We return again to the American South. Wandering Jude has so far written about two other conversionist novels set in the Southern United States (Judith Bensaddi and In League with Israel, but this one has a real twist.
Charles Buckner Hudgins was an Episcopalian rector in Rome, Georgia during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His only novel, The Convert, was published in 1908.
This novel's protagonists are Judge Reuben Reinhardt, a Jew, and Miss Ruth Rex, a Christian. They fall in love and marry, after Ruth has converted to Judaism (but not out of conviction, only to marry Reuben). In the end, Reuben is convinced by her arguments and he converts to Christianity.
Midway through the book, after meeting the handsome judge and developing a relationship with him, Ruth finally gets around to preaching. She tells Reuben that Jesus died for "you and for me, and to save and to receive us all into the blessed place He has gone to prepare for all who love Him and believe Him to be the Redeemer, the Saviour of their souls " (p. 164).
Reuben responds:
"Ah! Miss Ruth, you are an earnest and forceful preacher, but, alas! I cannot accept your doctrine, because it is of very doubtful origin. Some day, perhaps, you may become convinced that I and my people are justified in not accepting Jesus of Nazareth as the true Messiah. .... I trust and believe that our God accepts all worshipful service rendered unto Him, even that of the Christians" (p. 164).
Sounds reasonable to Wandering Jude.
Later, Ruth makes another attempt at evangelism, this time with a little less tact. She says to Reuben:
"True, Judge, we Christians know that your nation has been blessed far above all others.... but because of their insincerity, corruption in many sins, and, at last, their unbelief in not accepting Jesus as the Messiah, God has, at least for a while, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, when all Israel shall be saved, withheld His promises to the once so highly favored people, because they have proven to be 'a faithless and stubborn generation.' " (p. 215).
In love with the judge, and desperate to both marry him and convert him to the Christian religion, Ruth decides to convert to Judaism "while secretly she would keep her heart loyal to Christ her Saviour.. She felt sure that she never could deny her Lord Jesus; nor could she abandon the hope and faith in the final conversion of her lover to Christianity.... She... felt willing, if necessary, to make any sacrifice, even to the loss of her soul, to save his" (p. 296).
Ruth is a bit devious in her proselytizing efforts. But her conniving pays off:
"Every night ... they read [from the] Hebrew Bible; and she so often selected the Messianic prophecies to read to him.... Then too he had discovered a copy of the New Testament in her room.... [which] "resulted in his conviction that she had not really, in her heart, become a convert to his religion, but had merely outwardly conformed to all the requirements of Judaism, out of her deep love for him. All unknown to her, he also read Dr. Geikie's great work [The Life and Words of Christ], and read and reread the New Testament, becoming more and more convinced that Jesus of Nazareth was truly the Christ -- the long-expected Messiah. It gave him a peaceful, happy feeling he had never before experienced. He studied and earnestly prayed over it, and read also both Paley's and McIlvain's "Evidences of Christianity." Then he began to study the doctrines and history of the leading Christian sects; for after his secret conversion to Christianity he felt that he must confess Christ before men in some church" (pp. 324-325).
After reading together some of the bizarre [to our modern ears] Talmudic arguments (is an egg fit to eat if it is laid on the Sabbath?) and Midrashic stories, Ruth says, in a somewhat snarky manner:
"Such, my dear Professor, are some of the Talmudic teachings, which these learned Jewish rabbis valued more highly than they did the inspired writings of the Prophets" ... "Take the Gospels of the New Testament, my dear Professor, and read for yourself, and you will see how different were the sayings of Jesus -- how practical and simple, yet how wisely profound His teachings; and you are bound to be convinced that He was more than mere man -- that it is not idolatry to workshp Him as the Divine Son of God the Father!" (pp. 328-329).
After Ruth reads Isaiah 53 to Reuben, he responds by reading aloud a selection from the Gospel accounts of the crucifixion, and then he says: "In Jesus, the Prophet Isaiah's words were literally fulfilled --henceforth, Jesus of Nazareth is my Christ and Saviour. He only is the promised Messiah, the Son of the living God!" (pp. 330-331).
Reuben arranges to be baptized in the Episcopal church on Christmas day. "The long struggle was over and their hearts were at peace" (p. 333).
Final thoughts:
This novel raises the question of whether or not it is ethical for a Christian to convert to Judaism in order that s/he might evangelize his/her spouse. Wandering Jude would concur with the majority of readers that it is indeed unethical to engage in such a practice. Perhaps unethical is too weak a word in this kind of situation. Abhorent would be more like it.
Wandering Jude wonders why such a high percentage of pre-1920 evangelical conversionary novels take place in the American South. Perhaps it was easier for a Jew in the South to convert to Christianity given the dearth of Jews and the strong influence of the Bible Belt?
If this story was being pitched as a Hollywood movie, it might be blurbed as "Driving Miss Daisy meets Jerry Falwell."
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Friday, September 28, 2007
The Rivals: A Tragedy of the New York Ghetto
A second Amos Dushaw Jewish Christian novel, The Rivals: A Tragedy of the New York Ghetto, was published in 1910.
When Daniel Mendes (a Jewish journalist who appears to be a believer in Jesus) meets Debora Herz, "Dan was indeed surprised to see before him a Jewess whose complexion and features was so foreign to the commonly accepted Hebrew type. She was a perfect blonde, and would easily have passed for a pure Anglo-Saxon" (p. 17).
Dan joins a discussion in a tavern about politics and religion. He says some nice words about Jesus and is almost attacked for it. But then he states that he has no intention of ever joining a Christian church, and that seems to calm people down.
Similarly, another Jewish character, Juda Gold, says that he is a believer in Jesus but not a member of any Christian church.
It turns out that Juda Gold is a former Christian minister. He explains that Jesus of Nazareth "has influenced my life for good in the past and He is still doing so. And let me add this: Jesus has quite a few followers who are not in the Christian Church, and there are quite a number of them among the Jews. I know many of them" (p. 39). It seems that Juda Gold left his affiliation with the church because he found there to be prejudice towards Jews. But he goes on to say: "My present position does not hinder me from believing that the Nazarene is the true Messiah" (p. 44).
Not every Jew in this novel is pro-Jesus. Mr. Herz (Debora's father) says: "You dare tell me in my house that that rascal was the Messiah" (p. 45).
Dan replies, "If you will show me in the writings of the New Tesament any hatred towards the Jew, I, too, will tear it up. The religion of the Nazarene is the religion of love, love for Jew and Gentile alike."
And the not wholly unexpected rejoinder comes from Mr. Herz: "Enough, enough, Mr. Mendes, you must be a secret missionary, stealing into people's homes for the express purpose of promulgating that vile faith. Are you a renegade?" (p. 46). When Dan admits that he is follower of Christ, Mr. Herz kicks both him and Juda Gold out of his house. Debora tells her father that she will continue to see Daniel Mendes, and in response to this, Mr. Herz passionately states, "She is no longer our daughter. We will mourn her as one dead" (p. 49).
Juda and Dan read together from the New Testament one of Jesus' prophecies to his followers: "They shall put you out of the synagogues." ... And then Juda says, "If there is anything [Mr. Herz] hates worse than a Christian, it is a converted Jew" (p. 50). [Nothing like stating the obvious, Juda].
Aunt Esther says in response to Mr. Herz' accusation that Dan is an apostate: "I saw no cross-marks on his arms. I never heard him speak unkindly of our race or of our religion. Would you like it better if he were like these anarchists who are always ridiculing our religion, and yet call themselves Jews?" "Yes" [Mr. Herz replies] (p. 61). [Ok, good point, Aunt Esther. But cross-marks? Is that what you were really expecting from a Jewish convert to Christianity?]
Dan says to Debora: "I love you most dearly, but I could not give up the Nazarene. He has been a light to my soul. I never knew the full meaning of life, God, Man, Brother, and Neighbour until I fell under the beneficient spell of his sublime influence. To know him is to love him. He, and He only, holds the key to the riddle of society" (p. 63). ... "He will put new life into them, -- life into the dry bones of Israel. ... Love, had Israel fallen in line with Christ's purpose nineteen hundred years ago, the world to-day would have been a different world and Isaiah's vision of universal peace would have been realized long ago. Oh, the bigotry of the modern Jew, orthodox and reformer alike! It is this bigotry that drives so many great souls of Israel into the Church, there to be lost among a people who do not appreciate the sacrifice" (p. 64).
