Reviews for John Paul II: A Pope for the People

The average rating for John Paul II: A Pope for the People based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-12-21 00:00:00 John Golden Very illuminating & interesting read, not just about Joan herself, but provides a great deal of cultural context & history about female layperson's spirituality at the time. I really appreciate Anne Barstow. There was also a spirited pen & pencil debate going on in the margins of this book which we interlibrary loaned. Male academics seem like a plague - this one asserted that Joan couldn't have anything to do with modern feminism because she said she wanted to go home & back to normal life during her trial, called the assertion that she'd most likely been sexually assaulted in jail "deliberately sensationalist", and dismissed one of the final paragraphs of the book talking about how Joan was a symbol for female autonomy who spoke regardless of male perceptions of her truth & male guidelines for her behavior as "she was rebelling against institutional religion". Okay, dumbass, who do you think set that shit up & sentenced her to death?

Review # 2 was written on 2020-05-05 00:00:00 Donald Underwood Barstow has written an engaging and informative book explaining some of the medieval thinking that affected the way in which Joan of Arc was tried. Her chapters on Joan as a heretic and a witch are particularly informative, providing historical context and explaining the gender biases that led to women being accused of witchcraft far more often than men. I skimmed the chapter on Joan as a shaman, as it did not seem to be a particularly helpful way of thinking about her, and the parts I read did not convince me that it was.