This festschrift for Wayne Hellmann, a noted Bonaventure specialist and one of the editors of the multivolume Studies in Early Franciscan Sources and Early Franciscan Documents series, focuses in fifteen essays on four distinct and yet interconnected themes, which can be linked to Hellmann's lifelong scholarly interests in early Franciscan history and his engagement as a Conventual Franciscan within present-day society. Together, these essays give an inkling of Hellmann's major intellectual and societal preoccupations and open a window on some cutting-edge developments in current Franciscan scholarship.

The four essays of the first section focus on the early hagiographical tradition. Joshua Benson proposes to understand Celano's first Life of Francis as an exegetical undertaking that unearths the deeper meaning of the events in Francis's life, imbuing them with a Gospel-like quality worthy of memory. Jacques Dalarun elucidates Celano's recently discovered Vita brevior, which was written prior to the well-known second Life of Francis, sketching the text's relationship with other hagiographic works and how its omissions and inclusions reflected concerns of the papacy and order leaders. Michael Blastic's essay on Julian of Speyer's Vita Sancti Francisci makes a convincing case that it was not just an abbreviation of Celano's first Life but a deliberate transformation of Francis in view of a changed Franciscan conventual experience, and as such became a major source for Bonaventure's Legenda major. Michael Cusato analyzes Celano's treatment of the leper in the second Life, to illuminate the recasting of the episode in scriptural language and to argue that the disappearance of the leper can be read as a metaphor for and comment on the order's turn away from a life among society's outcasts toward a more apostolic ministry.

The seven essays of the second section assess central issues of Franciscan theology and the tradition it built upon. Juliet Mousseau considers the Victorine theology of love in doctrinal and liturgical works by Hugh and Adam of Saint Victor, with its inward-looking (contemplation) and outward-looking (action) aspects, which would have impacted early Franciscan thought, and Jay Hammond reinterprets Francis's writings to unearth a Gospel economy of salvation, and how this also is reflected in the message of Pope Francis today. The other five essays squarely focus on Bonaventure: Regis Armstrong elucidates the theological and spiritual program of the Itinerarium mentis in Deum, drawing attention to its invitation to balance “academic” and “religious” pursuits, and how this was anchored in the tradition; J. Isaac Goff argues that Bonaventure's treatment of infinity is more innovative with regard to its positive intensive aspects than scholars have understood previously; Timothy Johnson explores Bonaventure's homiletic use of saints as models and agents of reform, which has repercussions for our understanding of Bonaventure as order leader and (pastoral) theologian; Katherine Wrisley Shelby revisits Bonaventure's theology of hierarchy to explain how he understood grace to relate the soul to God, one's neighbor, and creation; and Laura Smit ponders the seraphic doctor's appropriation of pagan and Christian conceptions of magnanimity and how he transformed it from a profoundly Christological point of departure.

The two essays of part 3 center on the curious Book of Conformities of Bartolomew of Pisa. William Short indicates how Bartholomew explored both Franciscan and (pseudo-) Joachimist sources to construct his work, making a case for the author's rather extensive library, which also incorporated suspect texts from spiritual circles. As a follow-up, Steven McMichael approaches this work from the author's theology of resurrection, showing at once the importance of the text as a biography of Christ as well as a work on Francis, and the deep connection made between the resurrection of Christ and its impact on the life of the poverello, his most perfect disciple. Part 4 connects more openly with Wayne Hellmann's contemporary societal concerns as inspired by his Franciscan outlook. John Kruse charts papal attitudes and responses to the medieval Franciscan poverty debates, and how these can shed light on present-day papal remarks on the articulation of doctrine. Finally, Joseph Chinnici evaluates how Franciscan poverty traditions can be interpreted as a social theory and a practice in partnership with others to develop alternative forms of economy and society.

The overall quality of the essays is a testimony to the esteem the contributors must have for their colleague and mentor and make this volume a successful example within the festschrift genre, and one that will inspire many scholars of Franciscan life, its learning, and its impact.