Later Dan continues his argument: "The religion of the Nazarene, my dear, is not to be identified with a church or a creed. The religion of the Nazarene finds its fullest expression in the lives of individuals..... The members of this invisible church are to be found in few numbers, at least as compared with the millions of professing Christians" (p. 70).
Mr. Herz is not the only one in the family who is upset about Dan and Debora's relationship. At one point Debora's mother threatens to kill herself if Debora marries Dan the apostate.
Gordin says to Dan, "And yet you believe in the Christian religion?" "I did not say the Christian religion. I said the Gospel," continued Dan. "There is, strictly speaking, no religion of Jesus except as it is practised by individuals. The ecclesiastical machines are in too many instances the chief foes of the Gospel" (p. 111).
In the end, Dan and Debora do not get married. Debora and Gordin "made a special study of Christianity... And while we learned to love Jesus and value his teaching, we failed to find a religion of his in existence. [And we could never become a member of the church]" (p. 116). So Debora does not come to believe his Jesus, and the ill-fated lovebirds go their separate ways.
Amos Dushaw was a tragic figure of the early 20th century, and his fictional creations are equally tragic. Neither he nor his characters could find acceptance in any religious community, whether Jewish or Christian. Ultimately they opted to live their lives as "lonely men of faith."
One striking feature of Dushaw's novels is his depiction of the converted Jew as a Christian missionary. While some of these men were authentic and sincere, the general picture we get from Dushaw is one of corruption and cynical pragmatism. Wandering Jude hopes that the Jewish Christian missionaries of today are mostly of the sincere stripe, but perhaps not, if we are to believe such websites as http://usedforjesus.com/
When Daniel Mendes (a Jewish journalist who appears to be a believer in Jesus) meets Debora Herz, "Dan was indeed surprised to see before him a Jewess whose complexion and features was so foreign to the commonly accepted Hebrew type. She was a perfect blonde, and would easily have passed for a pure Anglo-Saxon" (p. 17).
Dan joins a discussion in a tavern about politics and religion. He says some nice words about Jesus and is almost attacked for it. But then he states that he has no intention of ever joining a Christian church, and that seems to calm people down.
Similarly, another Jewish character, Juda Gold, says that he is a believer in Jesus but not a member of any Christian church.
It turns out that Juda Gold is a former Christian minister. He explains that Jesus of Nazareth "has influenced my life for good in the past and He is still doing so. And let me add this: Jesus has quite a few followers who are not in the Christian Church, and there are quite a number of them among the Jews. I know many of them" (p. 39). It seems that Juda Gold left his affiliation with the church because he found there to be prejudice towards Jews. But he goes on to say: "My present position does not hinder me from believing that the Nazarene is the true Messiah" (p. 44).
Not every Jew in this novel is pro-Jesus. Mr. Herz (Debora's father) says: "You dare tell me in my house that that rascal was the Messiah" (p. 45).
Dan replies, "If you will show me in the writings of the New Tesament any hatred towards the Jew, I, too, will tear it up. The religion of the Nazarene is the religion of love, love for Jew and Gentile alike."
And the not wholly unexpected rejoinder comes from Mr. Herz: "Enough, enough, Mr. Mendes, you must be a secret missionary, stealing into people's homes for the express purpose of promulgating that vile faith. Are you a renegade?" (p. 46). When Dan admits that he is follower of Christ, Mr. Herz kicks both him and Juda Gold out of his house. Debora tells her father that she will continue to see Daniel Mendes, and in response to this, Mr. Herz passionately states, "She is no longer our daughter. We will mourn her as one dead" (p. 49).
Juda and Dan read together from the New Testament one of Jesus' prophecies to his followers: "They shall put you out of the synagogues." ... And then Juda says, "If there is anything [Mr. Herz] hates worse than a Christian, it is a converted Jew" (p. 50). [Nothing like stating the obvious, Juda].
Aunt Esther says in response to Mr. Herz' accusation that Dan is an apostate: "I saw no cross-marks on his arms. I never heard him speak unkindly of our race or of our religion. Would you like it better if he were like these anarchists who are always ridiculing our religion, and yet call themselves Jews?" "Yes" [Mr. Herz replies] (p. 61). [Ok, good point, Aunt Esther. But cross-marks? Is that what you were really expecting from a Jewish convert to Christianity?]
Dan says to Debora: "I love you most dearly, but I could not give up the Nazarene. He has been a light to my soul. I never knew the full meaning of life, God, Man, Brother, and Neighbour until I fell under the beneficient spell of his sublime influence. To know him is to love him. He, and He only, holds the key to the riddle of society" (p. 63). ... "He will put new life into them, -- life into the dry bones of Israel. ... Love, had Israel fallen in line with Christ's purpose nineteen hundred years ago, the world to-day would have been a different world and Isaiah's vision of universal peace would have been realized long ago. Oh, the bigotry of the modern Jew, orthodox and reformer alike! It is this bigotry that drives so many great souls of Israel into the Church, there to be lost among a people who do not appreciate the sacrifice" (p. 64).
Later Dan continues his argument: "The religion of the Nazarene, my dear, is not to be identified with a church or a creed. The religion of the Nazarene finds its fullest expression in the lives of individuals..... The members of this invisible church are to be found in few numbers, at least as compared with the millions of professing Christians" (p. 70).
Mr. Herz is not the only one in the family who is upset about Dan and Debora's relationship. At one point Debora's mother threatens to kill herself if Debora marries Dan the apostate.
Gordin says to Dan, "And yet you believe in the Christian religion?" "I did not say the Christian religion. I said the Gospel," continued Dan. "There is, strictly speaking, no religion of Jesus except as it is practised by individuals. The ecclesiastical machines are in too many instances the chief foes of the Gospel" (p. 111).
In the end, Dan and Debora do not get married. Debora and Gordin "made a special study of Christianity... And while we learned to love Jesus and value his teaching, we failed to find a religion of his in existence. [And we could never become a member of the church]" (p. 116). So Debora does not come to believe his Jesus, and the ill-fated lovebirds go their separate ways.
Amos Dushaw was a tragic figure of the early 20th century, and his fictional creations are equally tragic. Neither he nor his characters could find acceptance in any religious community, whether Jewish or Christian. Ultimately they opted to live their lives as "lonely men of faith."
One striking feature of Dushaw's novels is his depiction of the converted Jew as a Christian missionary. While some of these men were authentic and sincere, the general picture we get from Dushaw is one of corruption and cynical pragmatism. Wandering Jude hopes that the Jewish Christian missionaries of today are mostly of the sincere stripe, but perhaps not, if we are to believe such websites as http://usedforjesus.com/
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Proselytes of the Ghetto
Amos I. Dushaw was an American pastor, novelist, and Jewish convert to Christianity in the early 20th century. Dushaw wrote two novels about Jews converting to Christianity, but both books were unpredictable in plot and thoughtful in tone (and at times even cynical). In fact, I hesitate to call these works "conversionist" because they seem to be more art than religious rhetoric. Dushaw certainly had an agenda (what novelist doesn't?), but I'm not so sure that his agenda was to preach Jesus as the only way.
The first of his novels that Wandering Jude will look at, Proselytes of the Ghetto, was published in 1909. (The title seems to be an allusion to Israel Zangwill's Children of the Ghetto). The narrator of the story writes that those "Russian Jews" who read the New Testament discover that "God's love is wider than petty creeds have represented, and that the life and teachings of the Nazarene have been caricatured by many of his followers. Here he discovers that the New Testament is not anti-Semitic and that Jesus was a loyal son of Israel, who came to break down the barriers which separated man from man" (p. 11).
The protagonist is "Felix," a Russian Jew who has accepted Christianity. He becomes a minister, but resigns his post because some of the congregants have a problem with his theology. (Later he is described as "denying the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures," which is -- as anyone at all familiar with evangelicalism will know -- a big No No, especially for a pastor). At one point Felix cries out to God, "What am I, Christian, Jew, or neither?" (p. 14). He decides to become a missionary, apparently due in part to this existential crisis (or perhaps his crisis was more vocational than anything else).
