The Pillar of Fire

by Karl Stern, Stanley L. Jaki (Introduction)

The spiritual odyssey of a Jewish German medical doctor who fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s and found Truth where he least expected. First printed in 1951, the book instantly became a best-seller. Now reprinted with a new Introduction.

Genres: Biography Memoir, Religion

310 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 2001

Reviews

[Matthew Reed · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Pillar of Fire is the spiritual autobiography of psychiatrist Dr. Karl Stern (1906-1975). It describes his journey from liberal Judaism to Marxist Dialectical Materialism to Orthodox Judaism to Christianity and Roman Catholicism, while simultaneously becoming a doctor and neuroscientist, and experiencing the horror of Hitler’s Germany. What is refreshing about this book, apart from the author’s warmth and intelligence, is that Stern unites within himself what is often artificially opposed; Music, Art, Social Justice, Science, Religion, and Psychology all find their places. Near the end of the book, Stern writes: “I have said that in entering the Church one does not have to give up any single positive value one has ever believed in. You think of yourself as a traitor to your past. You think you have to leave Goethe behind, or Tolstoy, or Gandhi, or Judaism, or whatnot. But there is nothing which is good in all these things which you do not find again in the Church. Now it is ordered and synthesized. It is molten in Christ.”

The last chapter in the book is a letter to the author’s brother, at the time living on kibbutz in Israel. It is an incredibly prophetic analysis of twentieth century society, and worth the price of the book.

Published in 1951, it is out of print, but if you can find it, please read it.

[Mary Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is Stern's spiritual autobiography, in a way. He was Jewish and German. A student or fellow at a prestigious center for study of neurology in Germany, he then had the good fortune to make it out of Germany in the 1930s, first to London, then Canada. Ultimately he became a Catholic. He seemed to write this book as an apologia, particularly to his former comrades in various groups for young Jews in pre-Nazi Germany (many of whom, he acknowledges, would be dead at the time of its writing).

This is hardly a conventional autobiography, as he barely touches on some crucial things (for instance, he mentions meeting another German refugee in London, a young woman; a few pages later, they are married, with no discussion of how their relationship developed) and goes on and on about other seemingly less important matters. I found the frequent references to people who were, no doubt, very prominent scientists or philosophers or whatever in Germany in, maybe, 1920, tedious.

On the other hand, I enjoyed the very "European" tone of the book and thought the beginning and ending chapters were, respectively, captivating and radiant. So, parts of the book sunk to 1-star level, others were 5 stars, and on the whole, I gave it 4.