List of converts to Christianity from nontheism

This is a list of notable converts to Christianity who were not theists before their conversion.[lower-alpha 1] All names should be sourced and the source should indicate they had not been a theist, not merely non-churchgoing, before conversion.

Converted to Anglicanism or Episcopalianism

• Joy Davidman – poet and wife of C. S. Lewis[1]
• Tamsin Greig – British actress raised as an atheist; converted at 30[2]
• Nicky Gumbel – Anglican priest known for the Alpha course; from atheism[3]
• Peter Hitchens – journalist who went from Trotskyism to Traditionalist conservatism; brother of the anti-theist and Vanity Fair writer Christopher Hitchens[4][5]
• C. E. M. Joad – English philosopher whose arguing against Christianity, from an agnostic perspective, earned him criticism from T. S. Eliot;[6] turned toward religion later, writing The Recovery of Belief a year before he died and returning to Christianity[7]
• C. S. Lewis – Oxford professor and writer; well known for The Chronicles of Narnia series, and for his apologetic Mere Christianity[8]
• Alister McGrath – biochemist and Christian theologian' founder of "scientific theology" and critic of Richard Dawkins in his book Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life[9]
• Enoch Powell – Conservative Party (UK) member who converted to Anglicanism[10]
• Michael Reiss – British bioethicist, educator, journalist, and Anglican priest; agnostic/secular upbringing[11]
• Dame Cicely Saunders – Templeton Prize and Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize-winning nurse known for palliative care; converted to Christianity as a young woman[12]
• Fay Weldon – British novelist and feminist[13]