The narrator describes a missionary (to the Jews) convention, mostly made up of Jewish converts to Christianity. "The two Polish Jews could never work together. They had tried it and made a wretched failure of it, because one was trying to cheat the other. They then separated, and one tried to outdo the other in the fleecing of the Christian public. They both posed as wonderful scholars" (p. 16).
Felix is asked to address the convention, and he gives a speech that disturbs some of the attendees: "A proper appreciation of the Jewish Hope would doubtless reveal to many that ... the Israelites are not all Shylocks, and that the most civilized races have their quota of Shylocks as well. It follows from this that it is the mission of the proselytes to stand as mediators between the church and the synagogue" (p. 21) Felix goes on to criticize the church because "it therefore created an unchristian theology and an unchristian institution in the place of the personality of Jesus Christ, and concealed him behind a lot of ecclesiastical rubbish. The church ... needs as much to be converted as the synagogue" (p. 22).
Felix says to Dora and Grace (two Gentile Christians): "When I accepted Christianity I repudiated many of my former views. When I united with the church I thought I joined the society of those who possessed the truth, and who lived up to it. What did I find? I found that envy, fear of death, and love of mammon filled the souls of many who prided themselves on their wonderful and saving theologies. I failed to find the bond of brotherhood amongst them. We had more of it in our revolutionary circles in Russia. I found in the American church a decidedly undemocratic spirit and an unkind feelng towards the Jew" (p. 35).
Felix and his friend Marx get together. (Marx is a former missionary but now is a doctor and a publisher, who stills holds to faith in Christ, albeit in a more tentative way). Marx informs Felix that his recent article (which criticized missionary fraud) has aroused the ire of other missionaries, who say he is a heretic and a meddler. Marx tells Felix his story:
"Accidentally a New Testament was placed in my hands, and after a careful study of it I accepted Jesus as the promised Messiah. All my Jewish friends deserted me, and I lost my position and became an outcast. Imagine my feelings when I discovered that I was received everywhere with suspicion. I was known everywhere as the 'converted Jew'" (p. 50). ... "A Hebrew Christian, especially one who becomes a missionary to his own people, is the leper of modern society.... The humanity of the Church is not superior to the synagogue, and the conduct of the average Christian is not superior to that of the average Jew. But, alas! the Jew who accepts Christianity and unites with the church discovers this fact too late..... In the course of time Christians took me up and sent me to a missionary training school. What mental agony I experienced there! How little the teachers and pupils appreciated liberty and democracy! They all knew more about heaven and hell than about the wretched poor who lived a few blocks away" (p. 51).
Marx struggles throughout the book with his mother in law, who is hates Christianity and fears that her grandchildren will be raised as Christians (which is indeed what happens). He continues his story:
"When I was graduated from the training school I was appointed to carry on mission work among the people of the lower East Side. My church gave me forty dollars a month. This was not sufficient.... By and by many complained that I was not doing effective work, and that I was not succeeding in increasing the membership of the church. I was too honest to bribe Jews to join the church. I was alone.... I toiled on until I became a physical wreck. I then resigned and accepted a position in business, saved some money and studied medicine" (p. 52).
Felix learns that he has been excommunicated from the Hebrew Christian association because of theological reasons. One of the leaders of the group who kicked him out is Levi, who turns out to be a fraud.
Rabbi Cohen, a liberal rabbi who is at first completely aghast at the notion of Jews believing in Jesus, ends up converting to Christianity (based on conversations that he has with Felix; his attempts at winning back Felix to Judaism backfire and the Rabbi hinmself becomes a Christian). One Sabbath he announces this to his congregation. The congregation reacts in a positive (albeit unlikely) manner: "Rabbi, we will stand by you, and follow the Nazarene, too" (p. 91). The news of this mass conversion spreads quickly. Many churches are interested in affiliating with this new convert (because of the wealth of his congregation), even those who wanted nothing to do with an impoverished former rabbi (and now Christian) named Mendel.
Rabbi Cohen tells his story: "I had looked upon all converts as perverts. But the enthusiasm and self-sacrificing spirit of Brother Felix convinced me that here was a genuine convert. I listened to his argument and took him for a dreamer; but his emphasis upon the Personality of the Nazarene gave me no peace until I had reinvestigated the subject. I reread the Old Testament in the light of the New Testament.... I was up until the early hours of the morning crying, 'O Jehovah, if Jesus is the Messiah, reveal it to me. Thou knowest I want to know the truth.' I was in agony; -- when, lo! before me stood the Nazarene, saying, 'Follow Me!' I then fell into a swoon... I felt a peace in my soul which I knew nothing of before" (p. 125).
In the end, the sincere Hebrew Christian missionaries (including the former rabbis Cohen and Mendel) and some like minded Gentile Christians join together to form a new society of believers who will be less theologically focused and more focused on following Christ. Wandering Jude imagines that this was Amos Dushaw's vision, if not his reality. In the final analysis, we all have feet of clay, Jew and Christian alike. While it might seem to be unrealistic to propose a version of the Christian religion less focused on theology and more focused on Jesus, one can always dream. (And if Dushaw had pushed the envelope just a little further, he might have become a Unitarian, a "Christian" religion mostly devoid of theology where more than a few Jews have found a home).
The first of his novels that Wandering Jude will look at, Proselytes of the Ghetto, was published in 1909. (The title seems to be an allusion to Israel Zangwill's Children of the Ghetto). The narrator of the story writes that those "Russian Jews" who read the New Testament discover that "God's love is wider than petty creeds have represented, and that the life and teachings of the Nazarene have been caricatured by many of his followers. Here he discovers that the New Testament is not anti-Semitic and that Jesus was a loyal son of Israel, who came to break down the barriers which separated man from man" (p. 11).
The protagonist is "Felix," a Russian Jew who has accepted Christianity. He becomes a minister, but resigns his post because some of the congregants have a problem with his theology. (Later he is described as "denying the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures," which is -- as anyone at all familiar with evangelicalism will know -- a big No No, especially for a pastor). At one point Felix cries out to God, "What am I, Christian, Jew, or neither?" (p. 14). He decides to become a missionary, apparently due in part to this existential crisis (or perhaps his crisis was more vocational than anything else).
The narrator describes a missionary (to the Jews) convention, mostly made up of Jewish converts to Christianity. "The two Polish Jews could never work together. They had tried it and made a wretched failure of it, because one was trying to cheat the other. They then separated, and one tried to outdo the other in the fleecing of the Christian public. They both posed as wonderful scholars" (p. 16).
Felix is asked to address the convention, and he gives a speech that disturbs some of the attendees: "A proper appreciation of the Jewish Hope would doubtless reveal to many that ... the Israelites are not all Shylocks, and that the most civilized races have their quota of Shylocks as well. It follows from this that it is the mission of the proselytes to stand as mediators between the church and the synagogue" (p. 21) Felix goes on to criticize the church because "it therefore created an unchristian theology and an unchristian institution in the place of the personality of Jesus Christ, and concealed him behind a lot of ecclesiastical rubbish. The church ... needs as much to be converted as the synagogue" (p. 22).
Felix says to Dora and Grace (two Gentile Christians): "When I accepted Christianity I repudiated many of my former views. When I united with the church I thought I joined the society of those who possessed the truth, and who lived up to it. What did I find? I found that envy, fear of death, and love of mammon filled the souls of many who prided themselves on their wonderful and saving theologies. I failed to find the bond of brotherhood amongst them. We had more of it in our revolutionary circles in Russia. I found in the American church a decidedly undemocratic spirit and an unkind feelng towards the Jew" (p. 35).
