Synopses & Reviews
“The Inquisition is a dark mark in the history of the Catholic Church. But it was not the first inquisition nor the last, as Cullen Murphy shows in this far-ranging, informed, and (dare one say?) witty account of its reach down to our own time, in worldly affairs more than ecclesiastical ones.” — Margaret OBrien Steinfels, former editor,
CommonwealThe Inquisition conducted its last execution in 1826 — the victim was a Spanish schoolmaster convicted of heresy. But as Cullen Murphy shows in this provocative new work, not only did its offices survive into the twentieth century, in the modern world its spirit is more influential than ever.
Gods Jury encompasses the diverse stories of the Knights Templar, Torquemada, Galileo, and Graham Greene. Established by the Catholic Church in 1231, the Inquisition continued in one form or another for almost seven hundred years. Though associated with the persecution of heretics and Jews — and with burning at the stake — its targets were more numerous and its techniques more ambitious. The Inquisition pioneered surveillance and censorship and “scientific” interrogation. As time went on, its methods and mindset spread far beyond the Church to become tools of secular persecution. Traveling from freshly opened Vatican archives to the detention camps of Guantánamo to the filing cabinets of the Third Reich, Murphy traces the Inquisition and its legacy.
With the combination of vivid immediacy and learned analysis that characterized his acclaimed Are We Rome?, Murphy puts a human face on a familiar but little-known piece of our past, and argues that only by understanding the Inquisition can we hope to explain the making of the present.
Review
In the world that created the Bible, there were no female scholars and theologians, yet in the past four decades, owing to such stunning discoveries as the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi texts, as well as advances in historical understanding and the rise of feminism, a generation of scholars has found new ways to interpret the Scriptures and the societies that created them -- exploring avenues traditionally ignored by male-dominated religious study. Surveying the new scholarship and the personalities of those who have created it, The Word According to Eve not only explores afresh the history of our religions but offers exciting new challenges to our sense of worship. A Peter Davison Book."Provocative and lucid . . . an engaging book." Boston Globe
"In The Word According to Eve, such startling scholarship is unveiled for us by a guide and translator with good humor, graceful prose and formidable intellect." The Los Angeles Times
"The Word According to Eve is a disarming, intelligent, and timely book for the broad audience . . . sly and enjoyable." The New York Times
Review
"In his typically compelling style.....Murphy powerfully shows that the impulse to inquisition can quietly take root in any system—civil or religious—that orders our lives." --
Publishers Weekly "Entertaining, lively chronicle of the Inquisition, touching on a wide variety of issues across the centuries." --
Kirkus Reviews "Cullen Murphy's account of the Inquisition is a dark but riveting tale, told with luminous grace. The Inquisition, he shows us, represents more than a historical episode of religious persecution. The drive to root out heresy and sin, once and for all, is emblematic of the modern age and a persisting danger in our time."
--Michael J. Sandel, author of Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?
"From Torquemada to Guantanamo and beyond, Cullen Murphy finds the 'inquisorial Impulse' alive, and only too well, in our world. His engaging romp through the secret Vatican archives shows that the distance between the Dark Ages and Modernity is shockingly short. Who knew that reading about torture could be so entertaining?"
--Jane Mayer, author of The Dark Side.
"God's Jury is a reminder, and we need to be constantly reminded, that the most dangerous people in the world are the righteous, and when they wield real power, look out. At once global and chillingly intimate in its reach, the Inquisition turns out to have been both more and less awful than we thought. Murphy wears his erudition lightly, writes with quiet wit, and has a delightful way of seeing the past in the present."
--Mark Bowden, author of Guest of the Ayatollah
"When virtue arms itself - beware! Lucid, scholarly, elegantly told, Gods Jury is as gripping as it is important."
--James Carroll, author of Jerusalem, Jerusalem
"There will never be a finer example of erudition, worn lightly and wittily, than this book. As he did in Are We Rome?, Cullen Murphy manages to instruct, surprise, charm, and amuse in his history of ancient matters deftly connected to the present."
--James Fallows, National Correspondent for The Atlantic
"The Inquisition is a dark mark in the history of the Catholic Church. But it was not the first inquisition nor the last as Cullen Murphy shows in this far-ranging, informed, and (dare one say?) witty account of its reach down to our own time in worldly affairs more than ecclesiastical ones."