Converted to Catholicism

• Mortimer J. Adler – American philosopher, educator, and popular author; converted to Catholicism from agnosticism, after decades of interest in Thomism[14][15]
• G. E. M. Anscombe – analytic philosopher, Thomist, literary executor for Ludwig Wittgenstein, and author of Modern Moral Philosophy; converted to Catholicism as a result of her extensive reading[16]
• Benedict Ashley – raised humanist; former Communist; became a noted theologian associated with River Forest Thomism[17][18]
• Maurice Baring – English author who converted in his thirties[19]
• Mark Bauerlein – English professor at Emory University and the author of 2008 book The Dumbest Generation, which won at the Nautilus Book Awards[20][21]
• Léon Bloy – French author who led to several notable conversions and was himself a convert from agnosticism[22][23]
• Paul Bourget – French author who became agnostic and positivist at 15, but returned to Catholicism at 35[24]
• Alexis Carrel – French surgeon and biologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1912[25]
• Salvador Dali, Famous Spanish Painter, raised atheist by his father but later converted to Catholicism
• Alfred Döblin, German novelist, essayist and doctor, a former convert from Judaism to atheism
• Avery Dulles – Jesuit priest, theologian, and cardinal in the Catholic Church; was raised Presbyterian, but was an agnostic before his conversion to Catholic Christianity[26][27]
• Alice Thomas Ellis – born Anna Haycraft, raised in Auguste Comte's atheistic "church of humanity", but became a conservative Catholic in adulthood known as Alice Thomas Ellis[28]
• Edward Feser – Christian philosopher and author, wrote The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism[29][30]
• André Frossard – French journalist and essayist[31][32]
• Maggie Gallagher – conservative activist and a founder of the National Organization for Marriage[33]
• Eugene D. Genovese – historian who went from Stalinist to Catholicism[34]
• Dawn Eden Goldstein – rock journalist of Jewish ethnicity; went from an agnostic to a Catholic, who was particularly concerned with the moral values of chastity[35][36]
• Bill Hayden – The 21st Governor-General of Australia. In 1996 he was recognised as the Australian Humanist of the Year by the Council of Australian Humanist Societies.[37] Baptized September 2018.[38]
• Mary Karr – author of The Liars' Club; Guggenheim Fellow; once described herself as an "undiluted agnostic", but converted to a self-acknowledged "Cafeteria Catholicism" who embraces Pro-Choice views, amongst others[39][40]
• Ignace Lepp – French psychiatrist whose parents were freethinkers and who joined the Communist party at age fifteen; broke with the party in 1937 and eventually became a Catholic priest[41]
• Leah Libresco – popular (former) atheist blogger; her search for a foundation for her sense of morality led her to Christianity; she continues her blog under a new name, Unequally Yoked.[42] Her blog readership has increased significantly since her conversion.[43]
• Arnold Lunn – skier, mountaineer, and writer; as an agnostic he wrote Roman Converts, which took a critical view of Catholicism and the converts to it; later converted to Catholicism due to debating with converts, and became an apologist for the faith, although he retained a few criticisms of it[44]
• Gabriel Marcel – leading Christian existentialist; his upbringing was agnostic[45]
• Claude McKay – bisexual Jamaican poet who went from Communist-leaning atheist to an active Catholic Christian after a stroke[46][47]
• Vittorio Messori – Italian journalist and writer called the "most translated Catholic writer in the world" by Sandro Magister; before his conversion in 1964 he had a "perspective as a secularist and agnostic"[48][49][50]
• Czesław Miłosz – poet, prose writer, translator and diplomat; was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and in 1980 the Nobel Prize in Literature[51]
• Malcolm Muggeridge – British journalist and author who went from agnosticism to the Catholic Church[52][53]
• Bernard Nathanson – medical doctor who was a founding member of NARAL, later becoming a pro-life proponent[54]
• Fulton Oursler – writer who was raised Baptist, but spent decades as an agnostic before converting; The Greatest Story Ever Told is based on one of his works[55][56]
• Giovanni Papini – went from pragmatic atheism to Catholicism, also a fascist[57]
• Joseph Pearce – anti-Catholic and agnostic British National Front member who became a devoted Catholic writer with a series on EWTN[58][59]
• Charles Péguy – French poet, essayist, and editor; went from agnostic humanist to a pro-Republic Catholic[60]
• Sally Read – Eric Gregory Award-winning poet who converted to Catholicism[61]
• E. F. Schumacher – economic thinker known for Small Is Beautiful; his A Guide for the Perplexed criticizes what he termed "materialistic scientism;" went from atheism to Buddhism to Catholicism[62][63]
• Peter Steele – lead singer of Type O Negative[64]
• Edith Stein – Phenomenologist philosopher who converted to Catholicism and became a Discalced Carmelite nun; declared a saint by John Paul II[65]
• John Lawson Stoddard – divinity student who became an agnostic and "scientific humanist;" later he converted to Catholicism; his son Lothrop Stoddard remained agnostic and would be significant to scientific racism[66]
• R. J. Stove – raised atheist, converted to Catholicism[67]
• Allen Tate – American poet, essayist and social commentator; Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress[68]
• Victor Turner – A British cultural anthropologist best known for his work on symbols, rituals and rites of passage.[69]
• Sigrid Undset – Norwegian Nobel laureate who converted to Catholicism from agnosticism[70]
• J. D. Vance – The writer of Hillbilly Elegy.[71]
• Evelyn Waugh – British novelist who converted to Catholicism from agnosticism[72]
• John C. Wright – science fiction author who went from atheist to Catholic;[73] Chapter 1 of the book "Atheist to Catholic: 11 Stories of Conversion", edited by Rebecca Vitz Cherico, is by him[74]

Converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity

• Emir Kusturica – filmmaker, actor, and musician; although of Muslim ancestry, his father was atheist;[75] took the name "Nemanja" on conversion in 2005[76]
• Seraphim Rose – Hieromonk and religious writer; in early adulthood he considered non-theist ideas of God and the Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche that God is dead; became Russian Orthodox in 1962[77][78]
• Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn – Nobel Prize-winning dissident author who converted to Russian Orthodoxy[79]

