James P. Carroll
Encyclopedia
James Carroll is a noted author, historian and journalist and Roman Catholic dissident.
, and his wife Mary. At the time, his father was a Special Agent of the FBI, which he remained until being seconded to, and later commissioned by, the US Air Force as an Intelligence Officer in 1948. After this, Carroll was raised in the Washington, D.C. area and in Germany. He was educated at Washington’s Priory School and at an American high school, the H. H. Arnold, in Wiesbaden, Germany He attended Georgetown University
before entering St. Paul’s College, the Paulist Fathers
’ seminary
, where he received his B.A. and M.A. degrees.
He was ordained to the priesthood in 1969. Carroll served as Catholic chaplain at Boston University
from 1969 to 1974. During that time, he studied poetry with George Starbuck
and published books on religious subjects and a book of poems. He was also a columnist for the National Catholic Reporter
(1972–1975) and was named Best Columnist by the Catholic Press Association. For his writing on religion and politics he received the first Thomas Merton Award from Pittsburgh’s Thomas Merton Center
in 1972. Carroll left the priesthood in 1974 to become a writer, and, in the same year, was a playwright-in-residence at the Berkshire Theater Festival.
, and his op-ed column appears weekly in the Boston Globe. He won the 1996 National Book Award
for nonfiction for An American Requiem, a memoir of his relationships with his father, the American military, and the Catholic Church.
He is the author of other books on religion and politics, including House of War, which won the first PEN-Galbraith Award. Mr. Carroll's other works include the novels Secret Father, The City Below, Memorial Bridge, Prince of Peace, Mortal Friends, and Madonna Red, in addition to various plays and Forbidden Disappointments, a book of poetry published in 1974. Carroll's work has received the Melcher Book Award, the James Parks Morton Interfaith Award
, and National Jewish Book Award in History, and has been frequently been named among the Notable Books of the Year by the New York Times.
Carroll has been a Shorenstein Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
and a Fellow at the Center for the Study of Values in Public Life at the Harvard Divinity School
. He is a trustee of the Boston Public Library
, a member of the Advisory Board of the International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life at Brandeis University
, and a member of the Dean’s Council at the Harvard Divinity School. Carroll is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
, and is a member of the Academy’s Committee on International Security Studies. He worked on his 2006 history of the Pentagon, House of War, as a Scholar-in-Residence at the Academy. Carroll is also a Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at Suffolk University
, where he wrote his latest book, Practicing Catholic, published in 2009.
and treatment of Jews, titled Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews (2001). In this work, he connects many personal experiences, especially his boyhood trips to Catholic pilgrimage sites in Rhineland
Germany
, and as a seminarian and priest, to the places and events that he analyzes. The book was a New York Times Best-Seller, although it got mixed reviews as some saw it as demonizing the Church and Constantine I
, the first Christian emperor of Rome. The book also earned Carroll his second National Book Award
as well as several accolades from national newspapers, including the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times
.
Carroll co-wrote and presented the 2007 documentary Constantine's Sword
with filmmaker Oren Jacoby
.
, rabbi David G. Dalin
, professor at the Roman Catholic Ave Maria University
:
Youth, education, and service as a priest
Carroll was born in Chicago, the second of five sons of late Air Force General Joseph CarrollJoseph Carroll
Lieutenant General Joseph Francis Carroll was the founding director of the Defense Intelligence Agency , and founding director of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations .-Youth & Education:...
, and his wife Mary. At the time, his father was a Special Agent of the FBI, which he remained until being seconded to, and later commissioned by, the US Air Force as an Intelligence Officer in 1948. After this, Carroll was raised in the Washington, D.C. area and in Germany. He was educated at Washington’s Priory School and at an American high school, the H. H. Arnold, in Wiesbaden, Germany He attended Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
before entering St. Paul’s College, the Paulist Fathers
Paulist Fathers
The Missionary Society of Saint Paul the Apostle, better known as the Paulist Fathers, is a Roman Catholic religious society for men founded in New York City in 1858 by Servant of God Fr. Isaac Thomas Hecker in collaboration with Fr. George Deshon, Fr. Augustine Hewit, and Fr. Francis A. Baker....
