James Carroll

Examines the two-thousand-year relationship between Christianity and Judaism, examining the long entrenched tradition of anti-Semitism that culminated in the Church's failure to protest the Holocaust during World War II.

The Church and the Jews

Constantine's Sword

“Courageous and inspiring.”—Karen Armstrong, author of The Case for God “James Carroll takes us to the heart of one of the great crises of our times.”—Stephen Greenblatt, author of The Swerve An eloquent memoir by a former priest and National Book Award–winning writer who traces the roots of the Catholic sexual abuse scandal back to the power structure of the Church itself, as he explores his own crisis of faith and journey to renewal NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY James Carroll weaves together the story of his quest to understand his personal beliefs and his relationship to the Catholic Church with the history of the Church itself. From his first awakening of faith as a boy to his gradual disillusionment as a Catholic, Carroll offers a razor-sharp examination both of himself and of how the Church became an institution that places power and dominance over people through an all-male clergy. Carroll argues that a male-supremacist clericalism is both the root cause and the ongoing enabler of the sexual abuse crisis. The power structure of clericalism poses an existential threat to the Church and compromises the ability of even a progressive pope like Pope Francis to advance change in an institution accountable only to itself. Carroll traces this dilemma back to the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages, when Scripture, Jesus Christ, and His teachings were reinterpreted as the Church became an empire. In a deeply personal re-examination of self, Carroll grapples with his own feelings of being chosen, his experiences as a priest, and the moments of doubt that made him leave the priesthood and embark on a long personal journey toward renewal—including his tenure as an op-ed columnist at The Boston Globe writing about sexual abuse in the Church. Ultimately, Carroll calls on the Church and all reform-minded Catholics to revive the culture from within by embracing anti-clerical, anti-misogynist resistance and staying grounded in the spirit of love that is the essential truth at the heart of Christian belief and Christian life.

How the Catholic Church Lost Its Soul

The Truth at the Heart of the Lie

Traces the evolution of the belief that Jerusalem is the center of the Christian, Jewish and Muslim religious worlds and argues that this fixation is a main cause of the modern-day Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

How the Ancient City Ignited Our Modern World

Jerusalem, Jerusalem

God, My Father, and the War That Came Between Us

An American Requiem

An indictment of the Bush administration's war policies argues that war was an inappropriate response to the activities of Osama bin Laden, states that the president exploited the nation's fears, and predicts a failure in the war in Iraq. By the author of Constantine's Sword and An American Requiem. 40,000 first printing.

Chronicles of an Unjust War

Crusade

The best-selling author of Constantine's Sword explores how believers can reclaim transcendent faith in spite of the Holocaust and other modern tragedies by gaining inspiration from the humble aspects of Jesus' life. 50,000 first printing.

The Son of God for the Secular Age

Christ Actually

Anthony Bennett

This first book by the much-loved stars of TV's VILLAGE VETS is the unforgettable, hilarious, heartwarming and hair-raising adventures of two country vets, the animals they treat and the characters they meet. Best mates since they met on their first day at uni, Anthony Bennett and James Carroll both dreamed of working with animals from the time they were knee high. Little did these down-to-earth country vets know their dreams would find them unlikely TV stars, their larrikinism and genuine affection for the people they meet and the animals they treat winning the hearts of Australians everywhere. Village Vets takes us back to their early years, from their hilarious escapades at university, to their intrepid adventures in the UK and the Australian bush, to setting up their own practice in an idyllic coastal town in New South Wales. But if you thought country towns were sleepy, think again. Anthony and James have done it all - operated on guinea pigs and euthanased fish; treated a horse that had lost its foot and fixed a prolapsed cow with a piece of polypipe. And then there was the day that involved four calvings, one severed artery, one fox-bait poisoning, one skewered kelpie, one snakebite and 480 kilometres of driving ... An Australian version of James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small, Village Vets will by turns charm you, make you laugh out loud and bring a tear to your eye. Join Anthony and James as they take you on an unforgettable journey into the heartache and joy of life as country vets, who are so often up to their armpits in ... something!

Village Vets

An evaluation of America's impact on Catholicism draws on historical, social, and religious sources to trace the church's transformation from a reactionary monolith to an institution in which the deepest aspects of faith are being called into question; in an account that discusses the author's own work as a priest. By the author of Constantine's Sword.

Practicing Catholic

James Carroll’s urgent, masterly Jerusalem, Jerusalem uncovers the ways in which the city became a transcendent fantasy that ignites religious fervour unlike anywhere else on earth. He shows how the conflicts within this holiest of cities underscore an important point of history: that religion and violence fuel each other. In Carroll’s provocative reading of the deep past, the Bible came into being as an act of resistance to the violence that threatened Jerusalem from the start. Tracing the richly intertwined threads of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim history, Carroll illuminates the European fixation on a heavenly Jerusalem as the spark of both anti-Semitism and racist colonial contempt. The holy wars of the Knights Templar burned apocalyptic mayhem into the Western mind; now, heavenly Jerusalem defines the American imagination — and always, the earthly city smoulders. Jerusalem fever, inextricably tied to Christian fervour, is the deadly third party to the Arab–Israeli wars. Understanding it is the key that unlocks world history, and gives us our best chance to re-imagine peace. Jerusalem, Jerusalem is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the current disharmony of modern-day Jerusalem and its historical underpinnings. To the standard set by Constantine’s Sword, here again is a ‘rare book that combines searing passion … with a subject that has affected all our lives’ (Chicago Tribune).

how the ancient city ignited our modern world

Traces the evolution of the belief that Jerusalem is the center of the Christian, Jewish and Muslim religious worlds and argues that this fixation is a main cause of the modern-day Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Reprint. 20,000 first printing.