Converted to Protestantism

• Steve Beren – former member of the U.S. Socialist Workers Party who became a Christian conservative politician[80]
• Kirk Cameron – actor noted for his role in Growing Pains[81][82][83]
• Francis Collins – physician-geneticist, noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes; director of the National Human Genome Research Institute; former atheist[84]
• Bo Giertz – Swedish Confessional Lutheran Bishop, theologian, and writer[85]
• Simon Greenleaf – one of the main founders of Harvard Law School[86][87]
• Keir Hardie – raised atheist and became a Christian Socialist[88][89]
• Paul Jones – musician, of Manfred Mann; previously atheist; in 1967 he argued with Cliff Richard about religion on a TV show[90][91]
• Kang Kek Iew (also known as Comrade Duch) – Cambodian director of Phnom Penh's infamous Tuol Sleng detention center[92]
• Akiane Kramarik (and family) – American poet and child prodigy raised as an atheist and converted to Christianity[93][94]
• Jonny Lang – blues and rock singer who professed to once "hating" Christianity, before later claiming to have a supernatural encounter with Jesus Christ which led to his conversion[95]
• Chai Ling – Chinese student leader of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989; converted to evangelical Christianity in 2009[96][97]
• John Warwick Montgomery – renowned Christian apologist, Lutheran theologian, and barrister; as a philosophy major in college, he investigated the claims of Christianity "to preserve intellectual integrity" and converted[98]
• William J. Murray  – author and son of atheist activist Madalyn Murray O'Hair[99]
• Marvin Olasky – former Marxist turned Christian conservative; edits the Christian World magazine[100][101]
• George R. Price – geneticist who became an Evangelical Christian and wrote about the New Testament; later he moderated his evangelistic tendencies and switched from religious writing to working with the homeless[102][103]
• Mira Sorvino – Academy Award-winning actress who had been on Humanist lists[104][105]
• Lee Strobel – former avowed atheist and journalist for the Chicago Tribune; was converted by his own journalistic research intended to test the veracity of scriptural claims concerning Jesus; author of such apologetic books as The Case for Faith and The Case for Christ[106][107]
• Lacey Sturm – musician, former vocalist and lyricist for alternative metal band Flyleaf[108]
• David Wood – Christian Apologist and critic of Islam who was brought up as an atheist.[109]

Converts to the Quaker faith

• Whittaker Chambers – former Communist turned conservative writer[110][111]
• Gerald Priestland – news correspondent who discusses having once been the "school atheist" in Something Understood: An Autobiography; became a Quaker after an emotional breakdown[112]

Unspecified or other

• Peter Baltes – former heavy metal musician, member of Accept[113][114]
• Anders Borg  – Sweden's former Minister for Finance[115]
• Julie Burchill – British journalist and feminist[116]
• Nicole Cliffe – writer and journalist who co-founded The Toast[117][118]
• Jeffery Dahmer – serial killer and convict who was baptized by Churches of Christ minister Roy Ratcliff[119]
• Bruce Cockburn – Canadian folk/rock guitarist and singer/songwriter (former agnostic)[120]
• Karl Dallas – British music journalist, author and political activist[121]
• Larry Darby – former Holocaust denier and former member of the American Atheists[122][123]
• Terry A. Davis – American computer programmer who created and designed an entire operating system, TempleOS, by himself. Davis grew up Catholic and was an atheist before experiencing a self-described "revelation". He described the experience as seeming "a lot like mental illness ... I felt guilty for being such a technology-advocate atheist ... It would sound polite if you said I scared myself thinking about quantum computers."[124]
• Andrew Klavan – Jewish-American writer who went from atheist to agnostic to Christian.[125][126]
• Nina Karin Monsen – Norwegian moral philosopher and author who grew up in a humanist family, but later converted to Christianity through philosophic thinking[127]
• Rosalind Picard – Director of the Affective computing Research Group at the MIT Media Lab; raised atheist, but converted to Christianity in her teens[128]
• Allan Sandage – prolific astronomer; converted to Christianity later in his life, stating, "I could not live a life full of cynicism. I chose to believe, and a peace of mind came over me."[129]
• Rodney Stark – a formerly agnostic sociologist of religion.[130]
• A. N. Wilson – biographer and novelist who entered the theological St Stephen's House, Oxford before proclaiming himself an atheist and writing against religion; announced his return to Christianity in 2009[131]

