A Ph.D. shelved in lieu of research inverted and traditional values abandoned, the work of Rachel Summers is what some have called a journey into antinomian mysteriosophy where socially sanctioned morality is turned on its head in order to shake out just a few drops of enlightenment. Summers holds degrees in History, Comparative religions, English Literature, and Philosophy, all centered on the late medieval era. Her first novel, CondAmnation, is a retelling of that era’s favored heroine Joan of Arc. Summers’ Joan, however, is not a holy virgin, not a Christian, and certainly nobody’s good girl. Neither, for that matter, is Summers.
“In the year 275 an Iranian Aryan publicly rejected the scriptures and Jesus Christ as being divine. For his outspokenness, he was arrested, crucified,...