Although Shaw portrays the institution of the Catholic Church as deeply sexist he is careful to clarify that the ideology is not, rather it is through the manipulation religious dogma that women can justify their want for freedom and achieve liberation as Joan briefly did. Shaw feels no desire to criticize the Catholic faith; rather he criticizes the corrupt institution of the Catholic Church. Joan presents a version of the Catholic Church free from sexism and political affiliation. Joan is what the Catholic Church could be, and this is well expressed by Searle in his essay, “…the Church must either abandon its moral absolutism in favor of an evolutionary ethic … or run the risk of forfeiting its own effectiveness as a spiritual force by suppressing
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Given the long history of sexism in the Catholic Church it has become engrained, practically inseparable from the institution. In Joan’s time the fact that she wore men’s clothing and acted as a man- out of necessity as she knew it was the only way she would be at all respected- was enough in and of itself to brand her a …show more content…
This is however simply untrue. Joan is in many instances a superior Catholic to many of the clergy members introduced in the play. She is truly capable of loving the sinner and hating the sin and she never makes the mistake of placing herself above God like the clergy in Saint Joan do. The saturated amounts of disgust and hate conveyed in this excerpt do not originate from some religious righteousness; it originates from a place of bigotry and avarice. His distaste for Joan originates from the lack of reverence for the Church and political action, not any fact base claim of blasphemy or heresy.
There is yet another fascinating aspect of Joan’s religion and her political influence in Saint Joan as described in the following quote. “…Joan of Arc… understands herself to be a religious activist who interprets her will as God's, and her private judgment as a manifestation of God's greater plan” (Stowell
Given the long history of sexism in the Catholic Church it has become engrained, practically inseparable from the institution. In Joan’s time the fact that she wore men’s clothing and acted as a man- out of necessity as she knew it was the only way she would be at all respected- was enough in and of itself to brand her a …show more content…
This is however simply untrue. Joan is in many instances a superior Catholic to many of the clergy members introduced in the play. She is truly capable of loving the sinner and hating the sin and she never makes the mistake of placing herself above God like the clergy in Saint Joan do. The saturated amounts of disgust and hate conveyed in this excerpt do not originate from some religious righteousness; it originates from a place of bigotry and avarice. His distaste for Joan originates from the lack of reverence for the Church and political action, not any fact base claim of blasphemy or heresy.
There is yet another fascinating aspect of Joan’s religion and her political influence in Saint Joan as described in the following quote. “…Joan of Arc… understands herself to be a religious activist who interprets her will as God's, and her private judgment as a manifestation of God's greater plan” (Stowell