God's Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World by Cullen Murphy

May 18, 2013 Bill Kerwin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, religion, politics

Murray's book is a brief, impressionistic survey of the various Inquisitions pursued by the Catholic Church: the Medieval (mid-13th century to roughly the mid-14th)), the Spanish (late 15th Century to mid-19th), and the Roman (mid-sixteenth century to the present). The Medieval was waged against the Cathari of Southern France, the Spanish against heretical “conversos” (former Muslims and Jews), and the Roman against the explosion of suspicious print materal in the post-Gutenberg age. In addition...more
Murray's book is a brief, impressionistic survey of the various Inquisitions pursued by the Catholic Church: the Medieval (mid-13th century to roughly the mid-14th)), the Spanish (late 15th Century to mid-19th), and the Roman (mid-sixteenth century to the present). The Medieval was waged against the Cathari of Southern France, the Spanish against heretical “conversos” (former Muslims and Jews), and the Roman against the explosion of suspicious print materal in the post-Gutenberg age. In addition, Murray deals extensively with the infrequently mentioned Inquisition in the Southwestern United States, a natural extension of the Spanish Inquisition to “conversos” among both the emigrant and indigenous populations.

Murray possesses a clear, forthright style, and reveals a good eye for the illuminating image, the illustrative anecdote. Best of all is his artful, apparently off-hand way of drawing parallels between Catholic and recent historical and contemporary practices, such as the maintenance of extensive archives (the Third Reich), the prurient minutiae of detailed depositons (Kenneth Starr's pursuit of the Lewinsky affair) and the handing over of condemned heretic to the secular arm for execution (the U.S. Government's practice of “extraordinary rendition”.)

This technique of Murray's, however, is more than an effective stratagem for keeping his reader awake and rooted in the present. It is also central to his thesis: although it is common for us to think of inquisitions as primitive survivals rooted in superstition, they are only possible in complex urban societies with sophisticated communication and information resources such as reliable postal and transportation systems, and extensive, well-indexed archives. Prejudice and popular madness inevitably lead to pogroms, but only an efficient modern bureaucracy can produce the systematic evils of an inquisition or a holocaust.

I like Murray's approach because--in addition to a gift for choosing useful details and illuminating facts--he seems to have no axe to grind. This is important because most writers on the inquisition seem to be eager to prove either how bloody and horribly evil they were, or to demonstrate that their evil has been grossly exaggeration, and that what evil there was is primarily due to the excesses of secular governments, not the responsibility of Holy Mother Church. Murray, however, does not take sides, and his work is clearer and more persuasive because of it.

My principal problem with the book is that the first two-thirds, which treat the historical inquisitions in detail using contemporary illustrations) is much better than the last third, which deals more directly with the nature of archives and inquisitorial practices in the modern age. It seems to me that Murray had a lot of interesting material left over, but had no clear idea how to effectively integrate it, and therefore crammed it into the last few chapters of his book.

Still, give it a look. You'll learn a good deal, hear more than a few good stories, and receive a fascinating glimpse into some of the most closely-guarded archives of all time.(less)

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Mar 04, 2013 Stewart rated it 5 of 5 stars

