James Carroll. Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews: A History. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001. xii + 756 pp. $28.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-395-77927-9. David I. Kertzer. The Popes Against the Jews: The Vatican's Role in the Rise of Modern Anti-Semitism. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001. 355 pp. $27.50, cloth, ISBN 978-0-375-40623-2. Reviewed by Richard A. Lebrun Published on H-Catholic (November, 2001) The Catholic Church and Modern Anti- while Kerzter's scope is more limited, focusing on Semitism the period from the 1814 restoration of the Papal I would have liked to be able to recommend States following the disruptions of the French these two books as nicely complementary. Both Revolution and Napoleon to October 1943, when are exercises in persuasion, calling for a re-exami‐ Jews were deported from Rome to Auschwitz nation of the issue of the Church's responsibility from beneath the very windows of the Vatican. for modern antisemitism generally and for the Both authors insist that the Church's highest offi‐ Holocaust in particular. James Carroll's Constan‐ cials must be more honest in admitting that the tine's Sword, according to the book's subtitle, pur‐ institutional failings of the Church "as such," and ports to be a "History" of "The Church and the not merely the personal failings of individual Jews," while David I. Kertzer's The Popes Against Catholics, played an significant role in the un‐ the Jews carries the subtitle "The Vatican's Role in speakable tragedy that befell Jews in the twenti‐ the Rise of Modern Anti-Semitism." Carroll offers eth century. a "narrative arc" (to use his own characterization) Both authors were offended and stimulated to that carries the story of Christian bias against write by the 1998 statement "We Remember: A Re‐ Jews from New Testament times to the present, flection on the Shoah" produced by the Vatican's H-Net Reviews Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews passionate exposition of the evidence as by its which, while issued in a spirit of "repentance," of‐ well articulated argument. fered some fne distinctions between traditional Despite its length, the argument of Carroll's anti-Judaic attitudes based on religious considera‐ book can be briefly summarized. According to tions and modern racist antisemitism and be‐ Carroll, the history of the Christian Church, from tween the attitudes and actions of individual its earliest days to the present, demonstrates that Catholics and the responsibility of the Church. hostility towards the Jews has been a constitutive Carroll found the statement "defensive and self- part of the Church's identity, that this hostility has exonerating" (Constantine's Sword, p. 27), while found expression in every age in anti-Jewish Kertzer "knew that there was something terribly teachings, sentiments, and practices, and that the wrong with the history that the Vatican was re‐ problem is so deeply rooted that it requires a counting" (The Pope Against the Jews, p. 4). Third Vatican Council for a radical overhaul of the Kertzer was especially upset by what he saw as Church's understanding of and teachings about the statement's attempt to relieve the Church of the New Testament, its structure (a reform of the responsibility for the Holocaust by denying con‐ papacy and the introduction of more democratic nections between the acknowledged religious hos‐ forms of governance), its Christology (a shift in tility to the Jews that had characterized Christian emphasis from Christ's death on the cross to his teaching, attitudes, and actions for centuries and message of love), its acceptance of a stance of the modern antisemitism that reached its dread‐ "pluralism" that would acknowledge other reli‐ ful apotheosis in Hitler's "final solution." gions as valid ways to salvation, and its genuine Despite the apparent similarity in purpose, "repentance" for its antisemitic sins. Carroll's however, these are two very different books. The harshest critics believe that these changes consti‐ first, a massive 750-page volume by a Catholic tute his real agenda, and that there is a kind of novelist and ex-Paulist priest, while clearly a blasphemy in utilizing repugnance at the Church's heart-felt and even anguished account, told with responsibility (however direct or indirect) for the novelist's skill in dramatizing scenes, persons, modern antisemitism and the Holocaust to ad‐ and events, is nevertheless so seriously fawed vance these goals.