Nelson, Glen

English

Scholars Commons

Consensus
Volume 27
Issue 2 In Honour of the Women of the ELCIC Article 15
11-1-2001
Constantine's sword: the church and the Jews
Glen Nelson
Follow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus
Part of the Practical Theology Commons
This Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by an
authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.
Recommended Citation
Nelson, Glen (2001) "Constantine's sword: the church and the Jews," Consensus: Vol. 27 : Iss. 2 , Article 15.
Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol27/iss2/15
96 
Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews 
James Carroll 
Boston, MA: Houghton Miffiin Company, 200 l 
576 pages, $39.95 Hardcover 
Consensus 
Is historic Christian anti-Semitism an accident or a disease? Most 
informed people know something about the history of Jews within 
Christendom, about ghettos and shtetls, about pogroms and crusades, 
about blood libels and poisoned-well myths. Christian interpretation of 
this perverse history has struggled to make sense of it within the category 
of accident: unfortunate things "happened" because of the concatenation 
of particular phenomena - people of a certain type, events in a certain 
sequence, mistaken choices, missed opportunities - all the apparently 
random factors that go into a mid-air collision. Change any of the factors, 
and the "accident" would not have happened. There is no necessity 
binding the factors into an inescapable trajectory of disaster. 
An infectious disease is different. It is no accident that it spreads 
illness and death. Illness and death are of its nature. The less one 
knows about Christian anti-Semitism, the more it looks like an 
accident, an unfortunate happenstance requiring honest regret and 
sincere apology, which ought to be enough to end the matter. But the 
more one becomes aware of the extent of Christian anti-Semitic 
behavior, the harder it becomes to avoid the category of disease; there 
must be something toxic in the Christian tradition itself. So Rosemary 
Radford Ruether, in her 1974 monograph Faith and Fratricide, came to 
the unpopular conclusion that Christian anti-Semitism is "the left hand 
of Christology." The evidence of anti-Semitism in church history, she 
says, is too pervasive to be called accidental; it is symptomatic of 
disease, and the locus of the disease is the church's teachings about 
Jesus Christ. That is what makes it hard, perhaps impossible, for the 
church to do anything about it. 
James Carroll's book, Constantine's Sword, is every bit as rigorous 
and thorough as Ruether's book. Its difference is its strength; it is 
narrative history rather than theological analysis. Carroll, a novelist 
among other things, knows how to write a story so that the reader's 
interest does not lag in spite of the 600+ pages of text. History is 
intertwined with a personal narrative that infuses the story with passion 
and intensity. This is history that matters. 
Book Reviews 97 
Like Ruether, Carroll looks unblinkingly at all the evidence of 
Christian mistreatment of Jews. In this he is ferociously honest. He 
refuses to excuse the church, to minimize its actions, or to rationalize 
them. He has little patience with the recent expressions of regret by the 
Roman Catholic Church which insert a prophylactic space between the 
"children of the church" who were guilty of wrongdoing, and the 
"church as such" which can do no wrong. 
The book is long because it needs to be. The events, the policies, 
the passionate hatred, the tortured rationalizations of persecution and 
harassment pile up like ocean waves in a stonn, and the waves keep 
pounding century after century after century, until finally the tidal wave 
of the Holocaust, the brutal butchery of European Jewry, overwhelms 
