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Summary: the church and the sword
Review: For the past 25 years I have struggled with the teachings of the faith I was brought up in. I have read more than my share of 'investigative books' purporting to shake the foundations of Christianity and left them feeling none the wiser. Through a combination of personal and moral experiences, I had developed a sense that there was (and is) something profoundly misplaced in the reality of being a Christian.
I began reading James Carroll's text with a disinterested attitude, struggling at first to grasp his initial introduction to the central theme of the book via the Cross at Auschwitz. Once I had achieved this, the book's progress through the history of Church sponsored Anti-Semitism through theological and scriptural interpretation,coupled with intolerance, proved mind boggling. The author breathes life into the historical figures and lays bare the bones of their 'achievements'. He presents the consequences of Christian hatred through two millenia with no apologies for the instigators. I was constantly aware of my anger growing the further I read. James Carroll has written a history that should evoke these feelings.
His conclusions are bound to cause controversy. There are no shortages of Catholics who refute his critique of "Papal Silence" during WW2 or his labelling John Paul 2 as an arch conservative. What sets his work apart for me is his plan for Church reform. He wears his emotions on his sleeve when he discusses the failings of the Christian Churches with regard to tolerance of other Faiths, Sex, Women, Democracy, Papal Infallibility. His call for the reinterpretation of basic scriptures and the reasons why, should give any reader pause for thought. Bravo Mr. Carroll.
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Summary: file this under "fantasy"
Review: James Carroll's "scholarship" consists of quoting other works out of context to support some bizarre personal few of history, though not any history that ever existed, except in the world of Mr. Carroll's warped mind.The author is a man with a chip on his shoulder. Perhaps in his schooldays he had his wrist slapped with the rattan by some nun, and now the venting goes on...and on ...and on....and on...That is what this book is about. Invention for venting's sake.
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Summary: Superb history of philosophy and Christianity
Review: This is a comprehensive review of the key thinkers and events which have influenced the history of Christianity up to the present. The author brings the benefits and potential liabilities of having been a Catholic priest. In my opinion, the resulting insights are well worth the biases which may be introduced.
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Summary: If you ever get a chance to read this book . . . DON'T
Review: Last year I talked one of my history professors into giving me two college credits for reading, reviewing, researching, and exploring the reviews of other Jewish, Christian, and non-biased opinions of this book. Suffice it to say, I did not simply acknowledge that Carroll had footnotes--as I would if I were reading the book for my own pleasure or information--I looked up many of his sources and went to the primary source material for myself. What I found surprised and appalled me. Not only did Carroll misrepresent much of his information, even on occasion twisting clear facts to fit his clearly biased viewpoint, he also relied on other recent books that have been published (claiming, like his, to be historical) which have also come under heavy criticism for their lack of accuracy and blatant lies (for example, "Hitler's Pope"). There is some historical fact in this book, which does illustrate his point without perverting the truth, however unless you want to do an incredible amount of research as I did, it is nearly impossible to pick out fact from fiction so that you can never be sure that what you have learned is actually so.
In addition to this unscrupulous disregard for truth, Carroll goes off on several personal tirades against the church and reminisces about how his mommy wouldn't let him have a Jewish friend when he was six. While these stories may be interesting, they belong in a memoir, not a work which purports to report history (not his). I got the impression that Carroll is still that six year old boy whining about how he didn't get his way.
Lastly, Carroll uses this opportunity to lay out the political bent of the Jesus Seminar, which attempted several years ago to rationalize and moralize the ministry, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. While I do not agree with him on these points, the only problem I have with his inclusion of them in this context, is that this context is not supposed to be opinionated but rather factual. In this vein, Carroll attempts to put his own opinion forth as fact, which is entirely unacceptable historical practice--regardless of whether or not his readers agree with him.
