Francis of Assisi as Artist of the Spiritual Life applies modern psychological understanding to a historical person. While most such studies have sought a comprehensive personality profile, this work focuses on one aspect -- Francis' imagination -- and seeks greater insight into the imaginatively inspired spiritual vision of St. Francis. An analysis of Francis' writings builds on a survey of modern views of the imagination and the approach of ORT, or Object Relations Theory. ORT, with its contention that the imaginative creation of an infant's world develops out of the earliest interactions...