Felix and his friend Marx get together. (Marx is a former missionary but now is a doctor and a publisher, who stills holds to faith in Christ, albeit in a more tentative way). Marx informs Felix that his recent article (which criticized missionary fraud) has aroused the ire of other missionaries, who say he is a heretic and a meddler. Marx tells Felix his story:
"Accidentally a New Testament was placed in my hands, and after a careful study of it I accepted Jesus as the promised Messiah. All my Jewish friends deserted me, and I lost my position and became an outcast. Imagine my feelings when I discovered that I was received everywhere with suspicion. I was known everywhere as the 'converted Jew'" (p. 50). ... "A Hebrew Christian, especially one who becomes a missionary to his own people, is the leper of modern society.... The humanity of the Church is not superior to the synagogue, and the conduct of the average Christian is not superior to that of the average Jew. But, alas! the Jew who accepts Christianity and unites with the church discovers this fact too late..... In the course of time Christians took me up and sent me to a missionary training school. What mental agony I experienced there! How little the teachers and pupils appreciated liberty and democracy! They all knew more about heaven and hell than about the wretched poor who lived a few blocks away" (p. 51).
Marx struggles throughout the book with his mother in law, who is hates Christianity and fears that her grandchildren will be raised as Christians (which is indeed what happens). He continues his story:
"When I was graduated from the training school I was appointed to carry on mission work among the people of the lower East Side. My church gave me forty dollars a month. This was not sufficient.... By and by many complained that I was not doing effective work, and that I was not succeeding in increasing the membership of the church. I was too honest to bribe Jews to join the church. I was alone.... I toiled on until I became a physical wreck. I then resigned and accepted a position in business, saved some money and studied medicine" (p. 52).
Felix learns that he has been excommunicated from the Hebrew Christian association because of theological reasons. One of the leaders of the group who kicked him out is Levi, who turns out to be a fraud.
Rabbi Cohen, a liberal rabbi who is at first completely aghast at the notion of Jews believing in Jesus, ends up converting to Christianity (based on conversations that he has with Felix; his attempts at winning back Felix to Judaism backfire and the Rabbi hinmself becomes a Christian). One Sabbath he announces this to his congregation. The congregation reacts in a positive (albeit unlikely) manner: "Rabbi, we will stand by you, and follow the Nazarene, too" (p. 91). The news of this mass conversion spreads quickly. Many churches are interested in affiliating with this new convert (because of the wealth of his congregation), even those who wanted nothing to do with an impoverished former rabbi (and now Christian) named Mendel.
Rabbi Cohen tells his story: "I had looked upon all converts as perverts. But the enthusiasm and self-sacrificing spirit of Brother Felix convinced me that here was a genuine convert. I listened to his argument and took him for a dreamer; but his emphasis upon the Personality of the Nazarene gave me no peace until I had reinvestigated the subject. I reread the Old Testament in the light of the New Testament.... I was up until the early hours of the morning crying, 'O Jehovah, if Jesus is the Messiah, reveal it to me. Thou knowest I want to know the truth.' I was in agony; -- when, lo! before me stood the Nazarene, saying, 'Follow Me!' I then fell into a swoon... I felt a peace in my soul which I knew nothing of before" (p. 125).
In the end, the sincere Hebrew Christian missionaries (including the former rabbis Cohen and Mendel) and some like minded Gentile Christians join together to form a new society of believers who will be less theologically focused and more focused on following Christ. Wandering Jude imagines that this was Amos Dushaw's vision, if not his reality. In the final analysis, we all have feet of clay, Jew and Christian alike. While it might seem to be unrealistic to propose a version of the Christian religion less focused on theology and more focused on Jesus, one can always dream. (And if Dushaw had pushed the envelope just a little further, he might have become a Unitarian, a "Christian" religion mostly devoid of theology where more than a few Jews have found a home).
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
The New Israelite; or, Rabbi Shalom on the Shores of the Black Sea
I recently came across a book by Jaakoff Prelooker called The New Israelite; or, Rabbi Shalom on the Shores of the Black Sea. Published in London in 1903, this book tells the fictional story of a Russian Jewish rabbi who becomes a member of the "Christian Dissenter" sect (probably a Baptist or some other "non-conformist" group), or in the parlance of this book, a "new Israelite."
While this novel received some positive reviews, one contemporary called it "propaganda." Like most other conversionist stories, that's exactly what it is.
While this novel received some positive reviews, one contemporary called it "propaganda." Like most other conversionist stories, that's exactly what it is.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Violet Guttenberg
Violet Guttenberg, a gifted (though certainly not prolific) novelist of the early 20th century, is referred to as a "Protestant writer" by Nadia Valman. I'm not sure if Valman means that she was born a Protestant or was a Jew who converted to Protestant Christianity. (Another possibility is that she was married to a Jew and took on his German Jewish surname). It doesn't appear to me that she is an evangelical, but it's quite possible that she was one, notwithstanding the absence of explicit conversionist rhetoric in her books.
In any event, her book, A Modern Exodus: A Novel, published in 1904, tells the contemporary story of Jews being banished from England. Many go to Palestine and try to make a life for themselves there. Some have referred to this book as fantasy or science fiction, although that might be stretching the boundaries of the genre somewhat. Jews do not convert to Christianity in this book, although one character marries a Jew and converts to Judaism, but then later converts back to Christianity.
Wandering Jude is much more interested in her earlier book, Neither Jew Nor Greek: A Story of Jewish Social Life, published in London in 1902. Yes, a conversion to Christianity does take place in this novel, but it's certainly not typical of of the genre that we've been discussing in these postings thus far.
The novel begins with a Jewish "marriage of convenience." Young Adeline Friedberg is getting married to Michael Rosen, a wealthy Polish Jew. The ceremony is presided by "the minister of the synagogue," Rev. Isaac Abrahams, who (the narrator points out) is "pocket[ing] an ample commission" for his efforts.
The story soon moves on to other characters, and we realize that Adeline and Michael are simply a prelude to another, more important narrative. We meet Herbert Karne, a liberal-minded English Jew and an artist by profession. The heroine of the novel is Herbert's half sister, Celia Franks, who has the singing voice of an angel. Celia has a flirtation with a young Christian doctor, Geoffrey Milnes, but this is quashed by Herbert who sends Celia off to live with a somewhat more observant Jewish family, the Friedbergs.
Celia soon meets a young Jewish man by the name of David Salmon. David, dashing and handsome, is taken with Celia's beauty and musical abilities. He soon proposes marriage to her, and although she does not hold the same feelings for him, she accepts the proposal. Celia makes one condition for the engagement, and that is that it will be a long one.
So Celia spends her engagement (three years!) studying music and spending as little time with David Salmon as possible. She feels stuck in the relationship, but she doesn't know how to get out of it. And on some level she believes that her feelings for David will some day come into bloom. Or at least, this is her hope.
Celia and David finally decide to set the date for their wedding in December. Celia is invited to spend the month of August with some Christian friends of hers, the Wiltons. She enjoys her time with them but is somewhat anxious about attending church services on the first Sunday of her visit. However, the beauty of the music and the liturgy dispels her fears. Throughout the book Celia has contemplated the spiritual emptiness of Judaism, and during this church service, the first Christian service that Celia has ever attended, she gradually realizes that the Christian religion is the one for her. She resonates with its principles of love, peace, and self-sacrifice, and she is doubly impressed by the practical outworking of the Wilton's faith. (This is contrasted throughout the book with Jewish characters who are social-climbers, hypocrites, spiritual dimwits, criminals, or simply ethically challenged).
But Celia isn't quite ready yet to take the plunge. She says to her friend Enid Wilton, "I wish I possessed your faith.... If I could be convinced of Christ's divinity, I think I should become a Christian. I feel the need of a pure spiritual faith; and Judaism does not satisfy me" (p. 177-178).
After spending the rest of the month studying the Scriptures and discussing theology with the Wiltons, Celia finally is ready to convert. But she is not quite prepared for the reaction of the Jewish community, including her father (who disowns her posthumously), her fiance (who breaks off their engagement), and the bulk of the community who reject her and label her a "m'shumad" (apostate).
In the end, things turn out well for Celia. She falls in love with Geoffrey Milnes, and through a series of circumstances she is halfway forgiven by the Jewish community that had earlier condemned her. The only other Jewish character in the book who turns out to be a decent human being is Celia's half brother, Herbert Karne. Herbert marries a Christian woman but retains his Jewish identity. Celia, however, for all her love of her Jewish heritage, is decidedly Christian in her faith and in her religious practice. At the close of the novel, by her own admission she is (alluding to a quote from St. Paul's letter to the Galatians) "neither Jew nor Greek."
