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Rating: 
Summary: The second best book about european antisemitism
Review: "A Moral Reckoning : The Role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair",
by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, is the second best book about european antisemitism history, of all times. To know it and to not forget the birth of european historical holocaust against Israel People. A book for Low and High Schools students, I hope, in Italy too, now, in these doom times.Nicola Facciolini
Journalist
Teramo
Italy
Rating: 
Summary: Confusing Today's Strength With Yesterday's Weakness
Review: My title is precisely the point. Goldhagen assumes that the supposed power the Catholic Church possesses today over much of the world's culture, politics, and media is as it was in the early part of the twentieth century. It, most decidedly, was not. The Church, in those days, was viewed in many parts of the West -especially in more economically and militarily powerful Protestant America and Europe - as a cultural hangnail from the Middle Ages: archaic, decaying, lifeless, semi-literate, and rife with crippling, sickly superstition. The overwhelming bulk of its' parishoners were little more than simple-minded peasants and the lowest members of the working class: penniless, starving, illterate (mostly), and quick to hop the next boat to North America in search of a better life. Catholic education was an oxymoron. In short, despite the revisionist histories of some modern Catholic historians and thinkers who portray the Church as eternally powerful, early twentieth century European Catholicism was recidivist and on the brink of utter disintegration, overrun by communism and socialism. It most certainly was NOT a healthy organization. That the Catholic Church could then have been some agent provacateur, metaphysical master planner, or "Ur-Author" of the Holocaust strikes me, to say the least, as a bit of a reach. Goldhagen seems to be hitting here because the Vatican either hasn't properly fessed up to it's "control freak" role or, more likely, it is an easy and inviting target because it is the last significant Christian institution left standing in Europe. In critical and strategic ways, the Protestant churches (i.e., the Anglican, German Evangelical(Lutheran), Dutch & Swiss Reformed, etc.) were far more powerful early in the last century and held considerably more sway over their wealthier and more influential congregants. Alas, they no longer stand dominant in multi-cultural Europe; ergo, Goldhagen doesn't go after them because no one gives a damn about their dwindling numbers. Besides, who goes to THEIR churches? No one who matters - media wise, that is. In truth, the world wars were far more Protestant (esp. Anglo-German)induced; early twentieth-century European Catholicism was far too introverted, weak, and Third Worldish to matter much. The Vatican, ironically, may have a hard time admitting any culpability not because Catholics did not participate, but because the Church in those days was too ineffectual to do anything about it. And in light of its new found late twentieth/early twenty-first century materialism, bejeweled ornamentation, lush bank accounts, and heightened world media position, that may be a reality more embarrassing to admit than anything to do with the Holocaust. After all, once one begins wearing items from the House Of Adolfo, it is hard to admit ever having been a client of the Salvation Army thrift shop. This may be an alternative way of looking at this controversial matter, but I think it will help expose some of the pretensious, egotistical positions that Goldhagen and the Vatican possess and would rather not care to admit.
Rating: 
Summary: Author is so anti-Catholic/Christian that he can't reason
Review: The author does not understand Christianity/Catholicism. His theology interpretations are completely wrong and offensive. If it weren't so serious, it would be laughable. His transparent and ill-founded bias, viewed through a 21st Century lens, given away by a preachy and pretentious how-dare-they-believe-in-what-their-religion-teaches-if-it's-not-what-I-believe tone, undermines the entire work, such as it is. (Note extensive errors discussed by other reviewers.) Goldhagen is stuck on the old ridiculous standby steretotypes that Christians/Catholics believe that the Jews killed Jesus, that all Jews are going straight to hell, etc.* He wants to edit the Bible to satisfy his personal sensibilities. Nevermind 2000 years of history or that he's not even Christian or that he doesn't understand what he would alter! If Goldhagen had his way, Christians would have had to start the faith from scratch, nevermind that Christians did not start out a separate religion but as Jews who believed Jesus was the Messiah. He claims New Testament scripture is antisemetic because it contains accounts criticizing early Messianic Jews for making mistakes in setting up churches and disciplining members. But the Bible criticizes Gentile start-ups the same. In 362 tedious pages, he somehow fails to mention that Christians/Catholics have every respect for Jews, God's chosen people, because Jesus himself was Jewish, along with the Virgin Mary, early apostles, etc. Christians use the Hebrew scriptures; calling them the "Old Testament" isn't antisemetic, contrary to Goldhagen's claims (p. 207), and actually Catholics have MORE Old Testament books than Protestants. Goldhagen calls the biblical accounts "not a reliable rendition of facts and events, but legend." (p. 264) Unbelievably, Goldhagen wants Christians to remove portions of the bible Goldhagen considers offensive and antisemetic (p. 273). Hm, how ironic. You'd think, given the subject matter, that this is EXACTLY the kind of hate-filled stereotyping and micromanagement that persecuted minority groups (e.g., Catholics in the U.S.) should fear. The author's motive is finally revealed in the conclusion: FINANCIAL RESTITUTION! What a whiny, mean spirited waste of paper this book is. Glad I just got it from the library for free and didn't support this "scholar" for his next work: maybe a revamping of the Islamic KORAN! Or eliminating Old Testament accounts of the Hebrew God wiping out evil nations of non-Jewish infidels and sinners. Where to draw the line? THEOLOGY FOOTNOTE: * From a Christian/Catholic perspective:
1. Factually, the Romans executed Jesus, but morally, we all do, every day, because - Jew or Gentile - we fail to apply the Golden Rule and to support/protect each other.
2. Some fundamentalists would say all without Jesus go to hell. Catholics don't presume one way or the other for themselves or others, but rather pray even for the dead, and hope for purgatory.
Rating:
Summary: Elaborated but confusing moral trial of the Catholic Church
Review: The autor, a very bright Jewish Harvard scholar, assuming the attitude of a prosecutor more than a writer, makes fierce accusations against the role of the Catholic Church and its institutional behaviour towards the Jews during the course of history since Jesus times in general and over Pope Pius XII obscure rule in particular in the Second World War It also describes with a lot of detail how the Vatican and the ecclesiastical Catholical hierarchy of almost every European country acquiesced to the horrifying Nazi hunt and deportation of the Jews to the extermination camps, as a mute accomplice, underlying the antisemitic foundations of the Catholic doctrine There is also a short and concise analysis of the New Testament chapters that allude to the false incrimination of the Jews as Christ killers, a cornerstone of Christian antisemitism Finally, there is a moral debate originated on basic moral and legal principles about how the Catholic Church should repay all the offenses made to the Jews as moral repair Though the book exhibits abundant incriminatory evidence, displays interesting photos and provides outstanding complementary information, the language employed turns into a repetitive and tedious monologue that enfeebles the reader receptivity blurring key enlightening concepts product of the author own very valuable research
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