Cullen Murphy’s 2012 book, “God’s Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World” is not a dry academic tome on a phenomenon that happened centuries ago. It is a lively and well-written look at the Inquisition and how its intellectual rationale forms the basis for the mass repression and state-sponsored violence that plagued the 20th century and continues into this century.
“There were many inquisitions,” Murphy explains, dividing this intermittent 700-year religious persecution spons...more Cullen Murphy’s 2012 book, “God’s Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World” is not a dry academic tome on a phenomenon that happened centuries ago. It is a lively and well-written look at the Inquisition and how its intellectual rationale forms the basis for the mass repression and state-sponsored violence that plagued the 20th century and continues into this century.
“There were many inquisitions,” Murphy explains, dividing this intermittent 700-year religious persecution sponsored by the Catholic church into the medieval, Spanish, and Roman inquisitions. The Inquisition can be traced to 1231 when Pope Gregory IX appointed the first “inquisitors of heretical depravity” as papal agents.
“The inquisitors were aided in their work by the papal bull 'Ad extirpanda,' promulgated in 1252, which justified and encouraged the use of torture, wielding philosophical arguments that have never wanted for advocates and that would eventually echo in the White House and the Justice Department.”
The medieval inquisition targeted the Cathar heresy, the more secular Spanish inquisition went after converted Jews whose conversion was suspect, and the Roman inquisition had victims that included Giordano Bruno and Galileo.
The Spanish inquisition spread across the Atlantic Ocean to New Spain, including what is now New Mexico and California. In one of the more interesting asides, Murphy writes, "The sole trial held in Spanish California involved a man named Ramon Sotilo, in Los Angeles, who was accused ‘of having expressed views on religion that not even a Protestant would dare hold.’”
The most important aspect of the book is the examination of how and why the Inquisition started and why its secular successors, including Nazi Germany, Stalinist Soviet Union, fascist Spain, to name a few, used its rationales and brutal techniques. In his last chapter, “With God on Our Side: The Inquisition and the Modern World,” Murphy turns from history to philosophy and political science, examining the 20th and 21st centuries and their rampant intolerance, censorship, torture, and moral certainty. (Numerous names from the past 80 years come to mind: the SS, Stasi, Gulag, the Dirty War in Argentina, Pinochet in Chile, the use of torture in many Middle East and African countries, and Guantanamo.)
“Meanwhile, there is the phenomenon itself to consider – not the recurring debate over the historical Inquisition but the recurring behavior that brings inquisitions into existence. Call it the inquisitorial impulse. It springs from certainty – from unswerving confidence in the rightness of one's cause.”
“In a world of moral certainty, the unthinkable becomes permissible.” Or, to put it more plainly, the ends justify the means.
“Moral certainty ignites every inquisition and then feeds it with oxygen.”
Murphy’s point is, I think, that the impulses, justifications, bureaucracies, the will to gain power over others, and the dangerous belief in one’s own moral certainty that propelled the Inquisition are alive and well now. Not just 200 or 700 years ago, not just in other countries but in the 21st century and in the United States.
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Feb 19, 2013 Ann rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

Quick: what do Monty Python, Tomas de Torquemada, Guantanamo, the Cathars, Ferdinand and Isabella, Galileo, Queens Elizabeth and Mary, and Pope Benedict XVI all have in common? The answer, of course, is "The Inquisition," and as the subtitle of this book indicates, Cullen Murphy believes that that long-ago horror had profound effects on us today.

God's Jury is that rare and excellent piece of non-fiction, scholarly yet breezily and beautifully written by someone who believes that he has something...more

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May 13, 2012 Brian rated it 3 of 5 stars

The author provided an interesting history of the Inquisition, giving it credit for developing an archival system for storage and retrieval of documents unmatched in its time and which served as the forerunner to all library systems since. I knew that its purpose was to root out heresy, where the church felt it needed to be purged. I did not know that local Inquisitions, such as those of Spain and Portugal, used the Inquisition apparatus to rid their countries of jews and "crypto-jews," people o...more

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Apr 18, 2012 Sheri rated it 4 of 5 stars

"No one expects the Spanish Inquisition." At least so says Monty Python. And who knew that the Spanish inquisition was one of many inquisitions? In this fascinating history, Cullen Murphy tells us not only about the inquisition in Spain, and many others that are less well known -- certainly not well known enough to be the subject of Monty Python jokes about the "comfy couch" torture anyway. Murphy doesn't stop with history though, and brings the reader up to date. Right up to Guantanamo and the...more

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Mar 31, 2012 Miles rated it 4 of 5 stars

God's Jury is an interesting, if rather too thinly detailed, history of the Inquisition, combined with an extensive contextualization of Inquisitorial institutions in history, from the Church to England, Germany, the Soviet Union and right down to the present day US government and Guantanamo Bay. I enjoyed it for its historical presentation of the Inquisition, and for the historical contextualization. Murphy reminds us that there were really three Inquisitions, the Medieval, the Spanish and the...more God's Jury is an interesting, if rather too thinly detailed, history of the Inquisition, combined with an extensive contextualization of Inquisitorial institutions in history, from the Church to England, Germany, the Soviet Union and right down to the present day US government and Guantanamo Bay. I enjoyed it for its historical presentation of the Inquisition, and for the historical contextualization. Murphy reminds us that there were really three Inquisitions, the Medieval, the Spanish and the Roman, each with its own orrery of horrors. We get some good detail about inquisitorial practices and the social and political historical context of their enactment, and learn a great deal about modern scholarly and theological debates about what the Inquisition really was and meant.

