Rating: 
Summary: A work of relentless hate
Review: This book has received a lot of publicity. And why not? The global power elite and their allies in the media and academia never miss an opportunity to bash the Catholic Church. It's an old, old story. And Carroll is not even original. He doesn't tell us anything we haven't already heard from other anti-Catholic authors in recent years, such as John Cornwell and Gary Wills. The anti-Catholic bigots clearly sense they are on to a good thing. Why stop now?Like the previous authors, Carroll levels the accusation of anti-semitism at the Church. He reiterates what earlier authors have argued, namely, that the alleged anti-semitism found in Catholic writings over the centuries led directly to the Nazi horrors of WWII. But Carroll goes further, damning not only the Catholic Church, but Christianity itself. He even says the Gospel writers themselves were guilty of anti-semitism! That the Holocaust -- one genocide among many -- was caused not by the Catholic Church, but by the same socialist, progressive, secular, and anti-Christian forces that gave us abortion and euthanasia (among other terrors), doesn't occurr to Carroll. Or if it does, he won't admit it. Of course, if the author's wild charges were true, it would mean Christianity itself is at fault. And if it is - why, it must be reformed. To that end, like the good liberal that he is, Carroll calls for fundamental changes. He demands a revolution to remake the Church in accordance with all of the obsessions and prejudices of the liberal, secular humanist of the 21st century. He demands that the Gospels be re-written. The pride and arrogance contained in Carroll's proposals defy reasonable comment. Don't be deceived by Carroll's claim that he is a Catholic. He is an ex-priest and his views have clearly diverged radically from those of the Church. So why does he remain "Catholic"? I suspect Carroll labels himself a Catholic only to protect himself from claims of anti-Catholicism. It is for convenience only. Carroll's Catholicism is like Bill and Hillary's marriage: a total sham. The value of this book has nothing to do with scholarship. It has nothing to do with reasoned thought, either. Carroll is only out to score some points against the Church. And this he does, in a highly personal, subjective manner. He obviously bears some kind of grudge. The book's overall tone is such that one wonders what personal hell Carroll must have gone through to have produced a work of such incredible invective. But there is a much more serious side to this sinister book, more to do with the effect it will have on others than with anything else. No one can deny the climate of anti-Catholic hate and violence in the world. And the situation is worsening -- from the vicious anti-Catholic slanders and lies repeated in the liberal media, to physical assaults on priests and nuns, to the invasion and desecration of Catholic sanctuaries, to the massacres of Catholics by Muslims in the developing world. Books such as this are reponsible for these events. So if this book serves a purpose, it is this: it provides further justification for a truly retaliatory course of resistance and direct action against the forces of anti-Catholic hate. It reminds Catholics just what and who we are up against.
Rating: 
Summary: Correction
Review: I have not read the book yet, so I cannot submit a review. (Amazon requires that one completes all fields, thus I have given the book five stars... ) However, it must be said that James Carroll has not been excommunicated.
Rating:
Summary: Switch and Bait
Review: Despite its claims, this book is not a history of the relationship between Christians and Jews. The ending chapters reveal the real project: to demand that the Church surrender to the sexual revolution, that it destroy the authority of the papacy, and that it abandon its core doctrine of salvation in Christ. To achieve this goal, the author must paint the popes as moral mosters, as mini-Goebbels. The many statements of Pius XI and Pius XII against anti-Semitism are ignored. Others are so distorted out of context that they are turned into a counter-sense.
Rating:
Summary: Killing the father
Review: This "history" is not history at all. The author is a novelist whose earlier work was devoted to attacking his father and the papacy---indeed, any paternal figure he could find. In this book he tries to prove that the Church is somehow responsible for the Holocaust, but the use of evidence is tendentious and unscholarly. A few examples: 1. Medieval. He cites statements by bishops and councils that denigrate the Jews, but ignores the many statements that denounce violence against the Jews. 2. Modern. He cites the famous 18th c. papal encyclical of the pope to Polish bishops asking for a more vigorous opposition to Jewish policies in certain Polish towns. But he cuts out the detailed passages where the pope explicitly condemns any use of violence against Jews and where he reminds Christians of the rights and dignity of Jews. He also conveniently ignores to explain why so many persecuted Jews chose to flee to Poland: because of the tolerance of the Polish kingdom, of the Polish church's refusal to permit the Inquisition to operate on its territory, of the comparatively democratic nature of the elected Polish monarchy. 3. Contemporary. He simply asserts the myth of Pius XII's "silence" during the Holocaust and refuses to cite the hundreds of diplomatic cables and speeches in which Pius XII denounced Nazi perfidy and intervened on behalf of persecuted Jews. The result is an anti-Catholic's delight: the fantasy of a persecuting church. History deserves better.
