Review: 'Constantine's Sword' a call to repentance

"Constantine's Sword: The Church and The Jews"
By James Carroll
Houghton Mifflin
Nonfiction/History
756 pages

March 7, 2001
Web posted at: 11:57 a.m. EST (1657 GMT)

By David Allan Dodson
Special to CNN.com

(CNN) -- James Carroll's "Constantine's Sword: The Church and The Jews" demands attention. It merits recognition by church leaders from the Southern Baptist Convention to the Vatican. It is a must for political leaders as a manual on the spiritual forces that have shaped our civilization. Most important, it demands the attention of Christians worldwide.

If religion is the search for truth, Christians may find themselves overdosing on the verities in this profound book. "Constantine's Sword" is a soul-changing book, with power and wisdom that may only be fully understood in decades to come.

On the surface, the book's subject matter is imposing. How does one write a 2,000-year history on a subject as complex as Christian/Jewish relations without filling 10 volumes? Yet Carroll manages such a task with a work that is clear, complete and concise. The result is a readable, stylistic history/memoir that never cheats the reader out of facts or shies away from the truth.

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Meditating on the cross

Carroll starts the reader's journey by meditating on the cross just outside the "starvation bunker" near the Auschwitz death camp, a display that has prompted criticism in some Jewish circles. Touching on the controversy the cross has created, the author leads us through the ideological minefield that is the subject of the book. While he takes pains to state that the church is not directly responsible for the Holocaust, he shows us how the stage was set beginning with canonical gospels and continuing through the silence of Pope Pius XII, head of the Catholic Church during World War II.

Carroll's history is not confined to relationships with Jews, but rather shows how Christian/Jewish relations have been a major force in shaping dogma, spirituality and history.

Delving into the minds and motivations of church fathers, popes, and inquisitors, he shows how anti-Semitism led the early church to define itself by what it is not - a legacy that haunts us today. Of particular interest is his discussion of the church under Constantine (306-337) and how the symbol of Christianity changed from the glory of the Resurrection to the horror and gore of the cross. Carroll feels that this switch to negative imagery defines much of what is wrong with Christianity, and has led to a history of bloodshed.

Much of the strength of "Constantine's Sword" lies in its ability to relate the past to the present and future. This is not a dry history, with dates and events that have little relationship to our lives. Carroll constantly brings us back to the present by relating personal stories of his childhood, his brief stint as a priest and his own religious enlightenment. At times the book feels more like a memoir, with touching stories of a Jewish boyhood friend and heart-rending discussions of his decision to leave the priesthood. History has never seemed so close to home.

In the final section of the book, Carroll calls for a third Vatican Council to continue the work of Vatican II, which lasted from 1962 to 1965.

Radical but necessary recommendations

His recommendations for the council are radical but necessary, Carroll writes. He asks that the doctrine of papal infallibility (which was created in 1871) be rescinded; calls for an open statement from the church acquitting the Jews of the death of Jesus; wants a broader acceptance of democracy; and requests the creation of a new Christology based on the Resurrection rather than the Crucifixion. He is unyielding in his rhetoric and makes a strong case for broad reform. His closing section is, quite simply, a how-to manual for healing a 2,000-year old wound.

It would be easy for the author of such a book to become righteously indignant and make a case for tearing down the church at its foundations. But the beauty of "Constantine's Sword" is that it is written from the perspective of a devoted Catholic and Christian. His sorrow at history's wrongs is evident, and his love for the church comes through in every paragraph. He portrays the latest pontiff, John Paul II, as a healer of relations, yet he is uncompromising in his criticism of the pope's shift to conservatism. This book is not a polemic, but an intervention.

Christians may find it difficult to look back on a history of violence that has been perpetrated in the name of the man who invented our concept of love. "Constantine's Sword" makes a strong case for Christians to engage in self-reflection, and provides us with a good starting point.

Readers well-versed in the subject will surely find some new information and a cause for discussion within the book's pages. Novice readers in church history will find the volume revelatory.

It is a book for everyone, enlightening the history of our society and perhaps our personal history as well. Carroll has given us a window on our history that is brutally honest, yet full of hope.

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