Books: Strait Is the Gate

HEAVEN AND EARTH (318 pp.)—Carlo Coccioli—Prentice-Hall ($3.50).

When a novelist chooses religion for his theme and a priest for his hero, he faces as hard a problem as fiction can pose. His hero must be a man of faith—and if that faith is to ring true, the novelist cannot, like Homer or Hemingway, give his hero the sort of dash that enlivens the worldling in fiction. His moral lapses are less endurable than in another man; ultimately, and foreseeably, he must prove his mettle by self-denial.

These are some of the reasons why most religious...