Notes

1. See "Nontheism" for specifics of what encompasses nontheism.

References

1. San Francisco Chronicle: At 8, she read H. G. Wells' "The Outline of History" and pronounced herself an atheist
2. Interview with Tamsin Greig in The Guardian
3. Interview at the Guardian
4. Near Christianity: "Hitchens describes his tumultuous journey from atheist to Christian and the moral reasoning that caused his conversion," book description
5. I couldn't paint golden angels by Albert Meltzer, pg 319
6. The Return of Christian Humanism by Lee Oser, pg 46
7. Humanist Heritage
8. "Lewis lapsed into atheism in his teens but experienced a reconversion to Christianity in 1931." Lewis, C.S.. (2007). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 28 June 2007, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online
9. biography on official website Archived 5 December 2006 at the Wayback Machine
10. The Guardian's obituary of Powell
11. The Guardian
12. Article from the University of Wollongong
13. The Guardian Quote: Even though she was raised an atheist, in the past three or four years she has been going to church. In her eighth decade, she has even submitted to being baptised.
14. Grand Forks Herald
15. Free Inquiry
16. Voices Online Edition Archived 24 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine "Elizabeth voraciously read books concerning religious faith. ... She finally announced, at 15, that she wanted to become a Catholic."
17. Obituary in the Chicago Tribune
18. Profile in "The Core: The College Magazine of the University of Chicago": "I was gradually convinced by my own reflections that Aquinas had provided a better case for theism than Marx or Darwin had provided against it,"
19. Crisis Magazine
20. "My Failed Atheism" in "First Things"
21. "Atheism to Catholicism: a faith journey" – Dr. Mark Bauerlein at Eastern Mennonite University
22. Medieval Roles for Modern Times by Helen Solterer, pg 85
23. Tim Stanley's blog at The Telegraph
24. Career stories: Belle Epoque novels of professional development by Juliette M. Rogers, pg 55
25. Alexis Carrel, The Voyage to Lourdes (New York, Harper & Row, 1939).
26. Obituary at the Guardian
27. Newsweek obituary
28. Telegraph "She reacted strongly against her parents' beliefs and became a Catholic at 19, because she 'no longer found it possible to disbelieve in God.'" (pg 2)
29. "American Enterprise Institute". Archived from the original on 26 October 2014. Retrieved 4 July 2013.
30. Page for "The Last Superstition"
31. Obituary at the Independent
32. I have met Him: God exists by André Frossard "We were what could be called perfect atheists, the kind that no longer ever question their atheism." (not in link itself)
33. "The making of gay marriage’s top foe" by Mark Oppenheimer; Salon: "I was an atheist from the youngest age. When I was 16, I became a Randian. Becoming a Catholic began as an intellectual thing."
34. Interview in the National Review: FMG:You've mentioned that you now believe in God. How recent is that? Eugene Genovese: It's in the last two years. You know, in The Southern Front I still spoke as an atheist; one reviewer said that I protest too much. When the book came off the press and I had to reread it, I started wrestling with the problem philosophically, and I lost.
35. St. Petersburg Times
36. MSNBC
37. Australian Humanists of the Year
38. "Former atheist and political leader Bill Hayden baptised at age 85 at St Mary's Church, Ipswich". The Catholic Leader. 18 September 2018. Retrieved 18 September 2018. See also Kristian Silva, 'Bill Hayden, former Labor leader, turns to God despite atheist past', ABC News, 19 September 2018.
39. UC Berkeley article
40. PBS
41. Time Magazine from 19 July 1963 "Lepp has the credentials to explain the mind of the atheist: he was one himself for 27 years."
42. Unequally Yoked (blog at Patheos.com)
43. Popular Atheist Blogger, Leah Libresco, Converts to Christianity by James Bishop, 6 January 2017
44. Catholic Converts: British and American Intellectuals Turn to Rome by Patrick Allitt, pg 199-201
45. Phenomenological approaches to moral philosophy By John J. Drummond, Lester E. Embree; pg 269
46. A Fierce Hatred of Injustice By Winston James, Claude McKay: "Prior to his conversion to Catholicism in 1944, his atheism was one of the most powerful and enduring threads of continuity in his outlook on life."
