The Faith of a Jew

Franz Werfel is a Jew who writes so much like a Christian (Embezzled Heaven, The Song of Bernadette) that he has more than once had to deny that he is a convert. In Between Heaven & Earth (Philosophical Library, $3), published last week, Czech Author Werfel (now living in California) for the first time discusses his deep religious faith.

Although he believes that Christ's teaching "towers star-high," and that the world "can be spiritually healed only if it finds its way back to true Christianity," Werfel will always remain a Jew: "Israel is more than a nation; it is an historical and biological order . . . into which . . . one enters by birth, never to be released until the last day but one. A Jew who steps up to the baptismal font . . . deserts . . . from the side of the weak and the persecuted . . . from Israel's deepest origins, from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. . . . [He] deserts Christ Himself, since he arbitrarily interrupts his historical suffering -- the penance for rejecting the Messiah."

Like Jeremiah warning against strange gods, Author Werfel warns modern man of the perils of materialism. This evil, he declares, is responsible both for the U.S. conception of the state as an insurance company, and for the German belief in National Socialism. Without faith in God, man seeks security elsewhere.

Author Werfel's personal credo: everything in the universe has meaning. The world is "a creation of spirit and love," and man can realize God's existence without being able to understand His Being, "just as one might touch a mountain without being able to embrace it."

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