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Theology & Tradition
The Poor Man of Assisi Speaks to the Prosperous Pew: Franciscan Simplicity and the Wealth Gospel in American Anglican Life
As prosperity-inflected preaching finds a foothold in certain American Anglican congregations, the eight-hundred-year-old witness of St. Francis of Assisi offers a searching and uncomfortable counterpoint. What does the radical divestiture of the Poverello demand of communities that have grown comfortable equating divine favor with financial blessing? This article examines the theological fault lines — and the invitation to renewal — that emerge when Franciscan simplicity meets the modern Americ