In a bold and moving book that is sure to spark heated debate, the novelist and cultural critic James Carroll maps the profoundly troubling two-thousand-year course of the Church"s battle against Judaism and faces the crisis of faith it has provoked in his own life as a Catholic. More than a chronicle of religion, this dark history is the central tragedy of Western civilization, its fault lines reaching deep into our culture. The Church"s failure to protest the Holocaust -- the infamous "silence" of Pius XII -- is only part of the story: the death camps, Carroll shows, are the culmination of a long, entrenched tradition of anti-Judaism. From Gospel accounts of the death of Jesus on the cross, to Constantine"s transformation of the cross into a sword, to the rise of blood libels, scapegoating, and modern anti-Semitism, Carroll reconstructs the dramatic story of the Church"s conflict not only with Jews but with itself. Yet in tracing the arc of this narrative, he implicitly affirms that it did not necessarily have to be so. There were roads not taken, heroes forgotten; new roads can be taken yet. Demanding that the Church finally face this past in full, Carroll calls for a fundamental rethinking of the deepest questions of Christian faith. Only then can Christians, Jews, and all who carry the burden of this history begin to forge a new future. Drawing on his well-known talents as a storyteller and memoirist, and weaving historical research through an intensely personal examination of conscience, Carroll has created a work of singular power and urgency. CONSTANTINE'S SWORD is a brave and affecting reckoning with difficult truths that will touch every reader.
Constantine's Sword is a sprawling work of history, theology, and personal confession by James Carroll (the author of An American Requiem, among many others). Carroll begins his landmark project by describing contemporary Catholic remembrances of the Holocaust and the Church's intolerable legacy of hostility towards Jews. He then surveys Catholic anti-Judaism beginning with the New Testament and proceeding through the early Church, the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Enlightenment, and World War II, before concluding with "A Call for Vatican III," a Church council that would make meaningful repentance for an entrenched tradition of hatred. Carroll's prescriptions for repentance, continued in a powerful epilogue, are bracingly concrete: "there is no apology for Holy Week preaching that prompted pogroms until Holy Week liturgies, sermons, and readings have been purged of the anti-Jewish slanders that sent the mobs rushing out of church.... Forgiveness for the sin of anti-Semitism presumes a promise to dismantle all that makes it possible." Carroll's personal reflections as an American Catholic infuse his historical narrative, and although his reflections are sometimes unnecessarily detailed, they are admirable for the principle they express: "I find myself unable to accuse my Church of any sin that I cannot equally accuse myself of," he writes. Carroll's judgments on the Church are rightly harsh, even agonizing. And yet his vision for a future rapprochement between Christians and Jews is hopeful, in part because he personally has come to understand the deep connections between Israel and the Church: "Jesus offers me, a non-Jew, access to the biblical hope that was his birthright as a son of Israel." --Michael Joseph Gross
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.0 / 5.0
Where is the history?:
Constantine's Sword is a disappointing book. I was expecting a sprawling saga of the history of anti-semitism in the Catholic Church, but instead got the author's diary. There a too many personal anecdotal stories in the text. Everytime I was getting interested in what he was saying he told a story either about his Irish Uncle in the British military or his incestuous desires for his mother. Maybe its me but what does the Pieta and lust for your mother have to do with anti-semitism in the church? Plus, he... more info
A Troublesome Work:
I am surprised that there are so many reviews with either five- or one-star ratings. My reaction to this work was different. First, let me say that this book is impressive in its scope and its reach, tying together two thousand years of history as a narrative. Also impressive is the sheer volume of material that makes up the story, a daunting amount for any historian to go through. What is more, Carroll writes in an interesting way, weaving his personal history into the meta-narrative of church history... more info
A very good analysis of European history:
This tome of the book examines the relationship between Christianity and Judaism since the birth of Christ in European history. The starting point is the life of Christ, and the ending point is the controversy stirred when a cross was planted at Auschwitz. Over the course of the book, the author shows how many of the places, symbols, words, and people associated with Christianity were intertwined with the history of Judaism, and how many of them have different meanings depending on whether you are a Jew or... more info
A flabby mess of apologetics:
So I'm on page 86 and there's hardly been a reference to this "Constantine" guy after whom the book is titled. It should have been called "James Carroll's Memoir." Not that there's anything wrong with that. Memoirs are fine, but I really was expecting to learn about this "Constantine" of the title. James Carroll spends a lot of time talking about "James Carroll" because James Carroll has an agenda: apologizing for the Church. He loves Saul/Paul, the temporal lobe epileptic who was supposedly the... more info
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