Feature Presentation

Monday, August 4th from 9:00 - 11:30 a.m., Emmaus Dining room 

A Poor Church and a Church for the Poor: 
Saint Francis of Assisi and Christian Poverty in the 21st Century

by Shawn Colberg, Ph.D.

Pope Francis proclaimed publically, "Ah, how I would like a church that is poor and is for the

poor." is session will explore the concept of Christian poverty. To do so it will look backward

and inward in order to look forward. Our time will include a discussion of the biblical notion

of poverty in Jesus' sermons and the apostolic lifestyle found in scripture, images and writings

from Francis of Assisi, and review of recent statements by Pope Francis. Finally we will

examine how Christians in our modern context might cultivate something of the vision

shared by Francis of Assisi and Pope Francis.

Shawn Colberg, Ph.D.   Assistant Professor of theology for Saint John's School of Theology and Seminary and the undergraduate Department of Theology at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University. He received his doctorate in the History of Christianity from the University of Notre Dame and specializes in medieval and Reformation thought with particular focus on the theology of Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Bonaventure.