Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews -- A History

One of the most informative and objective books I've read on the

One of the most informative and objective books I've read on the role of the Roman Catholic Church with anti-Semitism. A must read for those who do not want to repeat the worst of religious intolerance.

The Statute of Limitations for organized murder lasts forever

First, I gave the writer high marks for taking a very difficult subject and putting it in a well-organized and readable form. With his background as a former Priest, I have to conclude that generally he knows what he is talking about and he does quite well in telling the story. I was disappointed to see him give Paul (Saint) more or less a free pass on his early activities when we know from Paul's writings that he "persecuted those of the way unto death." In fact, he had just participated in a Temple riot in which he siezed a faggot of nwood and started assailing others. James, the brother of the Lord was thrown down from the Temple steps head first and broke one, if not nboth legs. Paul pursued the Essene community with authorizing letters from the Temple Pharisees. Doctinally, Paul essentially reversed the teaching of the community on the Law (Torah), circumcision, and table fellowship. Paul's acts were about as Anti-Semitic as one could get yet the authore broad brushes this and does not criticize it. Additionally, there can be no excuse for the church's silence during the period of holocaust killings. Turning you head the other way just doesn't cut it. As your past actions have clearly shown, the church as such, has all the pomp, trappings, and ceremony, along with the Golden Throne but no real clout. This is a sad, sad record for any organization but for it ti have been the most respected religious organiztion in the worl, your impotence is staggering.

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History?

Carroll tells that according to family history, an uncle died an Irish hero in 1916. 1916 being the year of the "Easter Rising", one might construe that uncle died an Irish hero in the Easter Rising. Carroll reveals, truth be told, the Irish hero uncle died in France serving in the British military. Likewise, Constantine's Sword plods with heavy footnotes to sift, shift and shape history in order to entrench the position of a dead soldier in a negative light.

At least a '10 Star' History

Not at all boring - exciting - relates Christianity's development in a chronological, neat fashion, interspersed with personal vignettes. The entire Western world should read to learn and understand why we are where we are - politically and religiously. I have read many of Carroll's sources but none of them present the big picture...Carrol does.

Veryhistorical

This book is extremely fascinating. Touching on an epoch when anti-Semitism was encouraged by the greatest religious body of the world, it explains a lot about a stereotype that persists until today and hatred against a people which few can explain. A perfect answer to the question, 'Why is there so much anti-Semitism in the world?'

Too drawn out

The book was good in some respects, but it had a lot of unnecessary material in it. I got about 400 pages through and had to put it down. The book should have been cut down by at least 200-250 pages.

CHURCH RULERS BY A PRIEST WITH A CONSCIENCE

AS A CATHOLIC BORN AND RAISED, CONSTANTINE'S SWORD, IS A SPECTACULAR REVEALING HISTORY ON CHURCH DOCTRINE AND THEOLOGY AND THE EVOLVING MIND SET OF THE CHURCH AS IT RELATES TO JUDAISM. I HAVE STUDIED THE FORMATION OF CHRISTENDOM FROM MANY ANGLES, BUT THIS THOROUGH AND DETAILED ACCOUNT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT CONTENT AND THE EVOLVING EDICTS, DICTATES, AND PHILOSOPHY OF ANTISEMITIC SCAPEGOATING OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY IS AMAZINGLY TOLD BY A, I ASSUME, LIBERAL AND REFORMING PRIEST. IT IS RECOMMENDED FOR THOSE WHO CAN TAKE THIS CRITICISM OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. I ESPECIALLY LIKED THE ACCOUNTS OF THE NAZI-VATICAN PARTNERSHIP DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR. THE TREATIES MADE BY EUGENIO PACELLI, THAT BECAME POPE PIUS XII, WITH THE NAZI REPRESENTATIVE, FRANZ VON PAPEN, A CATHOLIC. THE TREATY--' REICHKONKORDAT'. ALSO THE ANTIMODERNISM OF THE CHURCH AND THE HERESY OF 'AMERICANISM'. MOST REVEALING.

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Wait for a revised second edition

CONSTANTINE¿S SWORD is a good but needlessly rambling and flawed book. One assumes that if the author (previously unknown to me) could have written a better book, he would have. Part spiritual autobiography (after the fashion of Augustine and Cardinal Newman), part romp through centuries of barely digested sources, the book tackles an important subject as well as the author apparently knows how. Why are Christians, especially Roman Catholics and Lutherans, Carroll asks, so strongly and almost eternally predisposed to hate Jews? Today's hatred is fueled by the very Christian Scriptures themselves. ***Carroll therefore invites today¿s Catholics to call an unprecedentedly wide open Third Vatican Council, among other things, to admit that the Gospel of John got some things terribly wrong in exaggerating the importance of Jesus¿s death on the cross of Golgotha and in making ¿the Jews¿ uniquely responsible for that death. The bibliography and the end notes are very good.***My advice to readers: wait for a second, revised edition, which will be improved if it is briefer by two-thirds.

Recommended, though not exactly successful.

James Carroll has tackled an ambitious agenda in Constantine's Sword. He seeks to summarize and explain two millennia of Christian anti-semitism; to convey his personal reflections on that history through autobiographic soul-searching; and finally, to propose reforms that will cleanse the Church of Jew-hatred. His success in pursuit of these goals varies widely. The basic history makes good reading, especially if you don't already know the story. I enthusiastically recommend the book simply on this basis, since the well-told history comprises about two-thirds of the text. The autobiographical content is a mixed bag. There are some moving anecdotes and some interesting insights on the cross and other Christian touchstones. I personally like Carroll's use of the Cross at Auschwitz as a compositional centerpiece; other readers may find it glib. Carroll's incestuous fantasization of the Pieta seems a bit goofy to me; others may find it evocative. When Carroll pursues his third goal, selling his own reformist proposals, his good intentions trump his good sense. Carroll is an ex-priest, dedicated to his faith though skeptical of the current Pope. He fervently wants to believe that anti-semitism is a cancerous tumor on the Church, not an essential part of Catholicism's flesh and blood. Unfortunately for him, the history he recounts shows just the opposite. The founding documents of Christianity are polemically anti-Jewish. Carroll does a good job of explaining this bias by recounting the evolution of the Gospel, but neither he nor any other Christian can eliminate the hatred without drastically changing the Canon. That explains why, in two thousand years of Church history, Carroll can find only a few marginal clergymen who urged Christians to respect Jews and Judaism. Carroll mourns these advocates of a 'road not taken'; he doesn't seem to understand the reasons for their failure, or the key point that their failure was inevitable. This point becomes vivid when Carroll unveils his program for Church reform. Despite Carroll's tortured disclaimers, his program amounts to total revolution: a repudiation of the Gospel and most of the intricate dogma built upon it. In fact, the 'Vatican III' he envisions would convert Roman Catholicism into something very much like Reform Judaism: a pluralistic monotheism based on God's love and humanistic principles that, as Carroll notes, pre-date Jesus. Some of us might consider that conversion a vast improvement, but I don't think many of us will be invited to a Church Council any time soon.

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