47. Claude McKay: rebel sojourner in the Harlem Renaissance : a biography, pgs 357-359
48. "From Rome to the World: The Global Offensive of the Catholic Media" 20 August 2004 Archived 22 April 2005 at the Wayback Machine
49. Who's who in hell by Warren Allen Smith, pg 57
50. First Things Archived 10 April 2013 at the Wayback Machine
51. Haven, Cynthia L., "'A Sacred Vision': An Interview with Czesław Miłosz", in Haven, Cynthia L. (ed.), Czesław Miłosz: Conversations. University Press of Mississippi, 2006, p. 145.
52. Malcolm Muggeridge: A Life by Ian Hunter
53. Chicago Sun-Times obituary
54. Nathanson, Bernand Aborting America (1981 Pinnacle Books)
55. The Miami News - 9 April 1965: "His conversion to Catholicism ended 50 years of questioning doubt as an agnostic."
56. Rome News-Tribune - 29 May 1952
57. Cassell dictionary of Italian literature, pg 423: "Although a confirmed atheist in his youth, Papini experienced a religious conversion in later life..."
58. Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture Archived 12 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine
59. The American Spectator Archived 9 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine
60. Political ecumenism: Catholics, Jews and Protestants in de Gaulle's Free ... by Geoffrey Adams, pg 85
61. Australian Broadcasting Corporation
62. Sustaining the earth by John Young, pgs 96-112
63. New Scientist 26 July 1984. pg 38
64. Decibel Magazine Archived 17 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine
65. University of Chicago "made a spiritual journey from atheism to agnosticism before eventually converting to Catholicism"
66. Race: the history of an idea in America by Thomas F. Gossett, pg 390
67. The American Conservative
68. "...he was an atheist arguing for religious values, a man writing an essay on religion 'in a spirit of irreligion.'... He would not convert to Catholicism for two decades, but his need for religious authority was acute even in 1930." Allen Tate: Orphan of the South, p. 167, biographer Thomas A. Underwood, Princeton University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-691-06950-6
69. Bjørn Thomassen (6 May 2016). Liminality and the Modern: Living Through the In-Between. Routledge. pp. 78–80. ISBN 978-1-317-10504-6.
70. Norwegian Women's Writing 1850-1990 by Janet Garton, Page 125
71. Interview in the American Conservative: I also went through an angry atheist phase. As someone who spent a lot of his life buying into the lie that you had to be stupid to be a Christian, Augustine really demonstrated in a moving way that that’s not true.
72. Six Modern British Novelists by George Stade, pgs 53-55
73. Interview with John C. Wright at "Mostly Fiction": "For many years I had been an atheist, and a vehement, argumentative, proselytizing atheist at that. I saw no other possible option for belief for a logical thinker. My recent conversion to Christianity was a miracle, prompted by a supernatural revelation, which has satisfied my skepticism in this area, and saved my life."
74. Amazon page for "Atheist to Catholic"
75. The Guardian
76. "Atlantic Times". Archived from the original on 4 May 2013. Retrieved 10 February 2013.
77. Nihilism by Eugene Rose from Columbia University Archived 2 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine
78. Pomona College Archived 14 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine
79. "The Australian". Archived from the original on 19 September 2009. Retrieved 8 April 2012.
80. Seattle Times "In 1975, he threw off his atheism and became a Christian."
81. Bashir, Martin (7 May 2007), "Does God Exist? The Nightline Faceoff", ABC News, retrieved 4 April 2009
82. "Back of Book Segment". The O'Reilly Factor Flash. 12 April 2006. Retrieved 8 December 2008.
83. Cameron, Kirk; Ray Comfort (2004). The Way of the Master. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. p. Foreword. ISBN 1-4143-0061-1.
84. "He converted from atheism to Christianity in his twenties after seeing how radically his patients' faith transformed their experience of suffering, and after reading several works by C. S. Lewis." The Question of God: Interview with Francis Collins, WGBH Educational Foundation, 2004 (Accessed 14 June 2007)
