Constantine’s Sword

The Church and the Jews; A History

By: James Carroll

Narrated by: John Lescault

National Jewish Book Award
National Book Award
New York Times best seller

In a bold and moving book that is sure to spark heated debate, the novelist and cultural critic James Carroll maps the profoundly troubling 2,000-year course of the Church’s battle against Judaism and faces the crisis of faith it has provoked in his own life as a Catholic. More than a chronicle of religion, this dark history is the central tragedy of Western civilization, its fault lines reaching deep into our culture.

The Church’s failure to protest the Holocaust—the infamous “silence” of Pius XII—is only part of the story: the death camps, Carroll shows, are the culmination of a long entrenched tradition of anti-Judaism. From Gospel accounts of the death of Jesus on the cross, to Constantine’s transformation of the cross into a sword, to the rise of blood libels, scapegoating, and modern anti-Semitism, Carroll reconstructs the dramatic story of the Church’s conflict not only with Jews but with itself. Yet in tracing the arc of this narrative, he implicitly affirms that it did not necessarily have to be so. There were roads not taken, heroes forgotten; new roads can be taken yet. Demanding that the Church finally face this past in full, Carroll calls for a fundamental rethinking of the deepest questions of Christian faith. Only then can Christians, Jews, and all who carry the burden of this history begin to forge a new future.

Drawing on his well-known talents as a storyteller and memoirist, and weaving historical research through an intensely personal examination of conscience, Carroll has created a work of singular power and urgency. Constantine’s Sword is a brave and affecting reckoning with difficult truths that will touch every listener.

©2002 James Carroll. For more information, visit JamesCarroll.net (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

important book

This book is too important to let any minor narration difficulties get in the way of listening to it.
Published in 2001 before books were being read and listened to digitally, I've been hoping for it to come out in audible form for years. I have read parts of the book several times, but it's such a tome, I think I never got all the way through it. I''m happy to start listening to it from the beginning. When they announced it was coming out on Audible, I immediately pre-ordered it.
I was disappointed when they kept postponing the release. They could have had several people read different parts of it and made it go faster.
The narrator has some glitches at the beginning, but I found the book listenable so far.
Carroll's writing is personal and insightful, vulnerable and honest. He faces difficult issues directly, exposing anti-Jewish bias in the history, scripture, and actions of the church, all while maintaining a clear position of love, concern, and respect for this institution he served as a priest.
As a pastor in a main line Protestant denomination, I was concerned that the focus on the Catholic Church would not feel relevant to my experience, but much of the history of the Catholic Church is, of course, the history of all Christian churches. Even the parts of the book that focused on suggestions for a 3rd Vatican council felt relevant and interesting.
I'm only at the beginning of listening to the book this time, but I have listened enough to sense that the narration is not an obstacle to understanding or appreciating the brilliance of this important book.

Listens fine on 1.0x

I just want prospective listeners to know that despite some reviews, this book listens fine as long as you don’t listen to it with any acceleration. It seems like maybe some error related to how the reader pronounces words makes it sound ridiculous when one tries to listen at anything above 1.0 X.

Well-researched and insightful

James Carroll is brave and insightful. He does a fabulous job of educating us on history we would prefer not to know. The book is packed with insights into the evolution of the Church and its doctrines. For Audible, I wish the reader wasn’t quite so robotic.

Horrific narration of an fine work

It would be better to have a robot read this than the man who unfortunately does it. This is an important work and I’m disgusted that this man read this.

Brilliant book, terrible narration

This is an absolutely brilliant book. Well researched and well written. It’s an important book. I wish everyone would read it. (In full disclosure I am a James Carroll fan already.)
When I say, “I wish everyone would read it,” I mean everyone except the narrator! This honestly sounds like audible took a million snippets of the narrator’s voice and then spliced them together making this sound like an odd, automated, computer “reading” the book. It’s so distracting that (to me) it is unlistenable!
To be clear, I strongly recommend the book, just not this audio version.