Rating: 
Summary: A Dispute That Will Rage for Generations to Come.
Review: Traditional Catholics will detest "Constantine's Sword". It challenges the Roman Catholic Church's traditional views of Jews going back to the early Fathers of the Church, and it suggests that the Church's attitude towards Jews is morally bankrupt. I cannot vouch for the author's scholarship, but his arguments are cogent, compelling, and have the ring of truth to them. For Catholics, and by extension, the Church itself, to treat Mr. Carroll as an apostate and a renagade does the Church no service. The Church must deal with its history, and no amount of 'spin' will change the fact that it was the primary instigator for the sorry history that European Jews endured for the past two millenia. Like Russia and the United States dealing with toxic nuclear waste left over from the Cold War, now that Communism has evaporated as a political and social threat, the Roman Catholic Church will have to deal with the toxic effects of its own response to threats to its position, whether doctrinal, material, or spiritual. The time has long since passed when the Church was the organizing principle around which Western Civilization coalesced. The Church's former monopoly on learning evaporated, as has its ability to influence government action within the industrialized world. Now that Communism is dead in Eastern Europe, issues that diminished the status of the Church in the United States and in Western Europe, including a refusal to adhere to Church teachings (viz, contraception and abortion) will likely propel the Church down the same road as before. Make no mistake, the Holocaust is the signal event of the Twentieth Century, and nobody escapes responsibility for what happened at Auschwitz and elsewhere. The Church has implicitly invoked the 'Big Tobacco' defense to shift responsibility away from itself, by arguing that individual Christians were to blame, and by highlighting its minimal efforts to respond to the tragedy that was unfolding under its nose. Like O.J. Simpson proclaiming his innocence on TV talk shows, this will get the Church nowhere. Mr. Carroll's book reads like a Grand Jury indictment, and in doing so, he shatters what remaining moral authority the Church has left. For defenders of the Church to argue what Pius XII did or did not do ignores the central thesis that Mr. Carroll makes, that the history of the Church, and attitudes prevailing among Churchmen made the Holocaust not only possible, but inevitable when a government came along that was intent on acting on those attitudes. On the other hand, Mr. Carroll goes out on a limb when he posits a new council which he refers to as Vatican III. Such a council is no more likely to occur than a new Contitutional Convention here in the United States. Mr. Carroll's agenda items would in fact create an entirely new church from the one he now belongs to. Certainly the Church is not going to abandon discipline and habits of mind that go back to the end of the Roman Empire, merely because as a factual matter, its doctrines are historically inaccurate, and in some respects, morally repugnant to non-Catholics. Only the Church can decide whether regaining its self-respect is worth the pain and uncertainty of change, and to that extent Mr. Carroll makes a most valuable contribution to the discussion.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant and Anguished
Review: James Carroll's book is a soul-searing atttempt to figure out what went wrong with Catholicism such that it could provide 1600 years of Catholics with the incendiary teachings they would need to ravage the Jewish race again and again and again. Finally it is a call to Christians to return to Christ's message and to rip away the 1900 plus years of distortions and political manipulations which have taken the teachings of one of God's greatest teachers and turned them into the often hateful hodge-podge of conflicted scripture and unloving judgments which define and deceive so much of the present day Christian community. Ultimately, it's pretty simple: If it's not about love , if it doesn't lead to loving action, then it's not Christ's teaching no matter how loudly some red clad prelate preaches that it is. Peace.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, honest , informative book
Review: After reading this book and some of the comments made by other readers I'm amazed at how much Christian denial is still around. Yes, some of the popes may have preached tolerance of the jews but did any of them step in and prosecute or try to stop the mass killings? Jews have been the victims throughout history of Christian hatred and anti-semitism. Wake-up! Just because James Carroll can see Christian-Jewish history for what it is doesn't make him ant-Catholic or anti-Church. He is just questioning parts of his religion. All organized religion has rules, actions, opinions, etc. that are questioned by intelligent thinking people. My only critism of the book is that it is wordy.