That said, I found this to be a flawed book, in a moral sense. Murphy seems determined to not only describe the Inquisition but to normalize it. By lengthy descriptions of other despotic regimes, ancient and modern, which practiced horrible tortures, relished bureaucratic cataloging of heresy, deviance and political subversion, and obsessed over the private lives of each and every citizen, we are given an impression that the Inquisition's greatest significance is merely perhaps that it was among the first in a long line of modern tortuous bureaucratic pursuers of deviance. This seems, on balance, far too kind, far too understanding. It gets worse as we come to understand that, while the Inquisition no longer exists in name, there exists in the modern day Roman Catholic Church a direct institutional descendant of the Office of the Inquisition, and that in some sense the contemporary Catholic Church and its offices are in a line of direct continuity with the Inquisition. Understanding this, the effort to say "but of course everybody does it" begins to sound suspiciously close to an effort to justify, and not merely to understand.

I don't know what I would do if I were a Catholic, as Murphy seems to be, but I don't think I would be able to live in a relationship to an institution that is unable to separate itself more fundamentally from its evil past, or to feel a part of an institution that is so intimately connected to this history. Germany after all went through a flawed but real de-Nazification, but it is not clear to me that the Catholic church has de-Inquisitioned itself in the same sense.

There is a fine line between historically contextualizing evil, and making peace with it, and I'm not comfortable that Murphy stands on what I consider to be the right side of that line.

In the end Murphy presents a history that is plausible in its details, but misguiding. For someone truly interested in Inquisition history, there must surely be better books (and I'll seek one now, and am grateful for Murphy's reintroduction to this is topic.) As an effort to understand what the Inquisition was, and is, in a deeper historical and theoretical sense, God's Jury is not satisfying to me, nor do I think it would be satisfying to anyone who does not, at a basic level, see the Catholic Church as a fundamentally sound and reasonable institution. This book is ultimately about being Catholic when the Catholic Church has this history. It's a solution to a special problem that Catholics must have, but it is not my problem and may not be your problem either. Non-Catholics have the freedom to see the modern Church for what it is, an organization that is theologically contiguous with the men and institutions who burned Jews and other heretics at the stake, who sought out deviance and discovered it, whether it was there or not, and which has never, really, fully renounced its intolerance for divergent beliefs, but instead merely altered, perforce, its methods and strategies. The modern Catholic Church is the still the very same Church of the Inquisition, and this reality is something that God's Jury does us a favor in acknowledging, even highlighting, but frustratingly seems to avoid confronting or challenging. It is well worth reading, but it may leave you disturbed less for the horrors that it presents than by the author's presentation of the modern Catholic Church, an institution that attributes those horrors not to itself, but merely to its misguided followers. This position, ultimately, is unacceptable to me, and I don't really feel confident that the author finds it as unacceptable as I do.
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Jan 22, 2012 Whitley rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is an exceptional and important vision of the Inquisition that illustrates the relationship between the justifications being offered for torture in the modern United States. What is so appalling, is that the Spanish Inquisition, after its initial fury under Tomas Torquemada, became significantly more moderate than, for example, the process of extreme rendition as it has been practiced in our time. It is startling to see the examples he offers of the parallels between Inquisitorial interroga...more

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Dec 02, 2011 Jason Golomb rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, renaissance, history

“God’s Jury” author Cullen Murphy spent a lot of time in archives while researching this book. He writes extensively on the mad amounts of Inquisition-related documentation that exists world wide, much of which is only recently being uncovered and researched. Some documents are surprisingly damning in their straightforward accounting of the mechanisms of its own atrocities.

