My first academic degree is an MSc in chemistry, earned after five years of studying chemistry. I acquired considerable expertise in inorganic, organic, and physical chemistry, both practical and theoretical. And then, I just moved on; I never worked in these fields. Instead, I did something completely different and turned to cell and molecular biology, got a PhD, and then I eventually ended up doing research management in biotech. And then I dropped this and got an MDiv. In my experience, academic degrees are very good to have, but you shouldn’t let them hold you back.

Wouldn’t it be nice if Franciscan studies could rise above the separations of academic departments?

The early Franciscans were quite original not only in their way of life but also in their scholarship. They did something whose importance has only recently been discovered. They provided the first theological summa, the Summa Halensis. They provided a true synthesis of very different contributions, including the accomplishments of Islamic philosophers whose quality challenged the Latins to do as well or even better.

Then there is Roger Bacon, another early Franciscan. His Opus Majus is about everything known to him—and that’s a lot—and why all of it is necessary for those wanting to understand scripture and its good news.

Academic scholarship needs specialized researchers, but when you take a Franciscan vocation to scholarship, you might find that the rules of academia hold you back. We must inspire, not give ever more detailed answers to ever more specialized questions. We must show why the intellectual life is worth living. We must bring good news to the poor, heal the brokenhearted, bring recovery of sight to the blind, and set the captives free.

We need more courage in Franciscan studies to break free of academia and instead be brothers on the way to placing all knowledge in the service of the Gospel. We need more work to show how the Franciscan perspective on modern knowledge brings us closer to the meaning of being human. These are eminently practical things affecting the lives of many. Franciscans should be about practical things, also when they are intellectuals.

Incidentally, if Franciscans did this, they might also help the highly specialized academic researchers. These have always been accused, with debatable fairness, of being in the ivory tower, aloof to ordinary human concerns. Franciscan scholarship, if set free from academic domestication, can take us from rigorous research results to the inspiration people need for a more meaningful way of living.

Therefore, rewild Franciscan studies! Don’t let the necessities of academic life hold you back. Our vocation was always about more.