COHEN, ARTHUR A. Arthur A. Cohen (1928–1986) was an American Jewish theologian, novelist, essayist, editor, and publisher. Born in New York City, Cohen grew up in an affluent, assimilated Jewish home and was educated at the University of Chicago where he studied philosophy and religion. His first year at Chicago, on realizing "that Western culture is a Christian culture" (Stern and Mendes-Flohr, 1998, p. 34) he underwent a spiritual crisis and seriously considered converting to Christianity. To save their son from taking this path, his horrified parents enlisted the help of their rabbi, Milton Steinberg (1903–1950; arguably the most original Jewish American religious thinker of his day), and under Steinberg's tutelage, Cohen began to study Hebrew and Jewish texts. In 1949, after receiving a master of arts degree from the University of Chicago, Cohen spent six months in Jerusalem where he met Martin Buber (1878–1965) whose theology subsequently became the...