Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc was a Christian saint who Chesterton sees as embodying the good parts of the philosophies of Nietzsche and Tolstoy. Like Tolstoy, Joan was able to see the value in small, trivial things. She could see the good in a peasant (she was one, after all) and could admire the beauty of a simple landscape. Like Nietzsche, Joan could also recognize that she lived in a cowardly time that was afraid to stand up for anything. Joan saw that the substance of belief was being diluted. The difference between Joan and these two philosophers, however, is that Joan was willing to act on her beliefs. While Tolstoy, a comfortable aristocrat, idly praised the working man from his armchair, Joan herself actually was a peasant. Nietzsche, for all of his criticisms of how spineless the modern world had become, and for all of his praise...