The Church’s Self-image It is interesting to note how, at that time in history, the Church saw herself as the embodiment of the Kingdom of God in this world. A practical identification was made between the Christian world (Christendom: societas christiana) and the Kingdom of God, so that the geographical boundaries of the Christian West were seen as being, for all practical purpose, the boundaries of the space of salvation. Outside these boundaries lay the lands of damnation, the Kingdom of Satan. We can, of course, look upon this view as a vernacular, or as the common folk’s image of the Church. But we have to admit that Church leaders of the time acted out of this very self-image. All beliefs and behaviors which did not comply with the defined orthodoxy and/or orthopraxis were seen as cancerous elements to be excised from the lands of the Kingdom of God – even if this meant having recourse to military force, as in the case of the Albigensians in 1209-1210. Of course, the Gospel injunction that the “weeds” should be left to grow together with the grain until the...