A brilliant light flashes. It strikes like lightning. Paul is shocked by a charge from heaven, and he is knocked from his horse. A voice vibrates about Paul which holds his attention in a vice-like grip. Paul is converted. The persecutor becomes the preacher.

The surprising element of this event is the realization that the conversion of Paul was the conversion of a radically religious person. Paul was the best of believers. Paul was a master of morality. He lived out every letter of the law. He was a superior student of the Scriptures. He was a dedicated defender of the demands of the law. Yet - he was converted.

For most of us, this fact undermines the very foundation of our understanding of the concept of conversion. From the social point of view, we associate conversion with rogues, repro…