Were the Popes Against the Jews?: Tracking the Myths, Confronting the Ideologues
Michael Burleigh-- Fellow of the Royal Historical SocietyAuthor ofMoral Combat: Good and Evil in World War II"InThe New York Review of BooksOwen Chadwick, the distinguished historian of modern Christianity, wrote that David I. Kertzer'sThe Popes Against the Jews'makes a case that calls for an answer.' Until the publication of the present book that case had not been made, even though issues regarding the papacy and the Holocaust have in the past decade become more heated than ever before. In this carefully argued and brilliantly written work, Justus George Lawler provides that answer -- with a vengeance. He exposes the jumbled chronology, the doctored texts, and the rigged translations that constitute the shoddy underpinnings of the work of Kertzer and of his supportive admirers who are endeavoring to replace an authentic historical narrative with an ideologically driven polemic."Christopher J. Kauffman-- Past president of the American Catholic Historical Association, Author ofFaith and Fraternalism"Anyone reading only the introduction to Lawler's book will have a hard time putting it down. Its beginning pages set the stage for an engrossing work of literary detection which, chapter by chapter and clue by clue, discloses the stratagems intended to prove that the papacy was engaged in 'unholy war' against Jews. Equally as significant as refuting that bizarre accusation is the book's exploration of the nature of political and religious institutions -- more specifically, of the emergence and erosion of their foundational ideals. This theme is amplified in the final climactic chapters which focus on Judaism and Catholicism, the U.S. and the heritage of slavery, and Israel and the Palestinians. The book is thus a continuation ofPopes and Politics: Reform, Resentment, and the Holocaustby an author about whom Rabbi Jacob Neusner wrote inThe Jerusalem Post:'Justus George Lawler embodies the reformation of the Catholic Church, which perpetually renews and reminds it of its vocation."