Rating:
Summary: Hatchet
Review: This is yet another piece of fashionable anti-Catholicism disguised as a piece of history. The author claims to "love his Church deeply," but how this love ended up in this ex-priest being excommunicated from his church is never explained. The technique of denigrating the church is simple. Catholicism is a huge religion with millions of adherents. Choose only those church documents that appear to have a trace of anti-Semitism and then claim that Catholics are (surprise!) anti-Semitic. Suppress all the documents that are pro-Semitic and your case is made. But this dishonest technique can prove anything: Catholics are anti-abortion and pro-abortion, libertine and Puritan, anti-slavery and pro-slavery, left, right, center, vegetarians or carnivores. Take your pick. This is a sad and self-hating piece of work.
Rating:
Summary: Unscholarly,uncatholic
Review: This unscholarly work, written by an angry ex-Catholic, has little to do with Judaism and Christianity. The "history" here is entirely truncated. Catholics who defended the Jews against persecution are ignored. Catholics who justified anti-Semitism are magnified as the norm. The history is much murkier here than ex-Father Carroll would have it. The greatest dishonesty here lies in the treatment of Pius XI and Pius XII. Pius XI's courageous encyclical against Nazism (in 1937) is ignored, although the pope ordered it to be read from every German pulpit and although it caused an intensified persecution of the Catholic Church by the Nazis (destruction of Catholic schools, show trials against clergy). The many efforts of Pius XII to save Jewish lives are dismissed. This anti-Catholic screed will win praise from the culture despisers of Catholicism. The lavish treatment of the book in the New York Times is all too predictable. But it has nothing to do with history or scholarship.
Rating:
Summary: Anti-Catholicism revisited
Review: Be forewarned: The author is a defrocked, excommunicated priest who has attacked the Catholic Church on many occasions. The book continues the calumny against Pius XII. The sources for the alleged "silence" are mainly secondary works, often written by bitterly anti-Catholic authors. Pius XII's hundreds of diplomatic interventions (which saved thousands of Jewish lives), his public criticism of the Nazis (praised by the New York Times during the war), and his personal sheltering of thousands of Jews in the Vatican and Castelgandalfo are ignored. The real motive for the book appears at the end, where the author calls for a church council to approve the sexual agenda of the sixties: contraception, divorce, abortion, etc., etc. This has nothing to do with Judaism, but everything to do with the author's embittered agenda against the church he abandoned. For a serious study of Pius XII's heroc efforts to rescue the victims of Nazism and Communism, read the recent scholarly works by Blet, Marchione, and Rhychlak.
Rating:
Summary: Warped view of history?
Review: "Constantine's Sword" is a warped view of history written by a non-expert who passionately hates the Catholic Church and probably most authority figures and institutions. As Columbia University's Hofstedter (sp?) once said, "Anti-Catholicism is the fashionable anti-Semitism of our century." Especially when written by an ex-priest with no other credentials than having been ordained. Ask any non-Catholic historian to comment on this naive and scurrilous book.
Rating:
Summary: The Cross viewed by a poet who remains, at heart, a priest
Review: James Carroll has written poetry, plays, novels, memoirs, and essays. But what he is, first and last, is a homilist. While Carroll is officially a former Roman Catholic priest, he has now -- as when he was a very young priest -- an extraordinary ability to illuminate God's word through sacred storytelling. To listen to Carroll talk about God, on paper or in person, is to be changed irrevocably at one's core. Carroll writes experientially about God and that is perhaps why his work is so searing. He sees the world with a poet's eye and filters what he sees and hears through his conscience. He is a contemplative in the best sense of the term. His books are liturgy, far more than the pallid, automatic and unconsidered prose dispensed in many places of worship. I hope Constantine's Sword marks the beginning of a series of meditations and explorations on issues of conscience that Carroll will continue to work on for many years to come. He has written a beautiful, majestic and heart-breaking book. I am so grateful for it.
Rating:
Summary: mlglaw
Review: Without a doubt, one of the most thought provoking books I have encountered and not just limited to matters theological. I expect that this book will become the foundation of many educational courses and generate countless responses, critiques and doctoral dissertations. Perhaps it will also become the bridge between those who do and do not believe in divinity of Jesus.
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