85. [Bo Giertz, The Hammer of God,revised edition, XIII, Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis, 2005.
86. "Testimony of the Evangelists by Simon Greenleaf". law2.umkc.edu. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
87. M. Maisel, John. "Jesus God". Meekness and Truth. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
88. Men who made Labour: the PLP of 1906, pg 75
89. Spartacus Schoolnet Archived 20 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine "Although raised as an atheist, Hardie was converted to Christianity in 1897."
90. Stockport Express 17 May 2006
91. Cotswold Journal 14 October 2010
92. "The Killer and the Pastor" article from Time.com
93. Beryhill, Mary. "Akiane Kramarik: Dream Child". Christianity Today. Archived from the original on 24 January 2007. Retrieved 23 February 2013.
94. Centi, Lori Rose. "Interview: Akiane speaks of heaven and paintings". The Washington Post. Retrieved 23 February 2013.
95. Archived 15 July 2014 at the Wayback Machine "I knew it was Jesus immediately from the moment I started shaking. It was like he just came up and introduced himself to me. I remember him saying, "You don’t have to have this if you don’t want it". And I said, "No, I want it"."
96. The Post and Courier
97. USA Today
99. statement of William J. Murray
100. Marxism and Me by Marvin Olasky Archived 29 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine: My communism was based on atheism, and when I could no longer be an atheist, I resigned from the party.
101. Creators Syndicate Profile
102. University of Bielefeld
103. Chronicle of Higher Education article obituary (Copied by Gametheory.net) has the following "Because George was a fire-spitting atheist and Julia a devout Christian, their relationship was contentious from the beginning. After eight years, the marriage ended in acrimony." "On June 7 [1970] I gave in and admitted that God existed", he explained to friends.
104. American Humanist's "Top Ten Sexiest Female Celebrity Atheists" Archived 6 March 2015 at the Wayback Machine
105. Article by Mira Sorvino in "Guideposts", via Huffington Post, where she mentions her Christian faith
106. Barry, JD (2009). "Investigative Bible Study: Lee Strobel on Engaging a Pluralistic World". Bible Study Magazine: 10–14.
107. Lee Strobel Books and Ministry Archived 6 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Christnotes.org. Retrieved on 2011-11-14.
108. Interview for Christianity Today: I was so outspoken about not believing in God. I had real problems with Christians.]
109. Dearborn Free Press: "Amazing Grace Amid Profound Controversy" by Jonathan Light August 31, 2010
110. Heritage Foundation
111. TruTV: "He had been an atheist and had been kicked out of Columbia University for writing a play considered blasphemous."
112. Antiqbook
113. TheTrueSeven. Peter Baltes of Accept Heavy metal band from Germany. 23 September 2011. Retrieved on 13 October 2014.
114. http://www.cbn.com/700club/features/amazing/Peter_Baltes082609.aspx
115. Wall Street Journal
116. The Guardian "I grew up, and stopped being an atheist, in my 20s, in the 1980s."
117. Christianity Today
118. Slate blogs
119. "Dahmer found religion, played pranks in prison". The Beaver County Times. Associated Press. 28 November 1994. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
120. "I was brought up as an agnostic... and when I first became a Christian in the Seventies I didn't really know what it was I'd adopted." Faith in Practice: Holding on to the Mystery of Love, by Bruce Cockburn as told to Cole Morton, Third Way, September 1994, page 15. (Accessed 13 June 2007)
121. Becky Barnicoat, Weekender: Karl Dallas, writer, 82, The Guardian, 27 April 2013. Retrieved 2 July 2013
122. Ohio Atheists Archived 20 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine
123. Statement disavowing Atheism
124. Hicks, Jesse (25 November 2014). "God's Lonely Programmer". VICE Motherboard. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
125. Forbes
126. Christian Post
127. "Norge IDAG - Monsen med bok om sin tro". Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
128. Interview at Inspire Magazine
129. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/science-obituaries/8150004/Allan-Sandage.html
130. CESNUR interview
131. New Statesman