Justus George Lawler has been the editor of five publishing imprints and two quarterly and two monthly journals. He is the author, editor, and translator of a score of books on religious and cultural issues, including Celestial Pantomime: Poetic Struc
Michael Burleigh
-- Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
Author of Moral Combat: Good and Evil in World War II
"In The New York Review of Books Owen Chadwick, the distinguished
historian of modern Christianity, wrote that David I. Kertzer's The
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 of Faith 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 of Popes and Politics: Reform, Resentment, and
the Holocaust by an author about whom Rabbi Jacob Neusner wrote in
The Jerusalem Post: 'Justus George Lawler embodies the reformation
of the Catholic Church, which perpetually renews and reminds it of
its vocation." Catholic Historical Review
"Lawler's study . . . takes on the serious methodological flaws not
only in Kertzer's book but also in others of the genre such as
those by Daniel Goldhagen and John Cornwell. Lawler is both correct
and effective in surfacing and debunking the antipapal ideology
that lies behind such studies." Catholic News Service
"Effectively rebuts the negative critique of the popes of the 19th
and 20th centuries. . . . Lawler makes a significant contribution
to what has become an ongoing discussion among scholars and
journalists." Conscience
"Lawler has done meticulous scholarship on some grim chapters in
Catholic history, providing the reader with useful information from
primary sources and depicting the complexity that should be present
in any history of the Vatican."
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