In any event, her book, A Modern Exodus: A Novel, published in 1904, tells the contemporary story of Jews being banished from England. Many go to Palestine and try to make a life for themselves there. Some have referred to this book as fantasy or science fiction, although that might be stretching the boundaries of the genre somewhat. Jews do not convert to Christianity in this book, although one character marries a Jew and converts to Judaism, but then later converts back to Christianity.
Wandering Jude is much more interested in her earlier book, Neither Jew Nor Greek: A Story of Jewish Social Life, published in London in 1902. Yes, a conversion to Christianity does take place in this novel, but it's certainly not typical of of the genre that we've been discussing in these postings thus far.
The novel begins with a Jewish "marriage of convenience." Young Adeline Friedberg is getting married to Michael Rosen, a wealthy Polish Jew. The ceremony is presided by "the minister of the synagogue," Rev. Isaac Abrahams, who (the narrator points out) is "pocket[ing] an ample commission" for his efforts.
The story soon moves on to other characters, and we realize that Adeline and Michael are simply a prelude to another, more important narrative. We meet Herbert Karne, a liberal-minded English Jew and an artist by profession. The heroine of the novel is Herbert's half sister, Celia Franks, who has the singing voice of an angel. Celia has a flirtation with a young Christian doctor, Geoffrey Milnes, but this is quashed by Herbert who sends Celia off to live with a somewhat more observant Jewish family, the Friedbergs.
Celia soon meets a young Jewish man by the name of David Salmon. David, dashing and handsome, is taken with Celia's beauty and musical abilities. He soon proposes marriage to her, and although she does not hold the same feelings for him, she accepts the proposal. Celia makes one condition for the engagement, and that is that it will be a long one.
So Celia spends her engagement (three years!) studying music and spending as little time with David Salmon as possible. She feels stuck in the relationship, but she doesn't know how to get out of it. And on some level she believes that her feelings for David will some day come into bloom. Or at least, this is her hope.
Celia and David finally decide to set the date for their wedding in December. Celia is invited to spend the month of August with some Christian friends of hers, the Wiltons. She enjoys her time with them but is somewhat anxious about attending church services on the first Sunday of her visit. However, the beauty of the music and the liturgy dispels her fears. Throughout the book Celia has contemplated the spiritual emptiness of Judaism, and during this church service, the first Christian service that Celia has ever attended, she gradually realizes that the Christian religion is the one for her. She resonates with its principles of love, peace, and self-sacrifice, and she is doubly impressed by the practical outworking of the Wilton's faith. (This is contrasted throughout the book with Jewish characters who are social-climbers, hypocrites, spiritual dimwits, criminals, or simply ethically challenged).
But Celia isn't quite ready yet to take the plunge. She says to her friend Enid Wilton, "I wish I possessed your faith.... If I could be convinced of Christ's divinity, I think I should become a Christian. I feel the need of a pure spiritual faith; and Judaism does not satisfy me" (p. 177-178).
After spending the rest of the month studying the Scriptures and discussing theology with the Wiltons, Celia finally is ready to convert. But she is not quite prepared for the reaction of the Jewish community, including her father (who disowns her posthumously), her fiance (who breaks off their engagement), and the bulk of the community who reject her and label her a "m'shumad" (apostate).
In the end, things turn out well for Celia. She falls in love with Geoffrey Milnes, and through a series of circumstances she is halfway forgiven by the Jewish community that had earlier condemned her. The only other Jewish character in the book who turns out to be a decent human being is Celia's half brother, Herbert Karne. Herbert marries a Christian woman but retains his Jewish identity. Celia, however, for all her love of her Jewish heritage, is decidedly Christian in her faith and in her religious practice. At the close of the novel, by her own admission she is (alluding to a quote from St. Paul's letter to the Galatians) "neither Jew nor Greek."
Sunday, September 23, 2007
The Jewish Converts
Elizabeth Wheeler ("E.W.") wrote another fin de siecle conversionist novel called The Jewish Converts. The main character in this book is Mark Barnard, the only son of a "rich Jewish merchant, Isaac Barnard" and his wife, Sarah. Reginald Stevenson, a Christian, is hired as the boy's tutor. Reginald tells Mark about his faith in Jesus, and tells him about the Old Testament prophecies that allegedly point toward Christ. Mark, after much thought and prayer, decides to become a Christian. [Rather quick conversion, I'd say, but we must move the plot along!]
The next day Mark says to his parents: "I cannot join in the coming feast [Passover], for I believe that Jesus of Nazareth is our true Messiah" (p. 21). Isaac (Mark's father) is outraged and fires Reginald, and soon after hires another tutor, Benjamin Alexander, a Jew. They travel to France to study, but unbeknownst to everyone else, Benjamin has providentially picked up a New Testament out of curiosity and carried it with him. In France they stay with a friend of Isaac's, whose name is David D'Israeli.
One day Mark notices Benjamin's New Testament and asks him about it. Benjamin has been reading it but is not yet a believer. Mark takes this opportunity to witness to Benjamin about the joys of believing in Jesus and about various messianic prophecies in the Bible. Benjamin thus becomes a convert to Christianity. Benjamin gets scarlet fever and soon dies, but not before preaching to the wife of David D'Israeli, who soon becomes a secret believer. Mark gets kicked out of D'Israeli's home and goes back to his parents' house in England, but he is disowned by his father and told to leave at once.
Throughout the book there are occasional sidebars where the narrator moralizes about this or that. For example: "Let us go and tell Jesus, not spend our breath in complaints to creatures who cannot help. Go to Jesus for His sympathy, and then you can go and comfort others and tell them, who have been hitherto strangers to it, of Jesus and his love" (p. 50). There are also many quotes from hymns interspersed throughout the text, as is the custom in Wheeler's other books. (I might add that this rather annoying custom is also found in a number of other conversionist authors).
Reginald (the original tutor, remember him?) and Mark meet up again in London and find a place to live with Hyam Isaacs and his wife, Rebekah, older Jewish Christians. After a few weeks living there, Mark finds employment in France and leaves to go there with the Isaacs' eldest daughter, Hannah, also a believer in Jesus. Hannah and Mark get married and have a daughter, Rachel, but Mark dies after a few years.
And then we learn of the fate of Mark's parents:
"Bitterly had Isaac felt the separation from his son, and soon after he had cast him off Sarah passed away, and she cursed her son on her dying bed. Such, my reader, is the mistaken zeal of some of the Jewish race. But ere she died, a peaceful expression stole over her face.... Perhaps truths she possibly might have read in her son's Testament spoke peace to her soul, when making her exit into the eternal world" (p. 63).
Isaac, bereaved by the loss of both his son and wife, finds solace in the New Testament that he finds in his house. He becomes a Christian and finds out that his son has died and that his daughter in law is about to die. Isaac travels to France to see her but Hannah dies just before he arrives. He is very sad about Hannah's passing (though he had never met her) but is delighted to learn that he has an 8 year old granddaughter. Isaac and Rachel leave soon after the funeral to return to England.
Isaac hires a governess (named Caroline Barton) to take care of Rachel. Along with Rachel's nanny, Martha, they all travel to Jerusalem (with many stops throughout Europe along with way). The author treats this trip as sort of a travelogue with comments about the various places they visit (she uses a similar plot device in her other books). They finally arrive in Palestine, and Rachel is now about 12 years old.
In Jerusalem, "they all went to the Jews' wailing place -- a spot where Jews from every clime are allowed by the Turkish government to go once a week. It is a place where part of the ancient wall now stands. Many names are engraven there of those who are not in the land of silence. Hebrews flock there from every clime to mourn over the sins of their father, forgetful, or rather not cognisant, of the fact that it is their own sin in rejecting their Messiah that scatters them among the nations of the earth. But the throne of David will be built again there, and the rightful heir will take His place" (p. 114-115).
The group returns to England, but after several years Isaac's business goes bankrupt (due to stock market fluctuations), and they must leave their home and move to much more modest lodgings. It is here that Isaac has a stroke and dies. Rachel places her faith in Christ and becomes a governess to a gentile family. The mother of this family "allowed her children to read low-class novels, instead of training them morally and mentally...." (p. 139).