What Cullen makes clear is that the Inquisitions (and they can be categorized into multiple phases) weren't just an effort...more “God’s Jury” author Cullen Murphy spent a lot of time in archives while researching this book. He writes extensively on the mad amounts of Inquisition-related documentation that exists world wide, much of which is only recently being uncovered and researched. Some documents are surprisingly damning in their straightforward accounting of the mechanisms of its own atrocities.

What Cullen makes clear is that the Inquisitions (and they can be categorized into multiple phases) weren't just an effort in blind religious passion and uncontrolled violence (there were certainly those aspects at times). The discipline and energy that went into the attempts to control people, their beliefs, and their minds was extensive and planned. Cullen writes, “Repressive regimes are recordkeeping regimes. Repression demands administration.”

Cullen succeeds at consolidating hundreds of years of history into a readably, but concise and broad, accounting of the Catholic Church’s Inquisition(s) and how glimmers of their activities still shine in our modern world.

My personal view of the Inquisition was formed by Mel Brooks in his classic “History of the World, Part 1”. Torquemada and his Spanish torturers gaily sing along with jews in mid-torture who happily play the role of background vocalists. Cullen even references this pop culture image and notes that rather than the affable Mel Brooks comic character; Torquemada was uncompromising and "full of pitiless zeal".

The Inquisitions grew out of the decentralization of Europe following the fall of the Roman Empire. And while secular institutions supported the investigations into heresy and their related punishments, it was decidedly the non-secular institutions, which propelled the machinery that drove the Inquisitions.

There were three distinct inquisitorial periods – the Medieval, The Spanish and the Roman. As offshoots of the second two, there developed a worldwide Inquisition as well; something that was felt from the Spanish conquests in the New World, to colonies as far flung as Africa and Asia. Generally speaking, each of these Inquisition ‘flavors’ followed its predecessor in time. But more importantly, each successive Inquisition became more organized, more thoughtful, and more coordinated. And while the organizational capabilities and necessities continued to grow, the root core focus of each Inquisition continued to be religion. Even beyond religion as an institution, the root of the severity of these conflicts stems from an individual or group’s rabid belief in its own moral certainty, and the equally violent belief that all alternatives are flat out wrong.

Cullen ties specific medieval, Roman and Spanish Inquisition examples to contemporary analogies. Most of the comparisons make sense, though I found some a bit obtuse. His contemporary references fall well short of being essays, or politically preachy, though he does spend a bit more time comparing the inquisitional behavior with the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo. Unsettlingly, many of the interrogation techniques at the U.S. base in Cuba are near exact replicas of some techniques used hundreds of years ago that we now call ‘torture’. Far from being overly political, I found Cullen’s representations to be evenhanded and well documented.

While the majority of Cullen’s book focuses on the historical aspects of the Inquisitions, he spends a good amount of ink relating history to what we find in our own contemporary mindset. And religion, forever connected to its historical forbearer, remains at the core. Cullen writes, “For most people in the developed world, memories of outright religious warfare, once a gruesome fact of life, have long been buried. The past decade, with its ominous references to a “clash of civilizations” between Islam and the West, has revived them.”

What Cullen’s book does better than anything else is synthesize and contextualize the Inquisition. It’s a short read…only 250 pages before the notes and bibliography.
In wrapping up his work, Cullen revisits a renovated building at the Vatican that acts as the Inquisition’s vast repository and research facility. It’s been completely modernized since his last visit and he reflects on the last half century of academics surrounding this translucent time period.

“…Independent scholars have added texture and nuance to the seven-hundred-year story of the Inquisition. They have put it into social context. They have documented its unhappy consequence but also shown is limitations – the wide gap between plans and performance, ambitions and competence. The Inquisition emerges in a somewhat fuller light…It attempted to codify its practices and place restrictions on its behavior. In other ways, the Inquisition emerges as more horrifying than ever – because it could persist for so long in such a mindless way, sustained and perpetuated by larger forces that no one could quite perceive, let alone understand, much less control. At the same time, it comes across as a bureaucracy like any other subject to the same myopic imperatives, the same petty ambition sand animosities that one finds in ‘Dilbert’ or ‘The Office’.”