not just Jews, but the whole continent of Europe, the world looking on, 
horrified, and the church itself. It is a story that cannot be abridged. 
There is no alternative to reading the whole thing, because one 
necessary truth of the story is precisely its extent. 
James Carroll is Roman Catholic: he grew up in a faithfully 
observant home, he was educated in Roman Catholic schools, trained 
in Roman Catholic seminaries, and ordained into the priesthood, which 
he eventually left. His faith and piety are as intense as his honesty, and 
the reader can only be in awe of the struggle between them as he seeks 
a way to be faithful both to his appalling narrative and to his deeply 
loved tradition. 
Is, then, Christian anti-Semitism a disease? Because Rosemary 
Radford Ruether is an academic theologian, one who is insulated from 
the frigid void by the styrofoam of abstractions that conduct neither 
heat nor cold, she can dare say that it is: Christian anti-Semitism is "the 
left hand ofChristology." But the story-teller has no such protection. So 
it is not surprising that James Carroll, after pushing the origin of anti-
Semitism back farther and farther to within touch of the originating first 
step of Christendom, stops short of the first generation, the Jewish 
followers of Jesus. These grief-stricken disciples searched for and 
found comfort in their holy Scriptures: "he was stricken, smitten by 
God and afflicted," "my God, my God, why have you foresaken me." 
This "prophecy historicized" became in the next generation of 
Christians, Gentile Christians, "history prophesied." Thus began the 
hijacking of Jewish tradition and the hostility to those "murderers of the 
prophets" and of Jesus. 
98 Consensus 
It didn't have to be that way. It was an accident, not a toxic disease. 
It is when Constantine raised up the cross as a sign to conquer the world 
that this misreading of Jesus' death became toxic for Jews. Within this 
culture they would be enemies by definition, for they were not only 
responsible for his death, they continued to refuse to acknowledge him 
as their promised Messiah. A living Jew was a threat to Christian 
self-understanding. 
It didn't - it doesn't - have to be this way, according to James 
Carroll. He ends his narrative with an ambitious plan for the reform of 
the church, his beloved church, which is his mother still. 
Glen Nelson 
Toronto, Ontario 
John Chrysostom 
Wendy Mayer and Pauline Allen 
London, UK and New York, NY: Routledge, 2000 
230 pages, $37.99 Softcover 
In 1908, Pope St. Pius X declared St. John Chrysostom to be the 
"patron saint of preachers." Chrysostom, a title of honour and affection 
meaning "Golden-mouth," was a fourth-century Eastern Church Father 
who has left a corpus of hundreds of homilies and numerous letters and 
treatises. In recent decades, new scholarly interest in the life and 
theology of Chrysostom has led to a variety of books and articles of 
high academic calibre. One of these recent publications is John 
Clllysostom, part of the "Early Church Fathers" series under the 
editorship of Carol Harrison of the University of Durham in the UK. 
I had the pleasure of meeting the authors of this new book in May 
of 2001 at the annual meeting of the Canadian Society of Patristic 
Studies during the "Learneds" conference at Laval University. Wendy 
Mayer and Pauline Allen are first-rate patristics scholars working at the 
Centre for Early Christian Studies of Australian Catholic University. 
This centre, under the direction of Pauline, is now the home for the 
International Association of Patristic Studies and hosts regular highly-
regarded conferences. The principal author, Wendy Mayer, is one of the 
world's leading Chrysostom scholars, and her careful research of tnany 
years duration is reflected in this readable and infonnative volume. 