[1] Without attempting to judge that it may unfortunately prove counter-produc‐ Carroll's motivation, it seems evident that he is tive to the author's avowed purpose of getting the deeply appalled by what he perceives as the scan‐ Church to face more honestly the sad reality of dalous way the Church, its leaders, intellectuals, the antisemitism in its tradition and history and and writers have dealt with Judaism and the Jews to "imagine a different kind of future" (p. 23). The over the centuries. What is easier to assess are the second, by a reputable historian of modern Italy weaknesses of his book. who proudly informs us that his rabbi father was In the frst place, the book is much too long-- given a medallion by the Vatican for his work in judicious editing could probably have cut the promoting greater understanding between Chris‐ length in half and enhanced its effectiveness. Per‐ tians and Jews, is a careful historical study based haps in an attempt to "personalize" the argument, in good part on the Vatican's own secret archives, Carroll devotes interminable pages to recounting recently made available. A generally sober, well- his own personal history and his relationships documented, and succinct 350-page account, with his mother, his father, his childhood Jewish which avoids Carroll's emotional and personal friend, his brother, his seminary, and the Church. style, Kertzer's book persuades as much by a dis‐ Some events and developments are treated at ex‐ cessive length, while other relevant developments 2 H-Net Reviews are ignored. For example, readers are subjected to for example, seems to rest heavily on the work of a long disquisition on the Spanish Inquisition in people associated with the "Jesus Seminar" (John which Carroll blames that institution for adding a Dominic Crossan in particular) while generally ig‐ racist criteria of "purity of blood" to traditional noring their critics and the work of such Catholic anti-Jewish measures, though this was a move biblical scholars as Luke Timothy Johnson and that the papacy and the Church generally opposed John P. Meier. The problem of excessive reliance and that the most recent historian of the Spanish on partisan secondary authors is also evident in Inquisition discounts as having any connection to his uncritical acceptance of the contentions of the Holocaust.[2] At the same time, Carroll ignores writers like John Cornwell (Hitler's Pope) and Gar‐ much of the excellent work on Catholic-Jewish re‐ ry Wills (Papal Sin: Structures of Deceit). Many lations and the reform of Catholic education would also question the accuracy of some of Car‐ where it concerns Judaism and Jews that has been roll's depictions and interpretations of particular carried out in recent decades by the Vatican itself, historical events and developments. For example, the hierarchy, and Catholic theologians and edu‐ his evidence and his argument for crediting the cators.[3] emperor Constantine for pushing the Church to Secondly, it is not a particularly good "histo‐ move from a creedal statement (as in the frst ver‐ ry" of the Church and the Jews. The classic study sion of the Nicene Creed) in which neither the by the Catholic priest Edward H. Flannery, The death of Jesus or the crucifixion are mentioned to Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-Three Centuries of the version (dating from the Council of Con‐ Antisemitism (New York: Macmillan, 1965; re‐ stantinople in 381), that "put the crucifixion at the vised edition, Mahway, N.J.: Paulist Press, 1975), center of faith and the death of Jesus at the heart while engaging all the difficulties of the issue, is a of redemption" (p. 191), hardly seems compelling. much more balanced treatment. A more recent Carroll largely ignores the letters of Paul, which study by Lionel B. Steiman, Paths to Genocide: preached "Christ crucified" (1 Cor 1:23), and never Anti-semitism in Western History (New York: mentions contrary evidence such as the Apostolic Macmillan, 1998), while much shorter, offers Tradition of Hippolytus (c. 215 C.E.), which includ‐ much more on the cultural, political, social, and ed the following baptismal profession of faith: "Do economic contexts in which antisemitism devel‐ you believe in Christ Jesus, who ... was crucified in oped, and on the history of the Jewish communi‐ the days of Pontius Pilate, and died, and was ties that experienced prejudice, injustice, and vio‐ buried and rose the third day?"[4] lence. Interestingly, with respect to responsibility In short, though written in an engaging liter‐ for the Nazi crime of genocide against the Jews, ary style, enlivened with personal anecdotes, ar‐ Steiman, who is a secular historian, puts a major gued with passion, and devoted to a topic of great share of the blame, not on Christian antisemitism, importance, Carroll's work must be read with cau‐ but on the German medical establishment, within tion because of its scholarly weaknesses (keep in which an ideology of eugenics facilitated coopera‐ mind that the author is a novelist and not a histo‐ tion in a "final solution" that was perceived as a rian), and with awareness of the author's avowed "cure" to the "Jewish problem," and on the habits purposes of both challenging the Church's account and state of mind of too many German bureau‐ of its treatment of the Jews and transforming its crats who tended to view implementation of the structure and some of its fundamental teachings.