It’s this relatively recent work which Cullen deftly ties together in “God’s Jury”. The book is notated in great detail and Cullen references a plethora of independent and original sources. And through it’s strong academic credibility; the book is an extremely interesting and smooth read. The book is not merely informative, it’s enlightening, interesting and engaging. (less)

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May 02, 2013 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars

God’s Jury is a fast paced, sometimes humorous and generally well-written romp through history examining the concept of the Inquisition. When I picked it up, I assumed it was just about the Inquisition. While it certainly covers this, it moves beyond it and touches on related issues like censorship and surveillance as well. Cullen Murphy ignores chronology and thematic organization in favor of exploring connected ideas in very rapid succession. You find yourself hopscotching through centuries an...more God’s Jury is a fast paced, sometimes humorous and generally well-written romp through history examining the concept of the Inquisition. When I picked it up, I assumed it was just about the Inquisition. While it certainly covers this, it moves beyond it and touches on related issues like censorship and surveillance as well. Cullen Murphy ignores chronology and thematic organization in favor of exploring connected ideas in very rapid succession. You find yourself hopscotching through centuries and around the world moving from a 13th century French village to an East German file system to the description of a book in Rome in as much time as it takes to read that. However, this method is highly effective and forces readers to focus less on the history of the Inquisition and more on how its ideas and methods spread and transformed lives and the path of history.

Cullen Murphy, fairly early in God’s Jury, makes the statement that he wanted to approach the subject neither attacking the Catholic Church or defending it, but exploring the motivations and ideas of the Inquisition. He does a fairly good job of this—he tends to err on the side of attack, but on numerous occasions presents reasons why people acted why they did, and reminds readers that the Inquisition makes logical sense in its place and time, and that we’re looking through a lens of the 21st century. Unfortunately trying to be unbiased towards the Church doesn’t mean this is an unbiased book, and Cullen Murphy’s seeming obsession with connecting the Inquisition to Guantanamo Bay and events relating to the War on Terror gets old really fast. This is very much a problem because the book races through the 18th century in a couple of lines, provides a brief anecdote about Napoleon and a few references to the end of the Inquisition in 19th century Spain then ends up in our time. There are a handful of references to the Nazis, and about as many to the Cold War. The Dirty War gets a single mention as does Franco, and several other regimes that contain obvious outgrowths of the Inquisition get a sentence or two. This is a major missed opportunity and the book feels like it is lacking a large section. There are also issues with the way he presents the information on our own time. I’m not against the idea to a point, and he does provide some very clear connections. In one passage, for example, he quotes portions of an Inquisitor’s guide to torture techniques alongside the US Army’s guide to interrogations on the exact same procedures and methods to stark effect. Several other times, he compares experiences of medieval townspeople to modern detainees. However, the final quarter of the book turns into a heavy handed attempt to do some Bush bashing and sweepingly condemn nearly every action on the War on Terror. Murphy evidently visited Guantanamo and pads this section out with countless anecdotes. Is the iguana population on the island somehow relevant to the story? Only in Murphy’s mind… There are also numerous occasions in which minor facts thrown in as asides are factually incorrect. Murphy, at one point, repeats the often said but factually incorrect line that Pope Benedict’s red shoes are Prada. They aren’t. At another point, he gets a first name wrong—something I only found out when I went online to find out more information about an event. It really struck me in this book that Murphy needed a good fact checker to clean up minor details (major facts seem to be correct) and an editor to keep him on track.