’ seminary
Seminary
A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...
, where he received his B.A. and M.A. degrees.
He was ordained to the priesthood in 1969. Carroll served as Catholic chaplain at Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
from 1969 to 1974. During that time, he studied poetry with George Starbuck
George Starbuck
George Edwin Starbuck was an American poet of the neo-formalist school.-Life:...
and published books on religious subjects and a book of poems. He was also a columnist for the National Catholic Reporter
National Catholic Reporter
The National Catholic Reporter is the second largest Catholic newspaper in the United States; its circulation reaches ninety-seven countries on six continents. Based in midtown Kansas City, Missouri, NCR was founded by Robert Hoyt in 1964 as an independent newspaper focusing on the Catholic Church...
(1972–1975) and was named Best Columnist by the Catholic Press Association. For his writing on religion and politics he received the first Thomas Merton Award from Pittsburgh’s Thomas Merton Center
Thomas Merton Center
The Thomas Merton Center is the home of the largest collection of the works of Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani. It is located on the second floor of the W.L...
in 1972. Carroll left the priesthood in 1974 to become a writer, and, in the same year, was a playwright-in-residence at the Berkshire Theater Festival.
Literary career
Carroll’s plays have been produced at the Berkshire Theater Festival and at Boston’s Next Move Theater. In 1976 he published his first novel, Madonna Red, which was followed by nine others. He has written for numerous publications, including The New YorkerThe New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, and his op-ed column appears weekly in the Boston Globe. He won the 1996 National Book Award
National Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...
for nonfiction for An American Requiem, a memoir of his relationships with his father, the American military, and the Catholic Church.
He is the author of other books on religion and politics, including House of War, which won the first PEN-Galbraith Award. Mr. Carroll's other works include the novels Secret Father, The City Below, Memorial Bridge, Prince of Peace, Mortal Friends, and Madonna Red, in addition to various plays and Forbidden Disappointments, a book of poetry published in 1974. Carroll's work has received the Melcher Book Award, the James Parks Morton Interfaith Award
Interfaith Center of New York
The Interfaith Center of New York is a secular educational non-profit organization founded in 1997 by the Very Reverend James Parks Morton...
, and National Jewish Book Award in History, and has been frequently been named among the Notable Books of the Year by the New York Times.
Carroll has been a Shorenstein Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
and a Fellow at the Center for the Study of Values in Public Life at the Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States. The School's mission is to train and educate its students either in the academic study of religion, or for the practice of a religious ministry or other public...
. He is a trustee of the Boston Public Library
Boston Public Library
The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was the first publicly supported municipal library in the United States, the first large library open to the public in the United States, and the first public library to allow people to...
, a member of the Advisory Board of the International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life at Brandeis University
Brandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...
, and a member of the Dean’s Council at the Harvard Divinity School. Carroll is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
, and is a member of the Academy’s Committee on International Security Studies. He worked on his 2006 history of the Pentagon, House of War, as a Scholar-in-Residence at the Academy. Carroll is also a Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at Suffolk University
Suffolk University
Suffolk University is a private, non-sectarian, university located in Boston, Massachusetts and with over 16,000 students it is the third largest university in Boston...
, where he wrote his latest book, Practicing Catholic, published in 2009.
Constantine's Sword
Carroll wrote history of Christian, specifically Roman Catholic, anti-SemitismAnti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
and treatment of Jews, titled Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews (2001). In this work, he connects many personal experiences, especially his boyhood trips to Catholic pilgrimage sites in Rhineland
Rhineland
Historically, the Rhinelands refers to a loosely-defined region embracing the land on either bank of the River Rhine in central Europe....
Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and as a seminarian and priest, to the places and events that he analyzes. The book was a New York Times Best-Seller, although it got mixed reviews as some saw it as demonizing the Church and Constantine I
Constantine I
Constantine the Great , also known as Constantine I or Saint Constantine, was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. Well known for being the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, Constantine and co-Emperor Licinius issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed religious tolerance of all...
, the first Christian emperor of Rome. The book also earned Carroll his second National Book Award
National Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...
as well as several accolades from national newspapers, including the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
.
