What is the theme in The Promise by Chaim Potok?

Faith and modernity are themes in this story. Chaim Potok, the author of The Promise, was a rabbi and went to rabbinical school during a time when Judaism was undergoing a deep theological upheaval. In the mid nineteenth century, a variety of German Biblical Scholars had created a school of Biblical studies that relied heavily on secular historical accounts of the origins of the Scriptures.