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Summary: the endurance of anti-semitism
Review: I am currently reading this book (it is long!) and am learning so much about my unarticulated sense of foreboding as a Jew upon seeing a Christian church. Carroll traces the recurring theme of Jews as scapegoats by using quotes from contemporaries in a way that begins to sound like a chorus of paranoia. I have read some reviews by Catholic scholars, and the problem they have with his point of view is the ability to be a Christian while at the same time NOT believing that Jesus is the ONLY way to salvation. This is a scattered review, but I recommend this book for some heavy and painful reading.
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Summary: a treasure for a jewish reader
Review: Having read some comments I can imagine catholics to be somewhat disturbed by reading about the shortcomings of their institution. But as a jew I realize that 2 millenia of hatred must have a background, and this book supplies me with one. Besides, the facts have been logically presented and can be verified. Unless you do not want to know and ....blame the jews for writing this superb but disturbing book it is a must-read!
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Summary: Bias on parade
Review: Alexis de Tocqueville once opined that anti-Catholicism is the anti-Semitism of would-be intellectuals. There is no finer item of this genteel anti-Catholicism than the current book and its rapturous recpetion in certain intellectual quarters. Serious historians have condemned the book for its reliance on biased, secondary sources; its deliberate distortion of the few primary sources quoted; its outright fabrication of evidence. The book attacks just about every tenet of the Catholic faith and is full of endless whimpering about the alleged abuses of Carroll's Catholic father.Some of the reviewers simply bask in the same mindless bigotry. What is one to make of the reviewer who uses the review to blame the Catholic Church for the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center! One thing is clear: this absurd book has certainly found the adueince it deserves.
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Summary: The cultured despisers
Review: This is simply a literary exercise in anti-Catholicism by a defrocked and excommunicated priest. The author plows through an ocean of Church documentation on Judaism and systematically highlights those which apear to have anti-Semitic overtones and suppresses the mountain of documents condemning anti-Semitism. The end of the book is a sustained attack on the most basic Catholic beliefs in faith and ethics. This is delightful anti-Catholic fare for the devotees of The Nation, but as purported history it is risible.
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Summary: Hrmmmm
Review: Like some others, I found the autobiographical material here cumbersome and boring at times. But it is there for an important rhetorical purpose: to demonstrate the author's serious and lifelong commitment to Catholic theology. Despite the annoyingly dismissive reviews posted here by people with conservative or catholic agendas who can't stand dissent, this is a book based upon a lot of sound scholarship and a genuine moral engagement with complex issues. The arguments are measured--often showing both the good and bad of papal policy--and though the historical narrative is necessarily selective--it'd be hard to write a comprehensive history of everywhere since the death of Christ, after all--its conclusions about the reverberations of ancient religious divisions are undeniable. As and educated reader with no real stake in either Catholicism or Judeism (I have some of each in my family and I practice neither) I cannot imagine anybody actually reading the book carefully and finding it totally unpersuasive. I can only conclude that the yahoos and ideologues who have contributed dismissive reviews here have not really read the book.
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Summary: At last.
Review: A long overdue "inside" look on this subject. James Carroll has brought us a comprehensive, historical review of a 2000-year record of Catholic actions, activities and formal positions .
His personal insights are invaluable.
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Summary: Useful Background to the Present World Religious Crisis
Review: Anyone concerned with the urgent necessity of re-examining religion as a contributing factor in the present world crisis should read this book. Although Carroll's stated purpose is to examine the relationship between the Church and Jews throughout Christian history, he also sheds light on our present problems with Islam. For example, it is desirable that we see the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01 in the context of history: since they are likely to represent the most extreme form of religiously-fueled violence since the Crusades, they could be said to be a delayed reaction to the hegemonic stance of official Christianity towards those of other religions, including both Judaism and Islam. This book is a must for all believers -- it is now essential that we come to understand the role of religion as a malevolent influence.
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Summary: Now I know!
Review: As a kid who grew up in a mixed neighborhood of Christians and Jews in the Bronx, I wondered often and long about why I had to fight so many Christian kids, usually at least two at a time. I finally figured it out. Thanks to James Carroll, I now have a handle on many of the details and historical causes of the street battles my Jewish friends and I fought.
-- Mort Young
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Summary: Purely Anecdotal
Review: I was really diappointed by this book. It's not really a book of history. So much of it is Carroll's autobiography: his favorite drinking places, his fights with the Catholic church, how much he dislikes his father, old battles over the morality of the Vietnam War. I understand his own need to confront his own anti-Semitism. The book is full of many chilling criticisms of Judaism. But how these endless autobiographical rants add up to an historical argument I don't understand.
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Summary: Ain't PoMo Great?
Review: You don't have to follow those stuffy old rules, like proper use of sources--heck, make up your own rules! It's a free country, man. Get used to it. It's called advocacy scholarship. It goes like this: If justice is on your side, it's perfectly OK to play with the facts. A whole new generation of "scholars" has arisen using this methodology. Some of the more honest ones, like John Dominic Crossan, admit it. Some of the more dishonest ones, like John Boswell and Elaine Pagels--and James Carroll--don't. Why should they? They're plenty of [people] who'll buy their specious scholarship. Let's not play games. This book is despicable. It almost makes you wish the Vatican would revive its Index of forbidden books. It'd save us all a lot of time, energy, and grief wasted plowing through such nonsense.
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