In short—portions of this book are very well written and very much worthwhile. However, other portions are quite badly written. I recommend skimming the parts where he takes up modern politics and enjoying the rest.
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Jun 22, 2012 Kimberly rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, religious-history, arcives

Read this for the Towson branch of the Baltimore County Public Library's History Book Club. I did not feel well enough to go to the actual Book Club and discuss the book... :-( ...but thoroughly enjoyed this book. I loved all the information on archives and how the records of the Inquisition were scattered, destroyed, preserved, and recaptured throughout history. As a historian, I find all the parallels drawn between the Inquisition(s) and current events to be a bit anachronistic. But as a gener...more

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Jan 03, 2013 Harley Gee rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, religion

I never thought of the Inquisition as anything but a glaring example of wrongheadedness of censorship from a distant time. But Murphy offers a lot more. As subtitle states, Murphy builds the case for the pervasive influence of the Inquisition in shaping not only religious doctrine but in the development the modern state, particularly as it relates to security in recent and current times.

He segments the historical stages of the Inquisition into first the creation of a formal organization for det...more I never thought of the Inquisition as anything but a glaring example of wrongheadedness of censorship from a distant time. But Murphy offers a lot more. As subtitle states, Murphy builds the case for the pervasive influence of the Inquisition in shaping not only religious doctrine but in the development the modern state, particularly as it relates to security in recent and current times.

He segments the historical stages of the Inquisition into first the creation of a formal organization for detecting and countering heresy in Italy in the 13th century. The Cathar heresy is successfully countered and suppressed and the Dominican order supplies the manpower to discover and route out heretics. The next segment is the Spanish Inquisition which culminates in the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492; an easy date to remember. Jews who converted to Christianity were not expelled. But so called conversos were held in suspicion that they were not true converts, and they might be secretly maintaining Jewish traditions. A final segment, the Roman Inquisition, is organized to counter the Protestant reformation, the heresy of Martin Luther and others in the 16th century.

Throughout the history of the Inquisition records are kept and carefully maintained. Those that survive the centuries provide some of the best and often the only written record of those far off times. They form an invaluable source of the details of day to day life.

The book ends with an analysis of the role the Inquisition plays in our modern world. The establishment of a formal bureaucracy for tracking suspicious individuals, for implementing censorship, for enforcing rules owes much to the traditions established by the Inquisition. Murphy points out the disturbing parallels between our current security organizations, from the FBI to Guantanamo and practices including torture, e.g. Water boarding and electronic surveillance. The language employed by torturers, such as 'enhanced interrogation' has startling similarity to the language used by Inquisitors and their church masters to define away any moral unease.

The Inquisition - its not just for the history books. Overall I am most impressed by Murphy's scholarship and conclusions. Who would of thought the Inquisition had relevance today?(less)

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Jan 31, 2012 Webster Bull rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: faith

I don’t know about you, but I want to understand the Inquisition. I’m only four years a convert, and still in love with the Catholic Church, so I want to understand why anyone would not love it. It’s like falling in love with a girl at school and then hearing things about her in the locker room. You want to get to the bottom of things.

By my count, the Church has received four big black marks from non-Catholic historians and kibitzers. I understand two of them: the Crusades (no issue) and the pri...more

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Mar 14, 2012 Don rated it 5 of 5 stars

Very interesting premise that is flawlessly documented. The information on the Inquisitions (there were several) alone is worth reading. The parallels to modern events are as chilling as Orwell's 1984. During an interview the author speculated if someone in the US during the 50's was told that in the near future torture would be sanctioned by law they would be appalled. Yet, thanks to the Bush administration, that's exactly what happened.

During an interview with NPR the author says, "There isn't...more

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Jan 26, 2013 Philip rated it 3 of 5 stars

Inquisition Fun Facts: There were really three Inquisitions: the Medieval Inquisition (1241), the Spanish Inquisition (late 15th C.), and the Roman Inquisition (16th C.)
The Medieval was set against the Cathars of France. Cathars were dualists who believed that a good God could not be responsible for the eveil in the world. So, Evil mush have been a separate creation. (Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code invokes the Cathars).
The Spanish was run almost entirely by the King and Queen of Spain (Fer. and Isabe...more

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Feb 02, 2012 Dan Petegorsky rated it 2 of 5 stars

Meh. For me this one should have been either a lot more or a lot less. I’d expected a more illuminating account of what we now know about the Inquisitions, with lessons for today. But the actual historical sections are pretty cursory, while the contemporary parts are all too familiar for anyone who follows the news. It’s more or less a long essay on how the inquisitional impulse continues in the bureaucratized national security state, and how strongly religious and political intolerance continue...more

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Mar 21, 2012 Karen Cox rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: history buffs.

