Multidisciplinary collaborative work has a long history in the Franciscan Order. I will just mention two examples: Roger Bacon, who insisted that absolutely everything that is known ought to be understood by the friars and put in the service of preaching the Gospel, and the group of medieval Franciscan scholars who wrote the Summa Halensis, their demonstration of the intellectual coherence of the Christian faith.

For this tradition to continue, and indeed be renewed and reinvigorated in our time, we now have a new association of Franciscan scholars. It is to promote global research and teaching in Franciscan studies, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration across history, theology, philosophy, culture, and the social sciences

See below for the first three bullet points of my presentation at our inaugural meeting earlier this week, where we celebrated the official launch of the International Association of Franciscan Scholars!

1.    Physics, the great disruptor

My topic today is leadership informed by the scientific understanding of nature. The section title is the act of leading, but maybe I should say that this is about the context of leading in our time.

The warrant for the goodness of leadership that follows the science is nature’s inherent goodness as God’s creation. In St. Francis’s prayers, creation and all its creatures proclaim the glory of God.

But in our time, physics is the great disruptor. It questions a great deal of our understanding of nature. It creates an unsettled state in our spirituality. It leads to technology, which empowers the human will, but our will is not always oriented to the good.

The temptation is to oversimplify. It is to retain the naïve understanding of nature and see the goodness of creation only in what is untouched by modern technology. Another option is to replace the physical understanding with a mystical interpretation of these texts.

Neither option captures the meaning of what is given to us with this body of knowledge, and we should not avoid it. The glory of God is proclaimed in all we know about creation. This includes the knowledge of modern physical sciences.

I can point to St. Francis. His Canticle of Creation sings of the physics and metaphysics of his time: the three celestial bodies representing uncorruptible creation, and the four elements out of which all corruptible earthly creatures were made. And then he takes us to our natural duties: to give pardon, to bear our infirmities, and to endure in peace. This is our duty as corruptible creatures meant for an uncorruptible eternal life.

This remains the cornerstone of Franciscan spirituality. We can see that technology is meant for the good, yet we also know how much harm it has caused. We need to ask how we can find guidance in nature today so that our use of technology is in harmony with all else we know and adds to the goodness of creation.

2.    Human rights and human dignity

The second accomplishment of modernity also lives in an unsettled state in our spirituality. It regards human nature. It is the emphasis on individual human rights and freedoms that protect personal autonomy and personal possessions.

This, too, enables the human will and gives it powers beyond those of the days of St. Francis. And this, too, is not always used for the good.

But personal freedom and its inherent goodness are profoundly important in Franciscan thought. The challenge is to balance today’s conflicting demands of individual freedom with collective responsibility. How do we protect those too weak to keep up with the strong?

Modernity has made this very difficult. A highly gifted and creative individual may become unimaginably wealthy by pursuing ideas whose potential others never saw. The modern economy depends for its growth on a few highly creative individuals having the right idea at the right time in the right place. But this dependence on a lucky few resulted in absurdly large income inequality. In this tension, oppression and strife proliferate.

3.    Reconciling the twin accomplishments of modernity

I will call these two insights of modernity, physical sciences and individual human rights, the objective and subjective poles of modernity. One emphasizes knowledge of a universal framework, and the other the importance of free individuals acting within it.

They both relate to nature in a different way, and due to the centrality of nature in Franciscan spirituality, I believe that we have the means to reconcile them.

We do not have to start from scratch. Some blame modernity on Duns Scotus, but you know that this charge against him has been soundly refuted. Nevertheless, it remains to be shown how the philosophy of Duns Scotus can continue in modern speculative philosophy and reconcile the accomplishments of modernity. When it does, it will provide a sound foundation for leadership. Should a situation, such as a pandemic, require us to follow the science and place it in the context of many other concerns, we might be better prepared to talk about it.