From the author of the National Book Award–winning An American Requiem and the classic bestseller Constantine’s Sword comes the story of Colman Brady, an Irish farmer who involves himself in the Irish rebellion of the early 1920s and later escapes to Boston where he rises to and falls from political power and seeks a second chance through the life of his son. Richly imagined scenes, a complex plot, and masterful writing combine fact and fiction; characters like Mayor Curley of Boston and the Kennedys come to life in this classic saga of Irish-America as seen through the eyes of one revolutionary as he makes the daring choices that will shape not only his fate, but his beloved son’s.

A Novel

Mortal Friends

From National Book Award-winning writer James Carroll comes a novel of the timeless love story of Peter Abelard and Héloïse, and its impact on a modern priest and a Holocaust survivor seeking sanctuary in Manhattan. Father Michael Kavanagh is shocked when he sees a friend from his seminary days at the altar of his humble parish in upper Manhattan—a friend who was forced to leave under scandalous circumstances. Compelled to reconsider the past, Father Kavanagh wanders into the medieval haven of the Cloisters and stumbles into a conversation with a lovely and intriguing docent, Rachel Vedette. Having survived the Holocaust and escaped to America, Rachel remains obsessed with her late father’s greatest scholarly achievement: a study demonstrating the relationship between the famously discredited monk Peter Abelard and Jewish scholars. Feeling an odd connection with Father Kavanagh, Rachel shares with him the work that cost her father his life. At the center of these interrelated stories is the classic romance between the great philosopher Abelard and his intellectual equal, Héloïse. For Rachel, Abelard is the key to understanding her people’s place in history. And for Father Kavanagh, the controversial theologian may be a doorway to understanding the life he himself might have had outside the Church.

The Cloister

A New York Times bestselling and widely admired Catholic writer explores how we can retrieve transcendent faith in modern times Critically acclaimed and bestselling author James Carroll has explored every aspect of Christianity, faith, and Jesus Christ except this central one: What can we believe about—and how can we believe in—Jesus in the twenty-first century in light of the Holocaust and other atrocities of the twentieth century and the drift from religion that followed? What Carroll has discovered through decades of writing and lecturing is that he is far from alone in clinging to a received memory of Jesus that separates him from his crucial identity as a Jew, and therefore as a human. Yet if Jesus was not taken as divine, he would be of no interest to us. What can that mean now? Paradoxically, the key is his permanent Jewishness. No Christian himself, Jesus actually transcends Christianity. Drawing on both a wide range of scholarship as well as his own acute searching as a believer, Carroll takes a fresh look at the most familiar narratives of all—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Far from another book about the “historical Jesus,” he takes the challenges of science and contemporary philosophy seriously. He retrieves the power of Jesus’ profound ordinariness, as an answer to his own last question—what is the future of Jesus Christ?—as the key to a renewal of faith.

An incisive analysis of the Pentagon, the military, and their vast, frequently hidden influence on American life argues that the Pentagon has, since its inception, operated beyond the control of any force in government or society, drawing on extensive personal experience, exhaustive research, and numerous interviews to prove the author's contention. 100,000 first printing.

The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power

House of War

Supply of heroes

Louis Wain Home Sweet Home Journal Diary: 125 Pages

Girl with a Pearl Earring Johannes Vermeer

An incisive analysis of the Pentagon, the military, and their vast, frequently hidden influence on American life argues that the Pentagon has, since its inception, operated beyond the control of any force in government or society, drawing on extensive personal experience, exhaustive research, and numerous interviews to prove the author's contention. Reprint.

Norman Tanner

Brings together the key documents of the Second Vatican Council so that readers may better understand the Church's positions on different issues, including its relationship to the secular world, human rights, and the liturgy.

The Essential Texts

Vatican II

El Pentágono, ese Ministerio mundial de la Guerra, es hoy un poder incontrolado que puede decidir la suerte de nuestras vidas. Su ascenso se fraguó en las décadas de la guerra fría, cuando los miedos de uno y otro bando llevaron a una acumulación insensata de armas de destrucción masiva; pero su poder ha seguido creciendo una vez terminada ésta, en una evolución irracional que ha llevado a que Estados Unidos, que gastan más en defensa que todos los demás estados del mundo sumados, sean incapaces de imponerse a un puñado de insurgentes en Afganistán, Somalia o Irak. Nadie podía contarnos mejor la paranoica historia de la Casa de la guerra, y la de los hombres que la han dirigido, que alguien que conoce bien sus interioridades como James Carroll, hijo de un general que trabajo más de veinte años en el Pentágono. Su libro, ha dicho Tracy Kidder "es a la vez una prodigiosa síntesis histórica y una lectura apasionante, que produce fascinación, y a veces terror".

James Carroll

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