Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews -- A History
by James Carroll
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Book Summary Information
Author: James CarrollEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2001-04-01
ISBN: 0618219080
Number of pages: 768
Publisher: Mariner Books
Book Reviews of Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews -- A History
Book Review: 2000 years of western history
Summary: 5 Stars
To understand the history of western civilization it is imperative to understand the catholic church in particular, and christianity in general. For a basic understanding of these underpinnings of the western world, this book is a must. Whether you agree or not with Carroll on points, it is a thought provoking and well choreographed work. Being an anti-religionist, I approached this book with scepticism, but after just the first few lines I was taken in. Caroll is a thoughtful writer whose melodious use of words and language make this hefty book a treasure. I don't believe the book is available in an audible format, but it should be.
Summary of Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews -- A History
In this "rare book that combines searing passion . . . with a subject that has affected all of our lives" (Chicago Tribune), the novelist and cultural critic James Carroll maps the two-thousand-year course of the Church's battle against Judaism and faces the crisis of faith it has sparked in his own life as a Catholic. "Fascinating, brave and sometimes infuriating" (Time), this dark history is more than a chronicle of religion. It is the central tragedy of Western civilization, its fault lines reaching deep into our culture. Drawing on his well-known talents as a storyteller and memoirist, Carroll has created "a deeply felt work, a book that measures the 'sweep of history' against [his] experience as a man of the church" (San Francisco Chronicle). A courageous and affecting reckoning with difficult truths that will touch every reader, "CONSTANTINE'S SWORD is a history written to change the way people live" (Talk).Constantine's Sword is a sprawling work of history, theology, and personal confession by James Carroll (the author of An American Requiem, among many others). Carroll begins his landmark project by describing contemporary Catholic remembrances of the Holocaust and the Church's intolerable legacy of hostility towards Jews. He then surveys Catholic anti-Judaism beginning with the New Testament and proceeding through the early Church, the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Enlightenment, and World War II, before concluding with "A Call for Vatican III," a Church council that would make meaningful repentance for an entrenched tradition of hatred. Carroll's prescriptions for repentance, continued in a powerful epilogue, are bracingly concrete: "there is no apology for Holy Week preaching that prompted pogroms until Holy Week liturgies, sermons, and readings have been purged of the anti-Jewish slanders that sent the mobs rushing out of church.... Forgiveness for the sin of anti-Semitism presumes a promise to dismantle all that makes it possible." Carroll's personal reflections as an American Catholic infuse his historical narrative, and although his reflections are sometimes unnecessarily detailed, they are admirable for the principle they express: "I find myself unable to accuse my Church of any sin that I cannot equally accuse myself of," he writes. Carroll's judgments on the Church are rightly harsh, even agonizing. And yet his vision for a future rapprochement between Christians and Jews is hopeful, in part because he personally has come to understand the deep connections between Israel and the Church: "Jesus offers me, a non-Jew, access to the biblical hope that was his birthright as a son of Israel." --Michael Joseph Gross
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