Hi—I’m Andrew Belfield, & I’m an assistant professor of theology & Franciscan studies at St. Bonaventure University. I think of this blog as an online record of what I’m reading, what I’m thinking about, & what I’m seeing: somewhere between a commonplace book, a journal, & a scrapbook, I suppose.

I take the title of this blog from Bonaventure’s Itinerarium mentis in deum: in Regis Armstrong’s English translation, “The vigilance of a poor one in the wilderness.” It is a bit presumptuous, I admit, for me to suggest my blog is anything like Bonaventure’s speculationes on his pauper, Francis of Assisi. The title reflects more an aspiration than a reality: that my own watchfulness in the world, in myself, & above myself might approach Bonaventure’s (diachronically, if not at every moment) & that my life might more closely resemble Francis’s own life of poverty & humility.