Interview with Preston Russell, M.D.
Introduction
Preston Russell, M.D., is a graduate of Tulane University and Vanderbilt Medical School. Heis the author of The Low Country, From Savannah to Charleston and the coauthor, with Barbara Russell, of Savannah: A History of Her People Since 1733. This interview deals with his newest book, Lights of Madness: In Search of Joan of Arc.
Joan of Arc lived in an extremely religious age, and yet when she claimed that God spoke to her, she was burned as a witch or a heretic. Why wasn't she believed?
Similar to Jesus, her claim of direct access bypassed and threatened the power of the church to act as priestly “middlemen” to God. Some claim she was the first Protestant, a century before Martin Luther.
Despite the fact that she was tried in a religious court, was her murder a political act?
The popular answer is that her fate was politically pre-ordained, with a religious trial as window dressing. I think the priests, however, became both intrigued by and frightened of her claims.
What was her biggest crime:
a,b,c were all affronts to a male world. Yet she was an example of the outsider against the status quo, male or female, with a “something else” spiritual mystique that unsettled the average mentality.
What could Joan have done to save her life?
She could have maintained her recantation of her claims?which she reversed 4 days later after her voices told her she had seriously sinned. She seemed surprised that this would lead to a horrible death.
Do you think she wanted to die (despite her attempt to escape and her pleas for mercy)?
Joan was terrified of her execution by fire, and she died pitifully, not as a calm martyr. Her prior death-defying exploits were based on blind faith, which abandoned her in the end.
What lesson does Joan have for us today?
Although modern feminists tend to reject Joan as a role model (used as a tool, too pass�-religious, etc.), for many others who believe there is a larger “otherness” beyond just us, Joan of Arc can be a direct beacon to such a possibility--the conclusion of my book.