The family is also anti-semitic: "Do you not pity the poor Jew? You see they have not the scriptures as we have them." [the mother says to no one in particular]. Rachel answered, "If it were not for the poor Jew you would not have the scriptures as you have them." "Mrs. W. said, "Oh! I was not aware that we are indebted to the Jew for the scriptures" (p. 162). ... "Mrs. W said they must have been a very wicked people to have crucified our Lord. Like many another, she thought that the Jews' hearts were different from her own" (p. 165). ... "Rachel, with great feeling surprising all, said: "The Jews have been (though not now) and will be the aristocracy of the earth. The land of their fathers will be restored to them..." (p. 166).
Rachel moves on to other jobs and at one of them meets another Jewish Christian, a Frenchman, Henri Le Bret. " ... her quick eye detected the traces of her race in the manly countenance. True it is, that the Hebrew race bear the marks of their ancestry; they are known everywhere -- in every clime." (p. 206).
Rachel and Henri fall in love and get married, and eventually have a son, and live happily ever after.
Some Final Remarks:
(1) The Jewish Converts contains yet another example of a Christian tutor evangelizing a Jewish youth. One would think that Jewish families of the 19th century would have hired Jewish tutors instead of evangelical Christians, or if they did hire Christian tutors that they would forbid proselytizing, but I suppose that this is an example of fiction being stranger than truth. In any case, the novel provides a nice touch of irony when Rachel, the daughter of the young man who was proselytized by his tutor, later becomes a governess and gets to lecture her gentile family about true Christianity and the sin of anti-semitism.
(2) Finally we get to experience a Jewish convert to Christianity whose business fails after he converts.
(3) In this novel, France seems to be a dangerous place to live. I would have thought that Rachel would have avoided France after losing both of her parents there, but this is not the case. Love conquers all, I suppose.
(4) Like many other newly converted Jewish Christians in the conversionist genre, our protagonist in this novel refuses to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Passover. As we shall see in the months to come, this practice (or more accurately, this lack of practice) will change as we progress through the conversionary fiction of the 20th century.
The next day Mark says to his parents: "I cannot join in the coming feast [Passover], for I believe that Jesus of Nazareth is our true Messiah" (p. 21). Isaac (Mark's father) is outraged and fires Reginald, and soon after hires another tutor, Benjamin Alexander, a Jew. They travel to France to study, but unbeknownst to everyone else, Benjamin has providentially picked up a New Testament out of curiosity and carried it with him. In France they stay with a friend of Isaac's, whose name is David D'Israeli.
One day Mark notices Benjamin's New Testament and asks him about it. Benjamin has been reading it but is not yet a believer. Mark takes this opportunity to witness to Benjamin about the joys of believing in Jesus and about various messianic prophecies in the Bible. Benjamin thus becomes a convert to Christianity. Benjamin gets scarlet fever and soon dies, but not before preaching to the wife of David D'Israeli, who soon becomes a secret believer. Mark gets kicked out of D'Israeli's home and goes back to his parents' house in England, but he is disowned by his father and told to leave at once.
Throughout the book there are occasional sidebars where the narrator moralizes about this or that. For example: "Let us go and tell Jesus, not spend our breath in complaints to creatures who cannot help. Go to Jesus for His sympathy, and then you can go and comfort others and tell them, who have been hitherto strangers to it, of Jesus and his love" (p. 50). There are also many quotes from hymns interspersed throughout the text, as is the custom in Wheeler's other books. (I might add that this rather annoying custom is also found in a number of other conversionist authors).
Reginald (the original tutor, remember him?) and Mark meet up again in London and find a place to live with Hyam Isaacs and his wife, Rebekah, older Jewish Christians. After a few weeks living there, Mark finds employment in France and leaves to go there with the Isaacs' eldest daughter, Hannah, also a believer in Jesus. Hannah and Mark get married and have a daughter, Rachel, but Mark dies after a few years.
And then we learn of the fate of Mark's parents:
"Bitterly had Isaac felt the separation from his son, and soon after he had cast him off Sarah passed away, and she cursed her son on her dying bed. Such, my reader, is the mistaken zeal of some of the Jewish race. But ere she died, a peaceful expression stole over her face.... Perhaps truths she possibly might have read in her son's Testament spoke peace to her soul, when making her exit into the eternal world" (p. 63).
Isaac, bereaved by the loss of both his son and wife, finds solace in the New Testament that he finds in his house. He becomes a Christian and finds out that his son has died and that his daughter in law is about to die. Isaac travels to France to see her but Hannah dies just before he arrives. He is very sad about Hannah's passing (though he had never met her) but is delighted to learn that he has an 8 year old granddaughter. Isaac and Rachel leave soon after the funeral to return to England.
Isaac hires a governess (named Caroline Barton) to take care of Rachel. Along with Rachel's nanny, Martha, they all travel to Jerusalem (with many stops throughout Europe along with way). The author treats this trip as sort of a travelogue with comments about the various places they visit (she uses a similar plot device in her other books). They finally arrive in Palestine, and Rachel is now about 12 years old.
In Jerusalem, "they all went to the Jews' wailing place -- a spot where Jews from every clime are allowed by the Turkish government to go once a week. It is a place where part of the ancient wall now stands. Many names are engraven there of those who are not in the land of silence. Hebrews flock there from every clime to mourn over the sins of their father, forgetful, or rather not cognisant, of the fact that it is their own sin in rejecting their Messiah that scatters them among the nations of the earth. But the throne of David will be built again there, and the rightful heir will take His place" (p. 114-115).
The group returns to England, but after several years Isaac's business goes bankrupt (due to stock market fluctuations), and they must leave their home and move to much more modest lodgings. It is here that Isaac has a stroke and dies. Rachel places her faith in Christ and becomes a governess to a gentile family. The mother of this family "allowed her children to read low-class novels, instead of training them morally and mentally...." (p. 139).
The family is also anti-semitic: "Do you not pity the poor Jew? You see they have not the scriptures as we have them." [the mother says to no one in particular]. Rachel answered, "If it were not for the poor Jew you would not have the scriptures as you have them." "Mrs. W. said, "Oh! I was not aware that we are indebted to the Jew for the scriptures" (p. 162). ... "Mrs. W said they must have been a very wicked people to have crucified our Lord. Like many another, she thought that the Jews' hearts were different from her own" (p. 165). ... "Rachel, with great feeling surprising all, said: "The Jews have been (though not now) and will be the aristocracy of the earth. The land of their fathers will be restored to them..." (p. 166).
Rachel moves on to other jobs and at one of them meets another Jewish Christian, a Frenchman, Henri Le Bret. " ... her quick eye detected the traces of her race in the manly countenance. True it is, that the Hebrew race bear the marks of their ancestry; they are known everywhere -- in every clime." (p. 206).
Rachel and Henri fall in love and get married, and eventually have a son, and live happily ever after.
Some Final Remarks:
(1) The Jewish Converts contains yet another example of a Christian tutor evangelizing a Jewish youth. One would think that Jewish families of the 19th century would have hired Jewish tutors instead of evangelical Christians, or if they did hire Christian tutors that they would forbid proselytizing, but I suppose that this is an example of fiction being stranger than truth. In any case, the novel provides a nice touch of irony when Rachel, the daughter of the young man who was proselytized by his tutor, later becomes a governess and gets to lecture her gentile family about true Christianity and the sin of anti-semitism.
(2) Finally we get to experience a Jewish convert to Christianity whose business fails after he converts.
(3) In this novel, France seems to be a dangerous place to live. I would have thought that Rachel would have avoided France after losing both of her parents there, but this is not the case. Love conquers all, I suppose.
(4) Like many other newly converted Jewish Christians in the conversionist genre, our protagonist in this novel refuses to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Passover. As we shall see in the months to come, this practice (or more accurately, this lack of practice) will change as we progress through the conversionary fiction of the 20th century.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
The Great Beyond: A Jewish Story
Another turn of the century conversionist novel by "E.W." (Elizabeth Wheeler) is The Great Beyond: A Jewish Story, published sometime in the late 1890s or the early 1900s in London.
