Constantine's Sword
| Author | James Carroll |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Published | 2001 |
| Publisher | Mariner Books (Houghton Mifflin) |
| Pages | xii + 756 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 44727744 |
| LC Class | BM535 .C37 2001 |
Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews: A History (2001) is a book by James Carroll, a former priest, which documents the role of the Roman Catholic Church in the long European history of antisemitism. The primary source of anti-Jewish violence is the perennial obsession with converting the Jews to Christianity; an event which some theologians believed would usher in the Second Coming.
Carroll disclaims the notion that Christian anti-Judaism leads inevitably to the Shoah perpetrated by National Socialism, but he argues that Church's long history of "Jew-hatred" (his term) laid the foundation for Hitler's crimes. Carroll also points out the many "turning points," as he labels them, where the Church's attitudes and actions toward Jews could have been shifted. Just one example cited in the book is that of Pierre Abelard (1079–1142), the French theologian and philosopher, whose teachings, had they been accepted, would have radically changed the direction and cast of Christian dogma.
The book also analyzes, in detail, the actions of numerous popes and other prominent figures of Catholic Church history, especially those who advocated anti-Jewish policies and those who tried to rein in official antisemitism, including St. Augustine, Bernard of Clairvaux, Nicholas of Cusa, Innocent III, Paul IV, Pius IX, Pius XII, John XXIII, and John Paul II.
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