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Summary: A Courageous Call for Reform
Review: In Constantine's Sword, John Carroll courageously looks into darkest side of instutitional life and brings us a history that is at once appalling and liberating. Tragic misreadings of the history and writing of early Christians have had deadly consequences. This is a vivid and precise tale of consistent institutional blundering stretching over two thousand years revealing the all too human failings of those of us who call ourselves followers of Christ. It is a history that is as painful and necessary to read as it was for Carroll to write. It is also a book of great optimism and faith. It ends with sensible suggestions for where the institutional church should go from here and how we as individuals can begin to reimagine the gospels in a way that is more appropriate to the orginal events and the memory of Christ who was nothing if not a faithful Jew. I found it impossible to read this book and not be deeply moved by the tragedy and the possiblities for healing. We need to face these facts. We need to act. Two thousand years of hate must stop now.
Rating: 
Summary: Of pathos and prejudice
Review: Carroll's book is quite sad. He rummages through Church history, methodically magnifying apparently anti-Semitic statements and then suppressing the many pro-Semitic ones. Once you get to Pius XI, you hear nothing about Mit Brennder Sorge, the pope's detailed denunciation of Nazi anti-Semitism. During WW II, the New York Times carried numerous articles detailing the interventions of Pius XII against anti-Semitic measures in Germany, Rumania, Hungary, Italy, and France. But, of course, Carroll ignores them.For a more objective view of the issue, see the new work by Richard Rychlach.
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Summary: Fascinating if......
Review: This is a fascinating book. Not only does it display a lack of genuine scholarship, it also reveals the anti-catholic bias of an individual who has issues far beyond the scope of this book. I read it from cover to cover; much of what he says is correct, little is true.
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Summary: Limousine prejudices
Review: Alex de Tocqueville once said that anti-Catholicism was the anti-Semitism of intellectuals. Exhibit A: James Carroll's book. He suppresses evidence, distorts documents, and twists history to paint the Catholic Church in the bleakest light. But such prejudicial history wins plaudits from educated readers who should know better. And they all coo in unison about this excommunicated priest: "But he's a Catholic who loves his church so much!" Ted Turner loves it.
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Summary: a ray of light
Review: Carrol writes an extraordinary book of incredible depth and substance. Carrol seems to understand that institutions are created by people and people have their own agendas both conscious and subconscious. Carrol has the courage to question what are often perceived as the basic tenets of the church, and does an excellent job showing that these man-made tenets often had an interesting an unique background. Although I teach history I was unaware that the apparitions at Lourdes only happened in the late 19th century. Additionally, many holocaust survivors make clear the efforts of individual catholics to help them, however the institution itself was largely dormant. While the Vatican may not acknowledge this, both the French and German bishops have come to terms with their malfeasance and nonfeasance. I think open-minded Christians and non-Christians will benefit greatly by this book.
Rating:
Summary: Sleight of hand
Review: Carroll has confused two issues: the anti-Semitic actions of some Catholics in the past and the teaching of the Catholic Church on the Jews. No one would deny the awful history of anti-Semitic violence by people who claimed to be Christians: the masacres by some Crusaders; the Spanish Inquisition,etc. However, Carroll is not convincing when he claims that this anti-Semitism was somehow fostered by church teaching. In fact, Church authorities (especially the popes) repeatedly denounced anti-Semitism as incompatible with the gospel. Thousands of documents from medieval and modern times atttest to this. To prove his unconvincing point, however, Carroll must distort the evidence. He ignores, for example, the many statements of Pius XI and Pius XII condemning racism, anti-Semitism in particular. Let's take an analogy. Many "Catholic" politicians (Senator Kennedy, for example) ardently support abortion. But are they doing this because they are being urged on by their church? Obviously not. They are clearly contradicting the pro-life teaching of their church. Similarly, anti-Semitic Christians are defying the clear teaching of their Church on tolerance. And no one has been clearer on this point than has John Paul II.
Rating:
Summary: In vain
Review: I do not recommend the book because it's not what it says it is: a history of the Church and the Jews. The book is really two books. The first is Carroll's interminable autobiography: why he hates his father, the church, etc. The second is his dream of a church that will replace the Catholic Church, which he now despises. His church's purpose seems to be the celebration of "the sanctity of democracy." No moral rules, no hierarchy, no revelation, no redemption. Just Unitarianism Lite. The pseudo-history is concocted to suit his bitterness and his little theological dream. How could any reader take this bizarre history seriously? But clearly thousands havve. How sad.
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