-- Margaret O'Brien Steinfels, former editor, Commonweal
Review
"Whatever the solution, in the end, unsderstanding the conflict is half the battle. It's a battle Carroll wins in this historical tome." Boston Magazine
"Carroll, whose love for the catholic church...is not only matched by a lovingly critical eye...but an urgent plea that Rome set another course." Boston Globe
"A triumph, a tragic tale beautifully told. . .a welcome throwback to an age when history was a branch of literature. . ."--Charles R. Morris Atlantic Monthly
"Fascinating, brave and sometimes infuriating." Time Magazine
"This searingly honest book is Augustinian in the way Carroll searches his own soul. . ."--Garry Wills, author of Saint Augustine and Papal Sin
"This book is a history written to change the way people live."--Talk
"A deeply religious book."--Bishop Krister Stendahl, former Dean of Harvard Divinity School
"For two thousand years Jews have been longing for a Christian who would understand their experience."--Susannah Heschel, Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College
"Sweeping. . . This magisterial work will satisfy Jewish and Christian readers alike, challenging both to a renewed conversation." Publishers Weekly, Starred
Review
"Are We Rome? is just about a perfect book . . . I wish every politician would spend an evening with this book." --James Fallows, international correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly
"Elegant, learned, and graceful . . . this is a disturbing book brimming with hope." --E.J. Dionne Jr., syndicated columnist, and author of Why Americans Hate Politics
"Cullen Murphy has written a book of remarkable richness . . . brisk, learned, and highly entertaining." --Samantha Power, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Problem From Hell
"This is a lovely book . . . It may be the most important thing written about the U.S. government in many years." --Thomas E. Ricks, author of Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, and military correspondent for The Washington Post
"Cullen Murphy gives a thoughtful, entertaining look around." --Richard Brookhiser, author of What Would the Founders Do?
Synopsis
The rise and fall of ancient Rome has been on American minds from the beginning of our republic.Today we focus less on the Roman Republic than on the empire that took its place. Depending on whos doing the talking, the history of Rome serves as either a triumphal call to action or a dire warning of imminent collapse. In Are We Rome? the esteemed editor and author Cullen Murphy reveals a wide array of similarities between the two empires: the blinkered, insular culture of our capitals; the debilitating effect of bribery in public life; the paradoxical issue of borders; and the weakening of the body politic through various forms of privatization. Murphy persuasively argues that we most resemble Rome in the burgeoning corruption of our government and in our arrogant ignorance of the world outside -- two things that must be changed if we are to avoid Romes fate.
Synopsis
A narrative history of the Inquisition, and an examination of the influence it exerted on contemporary society, by the author of ARE WE ROME?
Synopsis
“
God’s Jury is a reminder, and we need to be constantly reminded, that the most dangerous people in the world are the righteous, and when they wield real power, look out. At once global and chillingly intimate in its reach, the Inquisition turns out to have been both more and less awful than we thought. Murphy wears his erudition lightly, writes with quiet wit, and has a delightful way of seeing the past in the present.” — Mark Bowden, author of
Guest of the Ayatollah “Cullen Murphy’s account of the Inquisition is a dark but riveting tale, told with luminous grace. The Inquisition, he shows us, represents more than a historical episode of religious persecution. The drive to root out heresy and sin, once and for all, is emblematic of the modern age and a persisting danger in our time.” — Michael J. Sandel, author of Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?
“When virtue arms itself, beware! Lucid, scholarly, elegantly told, God’s Jury is as gripping as it is important.” — James Carroll, author of Jerusalem, Jerusalem
“From Torquemada to Guantánamo and beyond, Cullen Murphy finds the “inquisitorial impulse’ alive, and only too well, in our world. His engaging romp shows that the distance between the Dark Ages and modernity is shockingly short.” — Jane Mayer, author of The Dark Side
Synopsis
In a bold and moving book that is sure to spark heated debate, the novelist and cultural critic James Carroll maps the profoundly troubling two-thousand-year course of the Churchand#8217;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 Churchand#8217;s failure to protest the Holocaust and#151; the infamous and#147;silenceand#8221; of Pius XII and#151; 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 Constantineand#8217;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 Churchand#8217;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 reader.
Synopsis
The rise and fall of ancient Rome has been on American minds from the beginning of our republic. Today we focus less on the Roman Republic than on the empire that took its place. Depending on who's doing the talking, the history of Rome serves as either a triumphal call to action or a dire warming of imminent collapse.
The esteemed editor and author Cullen Murphy ventures past the pundits' rhetoric to draw nuanced lessons about how America might avoid Rome's demise. Working on a canvas that extends far beyond the issue of an overstretched military, Murphy reveals a wide array of similarities between the two empires: the blinkered, insular culture of our capitals; the debilitating effect of venality in public life; the paradoxical issue of borders; and the weakening of the body politic though various forms of privatization. He persuasively argues that we most resemble Rome in the burgeoning corruption of our government and in our arrogant ignorance of the world outside -- two things that are in our power to change.