In this story, Naomi Isaacs is the wife of Evan Isaacs, a formerly wealthy merchant who has recently lost most of his money in a stock market crash. Evan is the son of Abraham Isaacs, who has recently passed away and for whom money and wealth was the only goal in life. The narrator states that through the pursuit of money, Abraham "lost his health and his strength, and empty his soul embarked on the sea of eternity" (p. 7). Thus, Evan naturally is thinking about the "great beyond" as the story begins.
"At last his health broke down... He spent his hours in vain regrets, and, with nothing better to occupy his mind, he became weaker and weaker. He knew nothing of the Heavenly Comforter. ... Many [Jews] have oft found comfort in the reading of the Psalms, and they know their great Jehovah as the beneficent Creator, full of compassion, long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy, and thus they pour out their heart before Him. But Evan Isaacs knew not this, and thus despair took possession of him. He dreaded entering the confines of an eternal world. All was darkness, and he was afraid of the plunge; but once or twice came the words, "Have mercy upon me, O God," words which had often been read, but carelessly heard, in the synagogue. Then again and again would he repeat them, but no comfort he got" (p. 12-13).
Another important character in the books is Michael Isaacs, who is Evan's uncle. Angry and bitter, Michael had left the family for Australia some twenty years earlier. Michael was learned in the Jewish Bible and "all the endless rites of the Mosaic ritual he well knew" (p. 15).
"He was an intelligent young Jew. He had been taught to look for the Great Deliverer, the Great Prophet of his people" (p. 16). Michael arrived in Melbourne penniless, but he was befriended by a Christian businessman who took him in and offered him a job because "My Saviour was a Jew.... Your Jehovah became a man, a Jew, to atone to the mighty God for my guilt. From one of your nation I heard the glad tidings, and I hope to spend an eternity with Jesus, the sinners' Friend. So, for His sake, I offer you a situation and a home with me. I have no son, and you may fill the place" (p. 19).
Eventually Michael becomes a Christian and a wealthy businessman. At age 50, Michael reconnects with his family, mainly Evan, and decides to go back to England to try to convert Evan and his wife to the Christianity that he has come to know and love.
Michael does not at first explicitly tell Evan and Naomi about his new faith, but he reveals it by singing Christian hymns to Evan and then later speaking to him about it. Michael says to Evan: "My poor boy, I have crossed the ocean wave to tell you of Jesus, the sinners' Friend" (p. 28).
"The evenings were spent in conversing of eternal things, and to Evan's inquiring mind his uncle unfolded much that caused the former to wonder at. He was as a child, for he was ignorant of the Scriptures -- they were as a sealed book to him -- but his interest increased more and more" (p. 29).
After a few days of discussions, Evan is persuaded to believe in Jesus. He also slowly gets better from his physical ailments. [Coincidence? I think not!]
"No fear now of the Great Beyond, for now he knew that the dark, deep torrents of death another had braved for him and bridged them by Himself, and in the arms of His Saviour he would be safely carried across to Canaan's shore" (p. 32).
Because of Evan's poor health, Michael takes him to Australia, where his health improves with Michael's nurturing. Evan writes his wife a letter, and her reaction is consternation:
"The traitor!" she cried, "to come to our house and to rob me of my husband, to get him among the Gentile dogs to forsake the religion of our fathers. My husband an idolator! Oh, if he dies, Abraham's bosom, he will never enter. I shall never see him more. Oh! to me he is dead for ever" (p. 43-44).
When Naomi's father (a certain Mr. Maurice Davis) hears of what Evan has done, he says "The scoundrel! The sneak!" (p. 49).
Evan begs his wife to consider Christianity in letters he writes from Australia:
"I have found the One who has bridged the dark waters for me, and lighted up the valley which leads to that other land. Our fathers for many centuries, through the veil of types, were shown Him, but they will not, cannot see Him but by the Spirit of our God. Oh! Naomi, God had His own way of showing me Himself. He stripped me of all things here... Naomi, if you will not believe the gospel that the Christians preach, after it has been put before you, God alone knows the sorrows He will bring you through to have you for Himself... The beauty of our Scriptures surpasses all comprehension. As their meaning unfolds I am lost in wonder, and in wonder, too, in not having seen the heaven-sent Lamb through the veil of types ere this. It is so plain" (p. 53).
But these letters to Naomi, basing the Gospel message on stories and passages from the Hebrew Scriptures, are intercepted by her father so she does not see them. Naomi finds out about this subterfuge and confronts her father, who feels guilty about it already, and there results a conflict between the two that leads to Naomi leaving the house (with the letters and a New Testament that Evan had sent her). She and her son Ben go to Australia and meet Evan and Michael, and soon thereafter Naomi becomes a Christian. (She had been primed for this by reading the New Testament on the voyage and through evangelistic efforts by kindly Gentile Christians who had befriended her and told her of their love for the "Jewish race") (p. 77).
Maurice Davis, Naomi's father, gets addicted to gambling and loses his fortune, becoming bankrupt. He is helped out by a kindly Christian businessman, the same person who had offered to help Evan Isaacs earlier and who had given Naomi the money to travel to Australia. Maurice becomes a poor peddler, barely able to make ends meet.
Michael Isaacs decides to travel to Palestine, where he meets a Jewish man in a cafe. Michael says to him: "[Jesus] was our Messiah." "Oh! said the Jew. "Our Messiah is to be king." "Yes, said Michael, "and so He will." "but our God is One God." "Yes; but our Hebrew word for God signifies plurality...." (p. 104). Michael stays in Palestine for several years.
Meanwhile, Evan and Naomi have become very rich in the ten years that they have lived in Australia, and they decide to move back to England and retire. They end up buying the same large house that they had lived in earlier, and one day Maurice comes by peddling his wares. There is a great reunion, and then by chance (!) the same day (!), guess who shows up for dinner? Yes, it's Michael Isaacs, returned from his visit to Palestine! He and Maurice have many conversations, and then, after Michael's peaceful death, Maurice finally converts to Christianity. He dies a year later, a happy man, finally at peace with himself and others.
Epilogue:
The Great Beyond is one of the few 19th century conversionist novels that places the focal point of its conversion story on the fear of death and the afterlife. This theme is not entirely absent from other works of evangelical fiction. (See, for example, the short account of Rabbi Ben Uzziel in Adeline). But The Great Beyond makes fear of death the raison d'etre of believing in Jesus. It's an easy logical argument to follow (once you've accepted the premises of the argument): Believers in Jesus go to heaven after they die. Unbelievers go to hell after they die. Therefore, it's better to believe in Jesus. The well-known minister and political activist D. James Kennedy, founder of Evangelism Explosion, started his ministry back in the early 1960s with tracts that would ask, If you were to die tonight, are you certain that you would go to heaven? These kinds of scare tactics (for that is what they are, frankly) have been used before and since by countless agents of proselytizing. They feed on on a natural fear of the unknown, and they encourage conversion to Christianity during vulnerable periods of life, such as illness or peril. Think of foxhole repentance, death-bed conversions, and the like. One is much less likely to make a calm, rational, considered decision about religion when in the throes of a fatal illness; and under the same circumstance, imagine what happens to rational thinking when confronted by an evangelist who has just informed you that only born again Christians go to heaven, and all others spend eternity in the Lake of Fire?
In one of her other conversionary novels, From Petticoat Lane to Rotten Row, Wheeler writes about a fictional Jewish character with the last name of Davis who has a gambling problem. She repeats this plot device (another Jew named Davis who is addicted to gambling) in this book as well. I suppose that she's not the first author to do something like this, but still, I thought I should point it out.
In Wheeler's novels (and in many other conversionist stories), Jews who are mainstream in their beliefs (that is, they don't believe in Jesus as the Messiah) are often poor businessmen, whereas Jews who convert to Christianity are almost always wildly successful in business. Perhaps this is the forerunner of "prosperity theology," which teaches that the better Christian you are, the more God will bless you in financial ways. (And of course, what better way to succeed in business (without really trying) than to combine the financial shrewdness of the Jew with the guaranteed blessings of the Christian). Sadly (or happily, as the case may be), religion of any stripe has never ensured success on Wall Street.
