List Of Converts To Christianity From Nontheism

This is a list of notable converts to Christianity who were not theists before their conversion. 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
*Tamsin Greig – British actress raised as an atheist; converted at 30
*Nicky Gumbel – Anglican priest known for the Alpha course; from atheism
*Peter Hitchens – journalist who went from Trotskyism to Traditionalist conservatism; brother of the anti-theist and '' Vanity Fair'' writer Christopher Hitchens
*C. E. M. Joad – English philosopher whose arguing against Christianity, from an agnostic perspective, earned him criticism from T. S. Eliot; turned toward religion later, writing ''The Recovery of Belief'' a year before he died and returning to Christianity
* C. S. Lewis – Oxford professor and writer; well known for ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' series, and for his apologetic ''Mere Christianity''"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
* 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''
*Enoch Powell – Conservative Party (UK) member who converted to Anglicanism
* Michael Reiss – British bioethicist, educator, journalist, and Anglican priest; agnostic/secular upbringing
* Dame Cicely Saunders – Templeton Prize and Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize-winning nurse known for palliative care; converted to Christianity as a young woman
*Fay Weldon – British novelist and feminist

Converted to Catholicism

*Mortimer J. Adler – American philosopher, educator, and popular author; converted to Catholicism from agnosticism, after decades of interest in Thomism
*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
*Benedict Ashley – raised humanist; former Communist; became a noted theologian associated with River Forest Thomism
*Maurice Baring – English author who converted in his thirties
*Mark Bauerlein – English professor at Emory University and the author of 2008 book ''The Dumbest Generation'', which won at the Nautilus Book Awards
*Léon Bloy – French author who led to several notable conversions and was himself a convert from agnosticism
*Paul Bourget – French author who became agnostic and positivist at 15, but returned to Catholicism at 35
* Alexis Carrel – French surgeon and biologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1912Alexis Carrel, ''The Voyage to Lourdes'' (New York, Harper & Row, 1939).
* Salvador Dalí, 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
*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
*Edward Feser – Christian philosopher and author, wrote ''The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism''
*André Frossard – French journalist and essayist
*Maggie Gallagher – conservative activist and a founder of the National Organization for Marriage
* Eugene D. Genovese – historian who went from Stalinist to Catholicism
*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
*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. Baptized September 2018.
*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
* 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
* 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''. Her blog readership has increased significantly since her conversion.
*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
*Gabriel Marcel – leading Christian existentialist; his upbringing was agnostic
*Claude McKay – bisexual Jamaican poet who went from Communist-leaning atheist to an active Catholic Christian after a stroke
*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"
* Czesław Miłosz – poet, prose writer, translator and diplomat; was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and in 1980 the Nobel Prize in LiteratureHaven, 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.
*Malcolm Muggeridge – British journalist and author who went from agnosticism to the Catholic Church
*Bernard Nathanson – medical doctor who was a founding member of NARAL, later becoming an anti-abortion activist
*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
*Giovanni Papini – went from pragmatic atheism to Catholicism, also a fascist
*Joseph Pearce – anti-Catholic and agnostic British National Front member who became a devoted Catholic writer with a series on EWTN
*Charles Péguy – French poet, essayist, and editor; went from agnostic humanist to a pro-Republic Catholic
* Sally Read – Eric Gregory Award-winning poet who converted to Catholicism
*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
*Peter Steele – lead singer of Type O Negative
*Edith Stein – Phenomenologist philosopher who converted to Catholicism and became a Discalced Carmelite nun; declared a saint by John Paul II
*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
*R. J. Stove – raised atheist, converted to Catholicism
*Allen Tate – American poet, essayist and social commentator; Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress
*Victor Turner – A British cultural anthropologist best known for his work on symbols, rituals and rites of passage.
*Sigrid Undset – Norwegian Nobel laureate who converted to Catholicism from agnosticism
*J. D. Vance – The writer of Hillbilly Elegy.
*Evelyn Waugh – British novelist who converted to Catholicism from agnosticism
* John C. Wright – science fiction author who went from atheist to Catholic; Chapter 1 of the book "Atheist to Catholic: 11 Stories of Conversion", edited by Rebecca Vitz Cherico, is by him

Converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity

*Emir Kusturica – filmmaker, actor, and musician; although of Muslim ancestry, his father was atheist; took the name "Nemanja" on conversion in 2005
*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
*Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn – Nobel Prize-winning dissident author who converted to Russian Orthodoxy

Converted to Protestantism

*Steve Beren – former member of the U.S. Socialist Workers Party who became a Christian conservative politician
*Kirk Cameron – actor noted for his role in ''Growing Pains''
*Francis Collins – physician-geneticist, noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes; director of the National Human Genome Research Institute; former atheist
*Bo Giertz – Swedish Confessional Lutheran Bishop, theologian, and writer
*Simon Greenleaf – one of the main founders of Harvard Law School
*Keir Hardie – raised atheist and became a Christian Socialist
* Paul Jones – musician, of Manfred Mann; previously atheist; in 1967 he argued with Cliff Richard about religion on a TV show
*Kang Kek Iew (also known as Comrade Duch) – Cambodian director of Phnom Penh's infamous Tuol Sleng detention center
*Akiane Kramarik (and family) – American poet and child prodigy
*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
*Chai Ling – Chinese student leader of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989; converted to evangelical Christianity in 2009
*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
*William J. Murray  – author and son of atheist activist Madalyn Murray O'Hair
*Marvin Olasky – former Marxist turned Christian conservative; edits the Christian ''World'' magazine
*George R. Price – geneticist who became an Evangelical Christian and wrote about the New Testament; later he began to engage less in evangelism and switched from religious writing to working with the homeless
*Mira Sorvino – Academy Award-winning actress who had been on secular humanist lists
*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''
*Lacey Sturm – musician, former vocalist and lyricist for alternative metal band Flyleaf

Converts to the Quaker faith

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

Unspecified or other

* Peter Baltes – former heavy metal musician, member of Accept
*Anders Borg  – Sweden's former Minister for Finance
*Julie Burchill – British journalist and feminist
*Nicole Cliffe – writer and journalist who co-founded ''The Toast''
*Bruce Cockburn – Canadian folk/rock guitarist and singer/songwriter (former agnostic)
*Karl Dallas – British music journalist, author and political activistBecky Barnicoat, ''Weekender: Karl Dallas, writer, 82'', The Guardian, 27 April 2013
Retrieved 2 July 2013
*Larry Darby – former Holocaust denier and former member of the American Atheists
*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."
*Andrew Klavan – Jewish-American writer who went from atheist to agnostic to Christian.
* Nina Karin Monsen – Norwegian moral philosopher and author who grew up in a humanist family, but later converted to Christianity through philosophic thinking
*Rosalind Picard – Director of the Affective computing Research Group at the MIT Media Lab; raised atheist, but converted to Christianity in her teens
*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."
*Rodney Stark – a formerly agnostic sociologist of religion.
*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 2009New Statesman
/ref>

Notes

References

{{Lists of converts

C