Three We Have Lost the Problem of Conver
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When prominent Jewish intellectuals convert to Christianity, they challenge fundamental assumptions about religious identity, divine revelation, and the nature of faith itself. Through close analysis of autobiographical works by Karl Stern, John Friedman, and Eugenio Zolli—three influential Jewish converts to Roman Catholicism—a complex pattern of shared theological reasoning emerges. These converts uniformly embraced Jesus as the Messiah while claiming their Jewish heritage gave them unique insight into Christian truth. Their testimonies occupy an unsettling space between communities, simultaneously critiquing Judaism as ethnically restrictive and spiritually unfulfilled while celebrating Christianity's universal redemptive message. Yet this individual appropriation of divine revelation fundamentally misunderstands both messianic expectation and Jewish chosenness. Textual analysis reveals that by removing God's Word from its intended communal context within Israel and transforming collective revelation into personal possession, conversion to Christianity constitutes a theological error regarding providence and Israel's distinctive role in history. These findings illuminate how converts' liminal position between traditions both challenges and enriches our understanding of religious identity, while highlighting the tension between individual spiritual journeys and communal religious destinies.

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Published 1957
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Arthur Cohen