In short, after my own long tirade, I recommend to you strongly to 1) do not waste your money on this book, and 2) do not waste your time reading this book. If you have ANYTHING better to do, including watch the grass grow, do not read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A Somewhat Flawed But Profoundly Informing Work
Review: First the "flaw": other reviewers have noted that interjecting his own personal religious journey is off-putting and I agree that it frequently is, but not always. I have always liked James Carroll's works and have read a lot of them. He and I share, in limited part, a similar background: my parents were "old school" Irish Catholics, and, while I enjoyed the company of the fair sex too much to consider the seminary, I was educated in high school and college by the Jesuits, for which I have always been very, very grateful. It was a superb process for those who wanted to study. Like him, I began to question the validity of the religion in which I had been raised, but a lawyer's lot does not often permit in depth study of subjects other than the law, so my questions remained that until health matters forced retirement about three years ago. Then books like De Rosa's "Vicars of Christ: The Dark Side of the Papacy", Morris' "American Catholic", "Unholy Trinity" by Aarons & Loftus, "Papal Sin" by Wills and "Hitler's Pope" by Cornwell led me to the understanding that there was a deep and established evil in Catholicism, especially in its "heirarchy". I was conflicted by the profound goodness of the Christian message to love one another in the context of a corrupt messenger - the Church. I had started Carroll's book, but set it aside to pursue Middle Eastern study in the light of September 11. So it slipped from mind for a while until I returned to it after the pederast priest scandal re-kindled my anger at the hypocrisy of Church politics.I was both pleased and surprised to find my questions concerning the Christian message vs Catholic corruption answered in the context of historical analysis. Yes, this books is concerned with determining why Catholicism (and other Christian faiths) have demonstrated consistent anti-semitism over the centuries, but for me, the satisfaction was derived from understanding how an essentially medieval institution got to be that way, and why it refuses to change. I was able to see how this medieval mind set was responsible, through the 4th Lateran Council (1215 CE), for the establishment of doctrine which the Church still clings to today, in the face of clear and known error in its bases, and how that docrine led to such truly monstrous events as the Crusades and the Inquisition. Carroll is informed and lucid in showing how fears for the survival of an institution based on beliefs premised on medieval concepts in the light of scientific, philosophical and political change caused a frightened Pope Pius IX to promulgate the concept of papal infallibility. And he, at least, has a vision of a changed Church coming into harmony with modern times, although I am far less sanguine about the possibilty of meaningful change in an institution whose well established power base is cemented into middle ages philosophical concepts. I do agree wholeheartedly with his conclusion that Christ's purpose was revelation of God's message to love one another, rather than salvation. This is no book for "pray, pay and obey" Catholics, but for those who, like Carroll and me, have become disenchanted by that "old time religion", it provides accurate, although deeply troubling answers to questions about why things are as they are. I did not mind sharing Carroll's own quest, because it provided some help as to how he internalized what he learned, but a little less of this distraction from the historical analysis would have been better for this reader. This is a well researched and well written book, and further illustrates the frequently upsetting rightness of the concept that "the truth shall set you free".
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Summary: Why Christian Leaders Have Been Unjust to Jews
Review: CONSTANTINE'S SWORD:THE CHURCH AND THE JEWS is a hard book to do justice to. Author James Carroll was not previously known to me and that probably makes a difference. The dust jacket says that he has authored nine novels and a memoir, AN AMERICAN REQUIEM. The book has so much autobiographical detail in it that I wonder if Carroll, consciously or unconsciously, was writing for a claque of devoted followers. As spiritual autobiography, CONSTANTINE'S SWORD is not in a class with Augustine's CONFESSIONS or Newman's APOLOGIA PRO VITA SUA.
***As history, it is superficial, virtually romping through its largely secondary sources. In areas with which I am more familiar, it seemed reasonably accurate, with one of several howlers being that the city of Cologne was once called Colonus. It was not.
***As, I presume, some sort of half-Socratic device, the book asks, literally, hundreds and hundreds of questions: mostly unanswered. James Carroll's overriding question is why have so many Christians disliked or hated or even coerced or murdered so many Jews for so many centuries, One image of Carroll's that stays in the imagination is that Christianity and post-Christian Judaism are products of one religious womb but are Siamese twins whose separation was much more traumatic than it need have been. Leading Christians (starting with the author of John's Gospel, have over and over misconstrued Jews. They have defined Christianity against Jews who threaten the younger religion. Other more constructive paths were briefly trod by some Christians, e.g., Abelard and Cusanus. And those paths are worth revisiting by today's Christians and even broadening them and trying them once again. ***The book cries out for dialog, deeper probing and writing of better books on the subject of Christian wrongs to Jews. The subject is terribly important. The author's method, combining autobiography with history, group contrition and call for a new religious reformation and revival, is less than stellar.