Constantine\u27s sword: the church and the Jews

Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 27Issue 2 In Honour of the Women of the ELCIC Article 1511-1-2001Constantine's sword: the church and the JewsGlen NelsonFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusPart of the Practical Theology CommonsThis Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationNelson, Glen (2001) "Constantine's sword: the church and the Jews," Consensus: Vol. 27 : Iss. 2 , Article 15.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol27/iss2/1596 Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews James Carroll Boston, MA: Houghton Miffiin Company, 200 l 576 pages, $39.95 Hardcover Consensus Is historic Christian anti-Semitism an accident or a disease? Most informed people know something about the history of Jews within Christendom, about ghettos and shtetls, about pogroms and crusades, about blood libels and poisoned-well myths. Christian interpretation of this perverse history has struggled to make sense of it within the category of accident: unfortunate things "happened" because of the concatenation of particular phenomena - people of a certain type, events in a certain sequence, mistaken choices, missed opportunities - all the apparently random factors that go into a mid-air collision. Change any of the factors, and the "accident" would not have happened. There is no necessity binding the factors into an inescapable trajectory of disaster. An infectious disease is different. It is no accident that it spreads illness and death. Illness and death are of its nature. The less one knows about Christian anti-Semitism, the more it looks like an accident, an unfortunate happenstance requiring honest regret and sincere apology, which ought to be enough to end the matter. But the more one becomes aware of the extent of Christian anti-Semitic behavior, the harder it becomes to avoid the category of disease; there must be something toxic in the Christian tradition itself. So Rosemary Radford Ruether, in her 1974 monograph Faith and Fratricide, came to the unpopular conclusion that Christian anti-Semitism is "the left hand of Christology." The evidence of anti-Semitism in church history, she says, is too pervasive to be called accidental; it is symptomatic of disease, and the locus of the disease is the church's teachings about Jesus Christ. That is what makes it hard, perhaps impossible, for the church to do anything about it. James Carroll's book, Constantine's Sword, is every bit as rigorous and thorough as Ruether's book. Its difference is its strength; it is narrative history rather than theological analysis. Carroll, a novelist among other things, knows how to write a story so that the reader's interest does not lag in spite of the 600+ pages of text. History is intertwined with a personal narrative that infuses the story with passion and intensity. This is history that matters. Book Reviews 97 Like Ruether, Carroll looks unblinkingly at all the evidence of Christian mistreatment of Jews. In this he is ferociously honest. He refuses to excuse the church, to minimize its actions, or to rationalize them. He has little patience with the recent expressions of regret by the Roman Catholic Church which insert a prophylactic space between the "children of the church" who were guilty of wrongdoing, and the "church as such" which can do no wrong. The book is long because it needs to be. The events, the policies, the passionate hatred, the tortured rationalizations of persecution and harassment pile up like ocean waves in a stonn, and the waves keep pounding century after century after century, until finally the tidal wave of the Holocaust, the brutal butchery of European Jewry, overwhelms not just Jews, but the whole continent of Europe, the world looking on, horrified, and the church itself. It is a story that cannot be abridged. There is no alternative to reading the whole thing, because one necessary truth of the story is precisely its extent. James Carroll is Roman Catholic: he grew up in a faithfully observant home, he was educated in Roman Catholic schools, trained in Roman Catholic seminaries, and ordained into the priesthood, which he eventually left. His faith and piety are as intense as his honesty, and the reader can only be in awe of the struggle between them as he seeks a way to be faithful both to his appalling narrative and to his deeply loved tradition. Is, then, Christian anti-Semitism a disease? Because Rosemary Radford Ruether is an academic theologian, one who is insulated from the frigid void by the styrofoam of abstractions that conduct neither heat nor cold, she can dare say that it is: Christian anti-Semitism is "the left hand ofChristology." But the story-teller has no such protection. So it is not surprising that James Carroll, after pushing the origin of anti-Semitism back farther and farther to within touch of the originating first step of Christendom, stops short of the first generation, the Jewish followers of Jesus. These grief-stricken disciples searched for and found comfort in their holy Scriptures: "he was stricken, smitten by God and afflicted," "my God, my God, why have you foresaken me." This "prophecy historicized" became in the next generation of Christians, Gentile Christians, "history prophesied." Thus began the hijacking of Jewish tradition and the hostility to those "murderers of the prophets" and of Jesus. 98 Consensus It didn't have to be that way. It was an accident, not a toxic disease. It is when Constantine raised up the cross as a sign to conquer the world that this misreading of Jesus' death became toxic for Jews. Within this culture they would be enemies by definition, for they were not only responsible for his death, they continued to refuse to acknowledge him as their promised Messiah. A living Jew was a threat to Christian self-understanding. It didn't - it doesn't - have to be this way, according to James Carroll. He ends his narrative with an ambitious plan for the reform of the church, his beloved church, which is his mother still. Glen Nelson Toronto, Ontario John Chrysostom Wendy Mayer and Pauline Allen London, UK and New York, NY: Routledge, 2000 230 pages, $37.99 Softcover In 1908, Pope St. Pius X declared St. John Chrysostom to be the "patron saint of preachers." Chrysostom, a title of honour and affection meaning "Golden-mouth," was a fourth-century Eastern Church Father who has left a corpus of hundreds of homilies and numerous letters and treatises. In recent decades, new scholarly interest in the life and theology of Chrysostom has led to a variety of books and articles of high academic calibre. One of these recent publications is John Clllysostom, part of the "Early Church Fathers" series under the editorship of Carol Harrison of the University of Durham in the UK. I had the pleasure of meeting the authors of this new book in May of 2001 at the annual meeting of the Canadian Society of Patristic Studies during the "Learneds" conference at Laval University. Wendy Mayer and Pauline Allen are first-rate patristics scholars working at the Centre for Early Christian Studies of Australian Catholic University. This centre, under the direction of Pauline, is now the home for the International Association of Patristic Studies and hosts regular highly-regarded conferences. The principal author, Wendy Mayer, is one of the world's leading Chrysostom scholars, and her careful research of tnany years duration is reflected in this readable and infonnative volume. 

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Constantine\u27s sword: the church and the Jews

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