Recommended to Karen by: National Public Radio

Murphy provides a fair-minded survey of the various Inquisitions for the non-expert reader. (That would be me.) His main point in the book is that Inquisitions are essentially modern and not some holdover from the days of superstitions. Reliable communication over long distances and reliable methods of record - keeping were necessary for the Inquisitions to exist in the first place, and their existence encouraged more and better communication and records. One of the best ironies ever is that alm...more

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Sep 22, 2012 David Bird rated it 3 of 5 stars

Another in the unending genre of over-extended New Yorker articles: the method of inserting the author's experience should be taught as a choice, not a default. In this case, I wanted either more or less of it. We don't get enough of his experience to understand why it was a compelling topic, and just describing the nice paneling and bookshelves in a professor's office doesn't make his arguments more or less viable.

The territory is interesting. Murphy suggests that bureaucratic instincts played...more

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Mar 29, 2012 Alexis rated it 3 of 5 stars

Echoes of the Inquisition (Roman, Spanish, etc.) have always been with us, including the United States' version in Guantanamo. Something that I'd hadn't considered and that Murphy points out, is the bureaucratic nature of an Inquisition and the tendency of a bureaucy to be self-perpetuating. I found the latter part of the book where Murphy talks about modern times to be the most interesting. The opening up of some of the Inquisition archives in the Catholic Church in recent years provide insight...more

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May 09, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arts-and-historical

“The Inquisition is a dark mark in the history of the Catholic Church. But it was not the first inquisition nor the last, as Cullen Murphy shows in this far-ranging, informed, and (dare one say?) witty account of its reach down to our own time, in worldly affairs more than ecclesiastical ones.” — Margaret O’Brien Steinfels, former editor, Commonweal

The Inquisition conducted its last execution in 1826 — the victim was a Spanish schoolmaster convicted of heresy. But as Cullen Murphy shows in this...more

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Mar 19, 2012 Margaret Sankey rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a wide-ranging tour of the cultural life of the Inquisition--Murphy interleaves experiences working in the Vatican archives of the Inquisition (opened fairly recently, and only very recently provided with a modern archivist to manage it's idiosyncratic filing system) with references to the Inquisition in modern political speech (how could Kenneth Starr NOT know what the Spanish Inquisition was?), Occitan Cathar-themed tourism, interviews with historians who have worked with the subject (...more

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Mar 06, 2012 Beth G. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: netgalley, 2012, non-fiction, history, inquisition, religion, ebook-challenge-2012, ebooks, arcs, books-for-grown-ups

In our imaginations, we offhandedly associate the term "inquisition" with the term "Dark Ages." But consider what an inquisition - any inquisition - really is: a set of disciplinary procedures targeting specific groups, codified in law, organized systematically, enforced by surveillance, exemplified by severity, sustained over time, backed by institutional power, and justified by a vision of the one true path. considered that way, the Inquisition is more accurately viewed not as a relic but as...more In our imaginations, we offhandedly associate the term "inquisition" with the term "Dark Ages." But consider what an inquisition - any inquisition - really is: a set of disciplinary procedures targeting specific groups, codified in law, organized systematically, enforced by surveillance, exemplified by severity, sustained over time, backed by institutional power, and justified by a vision of the one true path. considered that way, the Inquisition is more accurately viewed not as a relic but as a harbinger.

Synopsis:
From medieval France to sixteenth-century Spain and Portugal and their colonies half a world away to 1940s Germany to modern-day Guantanamo Bay, Murphy follows the "inquisitorial impulse" around the world and through the centuries. His research takes him to the Vatican archives, rural France, Berlin, and the National Archives, among other places, as he outlines the events and procedures of the Medieval Inquisition, the Roman Inquisition, and the Spanish Inquisition, as well as what he terms the current "Secular Inquisition". His circuitous route through history sharply illustrates how the spirit of the Inquisition remains alive and well.