In lively, richly detailed historical stories based on the latest scholarship, the ancient world leaps to life and casts our own contemporary world in a provocative new light.
About the Author
In this rare book that combines searing passion . . . with a subject that has affected all of our lives” (Chicago Tribune), the novelist and cultural critic James Carroll maps the two-thousand-year course of the Churchs battle against Judaism and faces the crisis of faith it has sparked in his own life as a Catholic. Fascinating, brave and sometimes infuriating” (Time), this dark history is more than a chronicle of religion. It is the central tragedy of Western civilization, its fault lines reaching deep into our culture.
Drawing on his well-known talents as a storyteller and memoirist, Carroll has created a deeply felt work, a book that measures the sweep of history against [his] experience as a man of the church” (San Francisco Chronicle). A courageous and affecting reckoning with difficult truths that will touch every reader, CONSTANTINE'S SWORD is a history written to change the way people live” (Talk).James Carroll was raised in Washington, D.C., and ordained to the Catholic priesthood in 1969. He served as a chaplain at Boston University from 1969 to 1974, then left the priesthood to become a writer. His New York Times Bestseller Constantine's Sword is now the subject of an acclaimed documentary, directed by Oren Jacoby and distributed nationally by First Run Features and Red Envelope Entertainment.
Table of Contents
Contents Part one The Cross at Auschwitz 1. Sign of Folly 3 2. Stumbling Block to Jews 13 3. The Journey 19 4. My Motherand#8217;s Clock 24 5. Passion Play 31 6. My Rabbi 37 7. Between Past and Future 58 Part two New Testament Origins of Jew Hatred 8. My Great-Uncle 67 9. Jesus, a Jew? 71 10. The Threshold Stone 89 11. Destroy This Temple 100 12. The Healing Circle 122 13. Paul, the Martyr of Shalom 135 14. Parting of the Ways 144 15. The Lachrymose Tradition: A Cautionary Note 150 Part three Constantine, Augustine, and the Jews 16. The Heart of This Story Is a Place 155 17. The Story of Constantine 165 18. The Cross and the Religious Imagination 172 19. The Vision of Constantine 178 20. The True Cross 195 21. Augustine Trembling 208 22. The Seamless Robe 220 23. The Danger of Ambivalence 229 Part four From Crusades to Conversionism 24. The War of the Cross 237 25. The Incident in Trier 246 26. Mainz Anonymous 257 27. The Blood Libel 268 28. Anselm: Why God Became Man 278 29. Abelard and Hand#233;lodse 290 30. Thomas Aquinas: Reason Against the Jews 301 Part five The Inquisition: Enter Racism 31. One Road 313 32. My Inquisition 319 33. Convivencia to Reconquista 322 34. Convert-Making: The Failure of Success 333 35. Expulsion in 1492 343 36. The Roman Ghetto 363 37. The Religious Response of the Jews 385 38. Shema Yisrael! 391 Part six Emancipation, Revolution, and a New Fear of Jews 39. Karl Marx, Second Son of Trier 401 40. Spinoza: From Rabbis to Revolution 406 41. Voltaire and the False Promise of Emancipation 414 42. Jew as Revolutionary, Jew as Financier 426 43. Revolution in Rome: The Popeand#8217;s Jews 439 44. Alfred Dreyfus and La Croix 450 45. The Uses of Antisemitism 464 46. Lucie and Madeleine 467 Part seven The Church and Hitler 47. From Christian Anti-Judaism to Eliminationist Antisemitism 475 48. Setting a Standard: The Church Against Bismarck 479 49. Eugenio Pacelli and the Surrender of German Catholicism 495 50. The Seamless Robe in 1933 501 51. Maria Laach and Reichstheologie 511 52. Pius XII: Last Days of the Roman Ghetto 523 53. Edith Stein and Catholic Memory 536
Part eight A Call for Vatican III 54. The Broad Relevance of Catholic Reform 547 55. Agenda for a New Reformation 559 56. Agenda Item 1: Anti-Judaism in the New Testament 561 57. Agenda Item 2: The Church and Power 570 58. Agenda Item 3: A New Christology 577 59. Agenda Item 4: The Holiness of Democracy 588 60. Agenda Item 5: Repentance 599 Epilogue: The Faith of a Catholic 605 Acknowledgments 619 Chronology 622 Notes 628 Bibliography 696 Index 720