James Carroll

Courageous and inspiring.Karen Armstrong, author of The Case for GodJames 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 Awardwinning 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 WEEKLYJames 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 renewalincluding 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.

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 aboutand how can we believe inJesus 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 allMatthew, 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 questionwhat is the future of Jesus Christ?as the key to a renewal of faith.

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 sanctua

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 acumulacion insensata de armas de destruccion masiva: pero su poder ha seguido creciendo una vez terminada esta, en una evolucion irraciaonal que ha llevado a que Estados Unidos, que gastan mas en defensa que todos los demas estados del mundo sumados, sean incapaces de imponerse a un puñado de insurgentes en Afganistan, Somalia o Irak. Nadie podia 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 mas de veinte años en el Pentagono. Su libro, ha dicho Tracy Kidder es a la vez una prodigiosa sintesis historica y una lectura apasionante, que produce fascinacion, y a veces terror.

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, and the drift from religion that followed? The key lies in Jesus Jewishness. What New York Times bestselling author James 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. Starting with Bonhoeffers question written in his Nazi cell What is bothering me incessantly is the question Who Christ actually is for us today?, he retrieves the power of Jesus profound ordinariness as an answer both to this question and as the key to a renewal of faith for us all.