Constantine's Sword; The Church and the Jews: A History

Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company [A Mariner Book], 2001. First Paperback printing. Trade paperback. Good. xii, 756 pages. Chronology. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Novelist James Carroll has compiled a sweeping history of anti-Semitism in the Christian tradition. Carroll, himself once a priest, describes incidents of both active and passive aggression against the Jewish faithful from the Crusades to the Inquisition to the Holocaust. A New York Times Notable Book for 2001. James P. Carroll (born January 22, 1943) is an American author, historian, and journalist. A Roman Catholic reformer, he has written extensively about his experiences in the seminary and as a priest, and has published, besides novels, books on religion and history. Carroll's plays have been produced at the Berkshire Theater Festival and at Boston's Next Move Theater. In 1976 he published his first novel, Madonna Red, which was followed by nine others. He has written for numerous publications and his op-ed column appears weekly in The Boston Globe. He won the 1996 National Book Award for Nonfiction for An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War That Came Between Us, a memoir about the Vietnam War and his relationships with his father, the American military, and the Catholic Church. Carroll wrote a history of Christianity, specifically Roman Catholicism, anti-Semitism and treatment of Jews, titled Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews. In this work, he connects many personal experiences, especially his boyhood trips to Catholic pilgrimage sites in the Rhineland, and as a seminarian and priest, to the places and events that he analyzes. The book was a New York Times Best Seller, although it got mixed reviews. The book also earned Carroll several accolades from national newspapers, including The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. Carroll co-wrote and presented the 2007 documentary Constantine's Sword with filmmaker Oren Jacoby.