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Summary: Best Bibical and Christianty History Book I've read.
Review: Tremendous book. I have visited Mainz, Germany every year for the past 15 years and never realized the Crusader History connected to the town. I will never enjoy a cup of coffee in the church square without thinking of the eleven-hundred Jews who died there.
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Summary: Excellent History of Catholic-Jewish Conflict
Review: CONSTANTINE'S SWORD gives a sweeping and thorough history of the Catholic Church's horrifying relations with the Jewish people over the past twenty centuries. The impudence and arrogance the Church has shown, as well as the Vatican's failure to acknowledge any responsibility on the part of the institutional church for the Holocaust, make one wonder whether the Church really understands what it will take to reach full reconciliation with the Jewish people. The most shocking parts of the book for me were the ways the Catholic Church attempted to define the parameters of Jewish theology. During the Middle Ages, when the Church discovered the existence of the Talmud through converts to Catholicism, the Church began burning copies of the Talmud and rabbinical commentaries because the book didn't fit with the Church's first-century understanding of Judaism. The Church actually thought Judaism had no right to its own internal development now that a "New Covenant" through Jesus had replaced the covenant between God and the Jewish people. The Church has also consistently rejecting theologies that would have led to greater tolerance of Jews and other non-Christians--the silencing of Abelard being a case in point. All in all, CONSTANTINE'S SWORD does an excellent job of unmasking and labelling the anti-Semitism that has been a mainstay of Catholic faith over the centuries.
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Summary: Too much superfluous material
Review: This book is supposed to be a history of the treatment of the Jews by the Christian Church, but it is actually a personal history of the author and his disillusionment with the Catholic Church. There is some historical material of general interest but it is only a small fraction of the more than 700 pages of the book. 200 pages would have been more than enough to cover whatever material of general interest there is in the book. The mixture of personal and historical material can be irritating. For example, in Part Seven of the book there is a rather interesting discussion of how the Church benefited by co-operating with authoritarian regimes. However that discussion is cut short by introducing the story of a pilgrimage during the author's youth. In addition to his personal history the author often digresses to topics that have little connection to the main theme of the book, such as a chapter on Abelard and Héloïse.
I might have been willing to overlook the large amounts of peripheral (or outright extraneous material) if the parts that covered general history provided any new insights. Unfortunately, most of that material is superficial, if not highly questionable. Carroll tries to answer the question on why Judaism survived while all ancient pagan religions were eliminated by the Church. He attributes that to an admonition by Saint Augustine. Could it also be that the Jews themselves had something to do with it? To start with, there were several Jewish communities outside the Christian Roman empire (for example, in the Persian empire). Others they were in the periphery of the empire, for example in Spain. Several Jewish communities in the core of the empire (for example, in Cappadocia) disappeared entirely. Thus the basic argument of the book seems to be wrong.
The book is certainly critical of the Catholic Church ... However, I found several parts of the book also insulting to the Jews, so conspiracy theorists have to look elsewhere.
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Summary: Polarized Viewpoints
Review: It is interesting that you find most of the reviews here either very negative or really positive. It is an emotional topic as religion is mostly based in an emotional leap of faith which this book calls into question. My experience has been that reading material like this that tries to understand history which was made as far back as 2 centuries is based on a lot of heresay. What is most interesting about this book however is that it attempts to get you to understand that the world that the new testament was written in was one which was dominated by the Romans as conquerors. They were oppressors. You have to understand the historical context within which things are written to possibly develop an understanding of what is being communicated. Unfortunately, there is so much emotional content for many people who have vested their lives in believing a certain viewpoint, it is unlikely that many minds will be opened up by a book like this. The people who most need to step beyond their pedantic viewpoint are also the most likely to reject the reasoning out of hand and hurl emotional accusations against the writer because of who he is. This is unfortunate. Indeed when atrocities such as the holocaust occur within the mileau of Western Civilization, it is extremely important to understand how this could possibly have occured. I think Mr. Carroll gives us an interesting explaination. You might not agree with it entirely but on the other hand I challenge the critic to provide a better explaination. It is not enough to say that it was Satan or evil or Hitler. It was an entire society which executed this atrocity. It was ourselves. Most of us stood idly by while this occured over a period of years.
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