The introduction outlines the goals of the book in light of the state of research on early Franciscan thought, which tends to be described as a mere reiteration of the tradition of Augustine. The chapter explains how the book will challenge this assumption through a study of the work of John of La Rochelle and his Franciscan colleagues, who authored the so-called Summa Halensis, which drew extensively on medieval Islamic and Jewish philosophy to develop distinctly Franciscan positions on different aspects of human nature.