This is a list of notable converts to Christianity who were not theists before their conversion.[a] All names should be sourced and the source should indicate they had not been a theist, not merely non-churchgoing, before conversion.
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]
Mortimer J. Adler – American philosopher, educator, and popular author; converted to Catholicism from agnosticism, after decades of interest in Thomism[14][15]
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[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]
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[39]
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.[40] Her blog readership has increased significantly since her conversion.[41]
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[42]
Claude McKay – bisexual Jamaican poet who went from Communist-leaning atheist to an active Catholic Christian after a stroke[44][45]
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"[46][47][48]
Evelyn Waugh – British novelist who converted to Catholicism from agnosticism[70]
John C. Wright – science fiction author who went from atheist to Catholic;[71] Chapter 1 of the book Atheist to Catholic: 11 Stories of Conversion, edited by Rebecca Vitz Cherico, is by him[72]
Converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Emir Kusturica – filmmaker, actor, and musician; although of Muslim ancestry, his father was atheist;[73] took the name "Nemanja" on conversion in 2005[74]
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[93]
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[97]
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[105][106]
Gerald Priestland – news correspondent who discusses having once been the "school atheist" in Something Understood: An Autobiography; became a Quaker after an emotional breakdown[111]
Robert Davidson – Australian composer and bassist. Atheist until the age of 48, when a self-described "revelation of divine love" led him to describe himself as an "ex atheist".[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]
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."[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[134]
Notes
^See "Nontheism" for specifics of what encompasses nontheism.
^Near Christianity: "Hitchens describes his tumultuous journey from atheist to Christian and the moral reasoning that caused his conversion," book description
^"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
^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.
^Voices Online EditionArchived 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."
^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)
^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.
^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.
^"...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, ISBN0-691-06950-6
^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.
^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."
^"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)
^[Bo Giertz, The Hammer of God, revised edition, XIII, Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis, 2005.
^http://theendisforever.com/2008/11/12/spotlight-jonny-lang/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"."
^Chronicle of Higher Education article obituary (Copied by Gametheory.net)Archived 16 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine 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.
^"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)