Review:
Murphy covers a lot of ground (metaphorically and literally), giving a tantalizing overview of the topic. This is not a deep scholarly work, which is a point in its favor. Murphy has an eye for descriptive details, and he distills what is clearly an enormous amount of research into a work that appeals to the non-expert in the topic. He moves around in time and place, introducing important people and events early on and reminding the reader about them later, drawing connections across centuries. The Inquisition, by its very nature, is not a pleasant topic, but Murphy creates a narrative that is enjoyable to read even as it leaves the reader with some disturbing ideas to ponder after closing the book.

Final Word:
A compelling look at a part of history that remains all too much with us in the present.

Source:
E-ARC via NetGalley, provided by the publisher by request.(less)

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Mar 16, 2012 Rebecca rated it 3 of 5 stars

Really, really interesting and original argument. I was fascinated by the thesis: that the Inquisition was actually the harbinger of the modern totalitarian state rather than a relic of the dark ages. Unfortunately, the book looses something in the execution. More than anything it ends up giving a fascinating view into the current state of Inquisition and Vatican archives and the work that goes into maintaining them. But beyond this,it feels at a number of points that Murphy ends up strugglingas...more

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Feb 04, 2013 Temple Dog rated it 3 of 5 stars

God's Jury was a challenging read. Not because of level of difficulty, but due to a lack of cohesion and consistency.

I found Murphy's narrative somewhat disjointed and distracting.

I did appreciate the contemporary analogies, however, I would have appreciated a more linear story line and a more comprehensive explanation of each inquisition independent of opinion.
I still found the book a good read and quite timely.
I would recommend it.

TD

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Apr 26, 2012 James rated it 4 of 5 stars

Fascinating book. Examining the history and culture and legacy of the inquisitions - both as a phenomenon and as an institution. Though the Catholic Church no longer burns those with opposing views, it still seeks to censor and silence - witness the new political activism of the church and its attempts to squelch dissent inside the USA. Since 9/11 the war on "terror" has become another chapter in the history of the inquisition - torture, secret allegations, renditions, conversos hiding in the po...more

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Jan 27, 2013 Eric rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm usually a sucker for anything that is "...and the Making of the Modern World", and God's Jury was no exception. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, if you can use 'enjoyed" to describe the process of learning about torture devices in the Inquisition (and how they relate to activities in Guantanamo more recently), or learning about obsessive information collecting 500 years ago (and how that relates to activities in the here and now).

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Oct 10, 2012 Siszurpicki rated it 4 of 5 stars

As a product of 12 years of Catholic education I had many preconceived notions of the justification for the Inquisition. I am disappointed once again in the elaborate front the Church has and still uses to cover it's hypocricy. Infallible?? This book examines the history of justified torture and compares it to the current use of 'enhanced interrogation techniques'. Fascinating.

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Aug 17, 2012 Susan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

This book traces the history of the Inquisition, and shows how the methods of the Inquisition continue today in secular form. That is because the methods of the Inquisition are essentially the methods of a state bureaucracy. Very interesting read. The most salient point I take from it is to beware of moral certitude: moral certitude can justify anything.

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Jul 08, 2012 Marissa rated it 2 of 5 stars

Clearly I am not the target audience for this book so consider me biased. This felt like a history book I was required to read (which I kind of was, per my book club...). I can respect the importance of the topic, the scope of the time period covered and the amount of research that went into the book. I would have found it more compelling (and it would have held my interest) had it been presented differently. Instead of textbook-style, if it had been more of a "follow a few different actual live...more

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Jun 08, 2012 Jane rated it 4 of 5 stars

Interesting discussion of the the Medieval, Roman and Spanish/Portuguese Inquisitions and the effects that are still in force today. The Vatican archives regarding the Inquisitions were made public a few years ago and the author relates how detailed the Inquisition records are. The comment is made - with some irony - that we would know very little of the history of the times without these records. This very organized persecution developed forms of interrogation and censorship that are with us to...more

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God's Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World

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