Carroll co-wrote and presented the 2007 documentary Constantine's Sword
Constantine's Sword (film)
James Carroll's Constantine's Sword, or Constantine's Sword, is a 2007 historical documentary film on the relationship between the Catholic Church and Jews. Directed and produced by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Oren Jacoby, the film is inspired by former priest James P...
with filmmaker Oren Jacoby
Oren Jacoby
Oren Jacoby is a director and producer of documentary films, including Constantine's Sword , "Sister Rose's Passion" , The Shakespeare Sessions , Stage on Screen: The Topdog Diaries , The Beatles Revolution , and Sam Shepard: Stalking Himself...
.
Practicing Catholic book
In a 2009 book, he denounced Pope Benedict XVI as “the chief sponsor of the new Catholic fundamentalism, enforced with no regard for the real cost to human beings”.Criticisms
In The Myth of Hitler's PopeThe Myth of Hitler's Pope
The Myth of Hitler's Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis is a book written by American historian and Rabbi David G. Dalin and published in 2005 by Regnery Publishing.- Background :...
, rabbi David G. Dalin
David G. Dalin
David G. Dalin is an American Conservative rabbi and historian, is the author, co-author, or editor of ten books on American Jewish history and politics, and Jewish-Christian relations. He is currently a professor of history and politics at Ave Maria University, in Florida...
, professor at the Roman Catholic Ave Maria University
Ave Maria University
Ave Maria University or AMU is a private Catholic university in southwest Florida, United States, founded in 2003. The university moved to its permanent campus, situated in the planned town of Ave Maria, east of Naples, Florida, in August 2007...
:
- "anti-papal polemics of ex-seminarians like Garry WillsGarry WillsGarry Wills is a Pulitzer Prize-winning and prolific author, journalist, and historian, specializing in American politics, American political history and ideology and the Roman Catholic Church. Classically trained at a Jesuit high school and two universities, he is proficient in Greek and Latin...
and John CornwellJohn Cornwell (writer)John Cornwell is an English journalist and author, and a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. He is best known for various books on the papacy, most notably Hitler's Pope; investigative journalism; memoir; and the public understanding of science and philosophy. More recently he has been concerned...
(author of Hitler's PopeHitler's PopeHitler's Pope is a book published in 1999 by the British journalist and author John Cornwell that examines the actions of Pope Pius XII during the Nazi era, and explores the charge that he assisted in the legitimization of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime in Germany, through the pursuit of a...
), of ex-priests like James CarrollJames P. CarrollJames Carroll is a noted author, historian and journalist and Roman Catholic dissident.-Youth, education, and service as a priest:...
, and or other lapsed or angry liberal Catholics exploit the tragedy of the Jewish people during the Holocaust to foster their own political agenda of forcing changes on the Catholic Church today."
List of published work
- Madonna Red (1976) (novel)
- Mortal Friends: A Novel (1978)
- Fault Lines (1980) (novel)
- Family Trade (1982) (novel)
- Prince of Peace (1984) (novel)
- Supply of Heroes (1986) (novel)
- Firebird (1989) (novel)
- Memorial Bridge (1991) (novel)
- The City Below (1994) (novel)
- An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War That Came Between Us (1996)
- Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews - A HistoryConstantine's SwordConstantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews - A History is a book by James Carroll, a former priest, which documents the role of the Roman Catholic Church in the long European history of anti-Semitism...
(2001). ISBN 978-0395779279 - Toward a New Catholic Church: The Promise of Reform (2002). ISBN 978-0618313372
- Secret Father: A Novel (2003). ISBN 978-0618152841
- Crusade: Chronicles of an Unjust War (2004). ISBN 978-0805078435
- House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power (2006). ISBN 978-0618187805
- Practicing Catholic (2009). ISBN 978-0618670185
- Jerusalem, Jerusalem (2011). ISBN 978-0547549057
External links
- James Carroll's website
- Website for the film, Constantine's Sword
- James Carroll on James Forrestal, David Martin, June 9, 2006
- Voices on Antisemitism Interview with James Carroll from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- 'Present and Past', review of Toward a New Catholic Church in the Oxonian Review