Constantine's Sword

This astonishing exploration of the dark side of Christianity follows former priest James Carroll on a journey of remembrance and reckoning.

Carroll, a National Book Award winner, is a practicing Catholic whose search for the truth leads him to confront persecution and violence in the name of God - today and in the Church's past. He discovers a terrible legacy that reverberates across the centuries: from the Emperor Constantine's vision of the cross as a sword and symbol of power, to the rise of genocidal antisemitism, to modern day wars sparked by religious extremism.

At its heart, Constantine's Sword is a detective story, as Carroll journeys into his own past (his father was a U.S. Air Force General who helped prepare for nuclear war) and into the wider world, where he uncovers evidence of church- sanctioned violence against non-Christians. At the Air Force Academy, he and director Oren Jacoby expose how some evangelicals are proselytizing inside our country's armed forces and reveal the dangerous consequences of religious influence on American foreign policy.

Warning of what happens when military power and religious fervor are joined, Constantine's Sword asks the timely question: is the fanaticism that threatens the world today fueled by our own deeply held beliefs?