In this story, Naomi Isaacs is the wife of Evan Isaacs, a formerly wealthy merchant who has recently lost most of his money in a stock market crash. Evan is the son of Abraham Isaacs, who has recently passed away and for whom money and wealth was the only goal in life. The narrator states that through the pursuit of money, Abraham "lost his health and his strength, and empty his soul embarked on the sea of eternity" (p. 7). Thus, Evan naturally is thinking about the "great beyond" as the story begins.
"At last his health broke down... He spent his hours in vain regrets, and, with nothing better to occupy his mind, he became weaker and weaker. He knew nothing of the Heavenly Comforter. ... Many [Jews] have oft found comfort in the reading of the Psalms, and they know their great Jehovah as the beneficent Creator, full of compassion, long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy, and thus they pour out their heart before Him. But Evan Isaacs knew not this, and thus despair took possession of him. He dreaded entering the confines of an eternal world. All was darkness, and he was afraid of the plunge; but once or twice came the words, "Have mercy upon me, O God," words which had often been read, but carelessly heard, in the synagogue. Then again and again would he repeat them, but no comfort he got" (p. 12-13).
Another important character in the books is Michael Isaacs, who is Evan's uncle. Angry and bitter, Michael had left the family for Australia some twenty years earlier. Michael was learned in the Jewish Bible and "all the endless rites of the Mosaic ritual he well knew" (p. 15).
"He was an intelligent young Jew. He had been taught to look for the Great Deliverer, the Great Prophet of his people" (p. 16). Michael arrived in Melbourne penniless, but he was befriended by a Christian businessman who took him in and offered him a job because "My Saviour was a Jew.... Your Jehovah became a man, a Jew, to atone to the mighty God for my guilt. From one of your nation I heard the glad tidings, and I hope to spend an eternity with Jesus, the sinners' Friend. So, for His sake, I offer you a situation and a home with me. I have no son, and you may fill the place" (p. 19).
Eventually Michael becomes a Christian and a wealthy businessman. At age 50, Michael reconnects with his family, mainly Evan, and decides to go back to England to try to convert Evan and his wife to the Christianity that he has come to know and love.
Michael does not at first explicitly tell Evan and Naomi about his new faith, but he reveals it by singing Christian hymns to Evan and then later speaking to him about it. Michael says to Evan: "My poor boy, I have crossed the ocean wave to tell you of Jesus, the sinners' Friend" (p. 28).
"The evenings were spent in conversing of eternal things, and to Evan's inquiring mind his uncle unfolded much that caused the former to wonder at. He was as a child, for he was ignorant of the Scriptures -- they were as a sealed book to him -- but his interest increased more and more" (p. 29).
After a few days of discussions, Evan is persuaded to believe in Jesus. He also slowly gets better from his physical ailments. [Coincidence? I think not!]
"No fear now of the Great Beyond, for now he knew that the dark, deep torrents of death another had braved for him and bridged them by Himself, and in the arms of His Saviour he would be safely carried across to Canaan's shore" (p. 32).
Because of Evan's poor health, Michael takes him to Australia, where his health improves with Michael's nurturing. Evan writes his wife a letter, and her reaction is consternation:
"The traitor!" she cried, "to come to our house and to rob me of my husband, to get him among the Gentile dogs to forsake the religion of our fathers. My husband an idolator! Oh, if he dies, Abraham's bosom, he will never enter. I shall never see him more. Oh! to me he is dead for ever" (p. 43-44).
When Naomi's father (a certain Mr. Maurice Davis) hears of what Evan has done, he says "The scoundrel! The sneak!" (p. 49).
Evan begs his wife to consider Christianity in letters he writes from Australia:
"I have found the One who has bridged the dark waters for me, and lighted up the valley which leads to that other land. Our fathers for many centuries, through the veil of types, were shown Him, but they will not, cannot see Him but by the Spirit of our God. Oh! Naomi, God had His own way of showing me Himself. He stripped me of all things here... Naomi, if you will not believe the gospel that the Christians preach, after it has been put before you, God alone knows the sorrows He will bring you through to have you for Himself... The beauty of our Scriptures surpasses all comprehension. As their meaning unfolds I am lost in wonder, and in wonder, too, in not having seen the heaven-sent Lamb through the veil of types ere this. It is so plain" (p. 53).
But these letters to Naomi, basing the Gospel message on stories and passages from the Hebrew Scriptures, are intercepted by her father so she does not see them. Naomi finds out about this subterfuge and confronts her father, who feels guilty about it already, and there results a conflict between the two that leads to Naomi leaving the house (with the letters and a New Testament that Evan had sent her). She and her son Ben go to Australia and meet Evan and Michael, and soon thereafter Naomi becomes a Christian. (She had been primed for this by reading the New Testament on the voyage and through evangelistic efforts by kindly Gentile Christians who had befriended her and told her of their love for the "Jewish race") (p. 77).
Maurice Davis, Naomi's father, gets addicted to gambling and loses his fortune, becoming bankrupt. He is helped out by a kindly Christian businessman, the same person who had offered to help Evan Isaacs earlier and who had given Naomi the money to travel to Australia. Maurice becomes a poor peddler, barely able to make ends meet.
Michael Isaacs decides to travel to Palestine, where he meets a Jewish man in a cafe. Michael says to him: "[Jesus] was our Messiah." "Oh! said the Jew. "Our Messiah is to be king." "Yes, said Michael, "and so He will." "but our God is One God." "Yes; but our Hebrew word for God signifies plurality...." (p. 104). Michael stays in Palestine for several years.
Meanwhile, Evan and Naomi have become very rich in the ten years that they have lived in Australia, and they decide to move back to England and retire. They end up buying the same large house that they had lived in earlier, and one day Maurice comes by peddling his wares. There is a great reunion, and then by chance (!) the same day (!), guess who shows up for dinner? Yes, it's Michael Isaacs, returned from his visit to Palestine! He and Maurice have many conversations, and then, after Michael's peaceful death, Maurice finally converts to Christianity. He dies a year later, a happy man, finally at peace with himself and others.
Epilogue:
The Great Beyond is one of the few 19th century conversionist novels that places the focal point of its conversion story on the fear of death and the afterlife. This theme is not entirely absent from other works of evangelical fiction. (See, for example, the short account of Rabbi Ben Uzziel in Adeline). But The Great Beyond makes fear of death the raison d'etre of believing in Jesus. It's an easy logical argument to follow (once you've accepted the premises of the argument): Believers in Jesus go to heaven after they die. Unbelievers go to hell after they die. Therefore, it's better to believe in Jesus. The well-known minister and political activist D. James Kennedy, founder of Evangelism Explosion, started his ministry back in the early 1960s with tracts that would ask, If you were to die tonight, are you certain that you would go to heaven? These kinds of scare tactics (for that is what they are, frankly) have been used before and since by countless agents of proselytizing. They feed on on a natural fear of the unknown, and they encourage conversion to Christianity during vulnerable periods of life, such as illness or peril. Think of foxhole repentance, death-bed conversions, and the like. One is much less likely to make a calm, rational, considered decision about religion when in the throes of a fatal illness; and under the same circumstance, imagine what happens to rational thinking when confronted by an evangelist who has just informed you that only born again Christians go to heaven, and all others spend eternity in the Lake of Fire?
In one of her other conversionary novels, From Petticoat Lane to Rotten Row, Wheeler writes about a fictional Jewish character with the last name of Davis who has a gambling problem. She repeats this plot device (another Jew named Davis who is addicted to gambling) in this book as well. I suppose that she's not the first author to do something like this, but still, I thought I should point it out.
In Wheeler's novels (and in many other conversionist stories), Jews who are mainstream in their beliefs (that is, they don't believe in Jesus as the Messiah) are often poor businessmen, whereas Jews who convert to Christianity are almost always wildly successful in business. Perhaps this is the forerunner of "prosperity theology," which teaches that the better Christian you are, the more God will bless you in financial ways. (And of course, what better way to succeed in business (without really trying) than to combine the financial shrewdness of the Jew with the guaranteed blessings of the Christian). Sadly (or happily, as the case may be), religion of any stripe has never ensured success on Wall Street.
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