A Moral Reckoning [Paperback]

In his controversial Hitler's Willing Executioners, Goldhagen examined the issues Who did what & Why did they do it? causing uproar by revealing the extent to which ordinary continental Europeans were involved, with the noble exception of particularly Bulgarians, Danes, Finns and Swedes. To an admirable degree, Italians also successfully sabotaged the Nazi effort. Here the author addresses culpability & morality and their political & social implications through an empirical emphasis on the Catholic Church & clergy, not lay Catholics. Much of this analysis could be applied to European Protestant churches, clergy & lay members too but this study intends to be exemplary rather than comprehensive. It also serves as a general framework on how to conduct a moral reckoning. Moral investigation is carried out in Part 1: Clarifying the Conduct & Part 2: Judging the Capability, whilst Part 3: Repairing the Harm looks at moral repair & restitution.

The introduction includes critiques of Hannah Arndt's and Sartre's opinions. Starting at the source, the foundational documents of Christianity, Goldhagen mentions the absurdity of the accusation that all Jews of that time, some millions spread throughout the Mediterranean area, could be held responsible for killing Christ. Even more ludicrous is the notion that all of them, in unison, assumed such guilt, simultaneously declaring all their descendants culpable too. These New Testament books contain further outrageous slanders as explored in more detail by William Nicholls in Christian Antisemitism and Jules Isaac in The Teaching of Contempt.

Goldhagen first explores the suicidal pathology of antisemitism in Europe & its legacy of oppression, expulsion and murder. The 1st recorded instance of mass murder occurred in Alexandria in 414 whilst the First Crusade of 1096 established a pattern of periodic massacres that culminated in the Shoah/Holocaust and continued even after the end of World War II. The Reformation made little difference as Martin Luther was amongst the worst of antisemites. This record of horror was mostly absent from the history books until last century when James Carroll, Edward Flannery, David Kertzer, Franklin Littell, Malcolm Hay and others started revealing the nasty secret.

The attitudes & actions of Pius XI & XII are scrutinized, followed by a dissection of the defenders of Pius XII's strategies of exculpation. Then Goldhagen looks at the behavior of various countries' national Catholic churches. The evidence is plentiful & painful to read. For example, in 1937 the Vatican journal `Civiltá Cattolica' openly discussed the annihilation of Jews as an option. Part 2 deals with culpability, outlining the matrix of the Church's failures compared to the exemplary conduct of the Danish Lutheran Church. It proceeds with the moral reckoning predicated upon the notions that individuals are responsible for their actions, that it is proper to do so, that clear & fair criteria must be applied and that judgments must be transparent in their reasoning. The author covers various types of culpability, affirmative offenses, offenses of omission & postwar offenses. It emerges that the distinction between antisemitism and "anti-Judaism" is nonsense.

Part 3 opens with examples of the unhinged rage that these revelations elicit in the defenders of the Church. Goldhagen condemns anti-Catholicism, especially the habit of criticizing Catholics based only on their religious identification. Yet the Church as a political & social institution is subject to the same evaluative standards applied to other institutions and individuals. It has failed to admit its specific offenses or punish the perps, neglected making amends with the victims and never properly identified the source of its offenses or gone far enough to correct them. Decades later, Pope John Paul II and some national churches officially acknowledged guilt and took steps towards reconciliation.

No encyclical has appeared, only the brief statements in Nostra Aetate and We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah (1998). Issues like restitution, telling the truth and repentance are discussed against the actions of the Carmelite nuns at Auschwitz in the 1980s and the hostile statements of Cardinal Glemp. And John Paul II in 2001 by the side of Bashar Assad, passively listening to the Syrian dictator's venomous antisemitic libels and incitement to violence broadcast to a TV audience of millions. The pope continued his visit without protest. A determined & sustained program to combat antisemitism would have contributed much to prevent or counteract its current resurgence, at least in the West and amongst Catholic communities elsewhere.

Goldhagen's argument in favor of the separation of church & state is of course correct but his suggestion that the Catholic Church give up its political ambitions & Vatican State will never happen. Nor will it renounce its claims of offering the only way to salvation or papal infallibility. Neither will it sincerely repudiate the doctrine of supersessionism. Referring also to political Islam and secular salvationist movements like Communism, the author puts it so well: "... the road to earthly hell has been paved by a claimed monopoly on the road to heaven."

In the afterword, Goldhagen relates the reactions to this book. The attacks began even before publication, following an article in The New Republic. In both Europe & the USA, church apologists distorted the contents & defamed the messenger. There were some welcome exceptions amongst Catholic & Protestant theologians and laity. It's no surprise that the author's bold stance on the antisemitism of the New Testament & its false witness that saddled an entire people with collective, intergenerational guilt proved the most sensitive issues. Myth is powerful & the full truth about Christianity's treatment of Jews is devastating. Yet, no matter how harrowing, it would be better for Christians to get to know the truth; it sets one free.

71 Pages of notes containing detailed bibliographical references and further valuable information bear witness to meticulous research. Italicized entries in the index refer to pages with illustrations and the book concludes with a list of illustration credits. A Moral Reckoning is a magisterial work of impeccable scholarship and an absorbing read. Although Goldhagen presents measured arguments with restraint, the book's content will shock Christians while its directness and honesty will offend fanatics.