List Of Converts From Atheism To Christianity

It is no news any more that hundreds of atheist and non-theist around the world are coming to the light of the glorious gospel of Christ Jesus and and putting their faith in Him.

This is a list of over 100 notable converts from non-theism to Christianity.

Nontheism means not believing in any gods, which is the same as the broad definition of atheism. The prefixes “a-” and “non-” mean exactly the same thing: not, without, lacking. Each belief system agrees that there are no deities that created or control mankind. Essentially the belief is that man is on their own and will not be helped by a higher power. Many atheists and nontheists believe strongly in science and the scientific method.

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Notable Converts From Nontheism To Christianity

1. 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
2. Akiane Kramarik (and family) – American poet and child prodigy raised as an atheist and converted to Christianity
3. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn – Nobel Prize-winning dissident author who converted to Russian Orthodoxy
4. Alexis Carrel – French surgeon and biologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
5. Alexis Mason – A Militant Atheist who Turned Christian
6. Alfred Döblin, German novelist, essayist and doctor, a former convert from Judaism to atheism
7. 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
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. 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.”
10. Allen Tate – American poet, essayist and social commentator; Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress
11. Anders Borg  – Sweden’s Minister for Finance
12. André Frossard – French journalist and essayist
13. Andrew Klavan – Jewish-American writer who went from atheist to agnostic to Christian.
14. 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
15. Avery Dulles – Jesuit priest, theologian, and cardinal in the Catholic Church; was raised Presbyterian, but was an agnostic before his conversion to Catholic Christianity
16. Barak Lurie – A Jewish Atheist
17. Benedict Ashley – raised humanist; former Communist; became a noted theologian associated with River Forest Thomism
18. Bernard Nathanson – medical doctor who was a founding member of NARAL, later becoming a pro-life proponent
19. 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 .
20. Bo Giertz – Swedish Confessional Lutheran Bishop, theologian, and writer
21. Bruce Cockburn – Canadian folk/rock guitarist and singer/songwriter (former agnostic)
22. 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
23. C. S. Lewis – Oxford professor and writer; well known for The Chronicles of Narnia series, and for his apologetic Mere Christianity
24. Chai Ling – Chinese student leader of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989; converted to evangelical Christianity in 2009
25. Charles Péguy – French poet, essayist, and editor; went from agnostic humanist to a pro-Republic Catholic.
26. Claude McKay – bisexual Jamaican poet who went from Communist-leaning atheist to an active Catholic Christian after a stroke
27. Czesław Miłosz – poet, prose writer, translator and diplomat; was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and in 1980 the Nobel Prize in Literature
28. Dame Cicely Saunders – Templeton Prize and Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize-winning nurse known for palliative care; converted to Christianity as a young woman
    
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29. 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
30. 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
31. Edith Stein – Phenomenologist philosopher who converted to Catholicism and became a Discalced Carmelite nun; declared a saint by John Paul II
32. Edward Feser – Christian philosopher and author, wrote The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism
33. Emir Kusturica – filmmaker, actor, and musician; although of Muslim ancestry, his father was atheist; took the name “Nemanja” on conversion in
34. Enoch Powell – Conservative Party (UK) member who converted to Anglicanism
35. Eugene D. Genovese – historian who went from Stalinist to Catholicism
36. Evelyn Waugh – British novelist who converted to Catholicism from agnosticism
37. Fay Weldon – British novelist and feminist
38. Francis Collins – physician-geneticist, noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes; director of the National Human Genome Research Institute; former atheist
39. 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
40. 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
41. Gabriel Marcel – leading Christian existentialist; his upbringing was agnostic
42. 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
43. Gerald Priestland – news correspondent who discusses having once been the “school atheist” in Something Understood: An Autobiography; became a Quaker after an emotional breakdown
44. Giovanni Papini – went from pragmatic atheism to Catholicism, also a Fascist
45. Guillaume Bignon, a Staunch Atheist Who Hated God, Visited Church “As One Visits A Zoo To See Exotic Animals” But Then God Caught Him.
46. Holly Ordway – University lecturer whose intellectual journey led to her conversion from atheism to Christianity
47. Howard Storm – Art professor at Northern Kentucky University. Atheist Professor whose Near-death Experience In Hell Changed led him to Jesus Christ
48. Ignace Lepp – French psychiatrist whose parents were freethinkers and who joined the Communist party at age fifteen; broke with the party in and eventually became a Catholic priest
49. Jeffery Dahmer – serial killer and convict who was baptized by Churches of Christ minister Roy Ratcliff
50. Jennifer Fulwiler – her intellectual journey led to her conversion from atheism to Christianity
51. Jessica Jenkins – a devout atheist and a believer in scientific fact.
52. Jim Warner Wallace – was a Cold-Case homicide detective who worked for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).
53. 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
54. 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
55. 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
56. 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
57. Joseph Pearce – anti-Catholic and agnostic British National Front member who became a devoted Catholic writer with a series on EWTN
58. Joy Davidman – poet and wife of C. S. Lewis
59. Julie Burchill – British journalist and feminist
60. Kang Kek Iew (also known as Comrade Duch) – Cambodian director of Phnom Penh’s infamous Tuol Sleng detention center
61. Karl Dallas – British music journalist, author and political activist
62. Keir Hardie – raised atheist and became a Christian Socialist
63. Kirk Cameron – actor noted for his role in Growing Pains
64. Lacey Sturm – musician, former vocalist and lyricist for alternative metal band Flyleaf
65. Larry Darby – former Holocaust denier and former member of the American Atheists
66. 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.
67. 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
68. Léon Bloy – French author who led to several notable conversions and was himself a convert from agnosticism
69. Maggie Gallagher – conservative activist and a founder of the National Organization for Marriage
70. Malcolm Muggeridge – British journalist and author who went from agnosticism to the Catholic Church
71. Mark Bauerlein – English professor at Emory University and the author of 2008 book The Dumbest Generation, which won at the Nautilus Book Awards
72. Mark Edwards – A rapper and former drug smuggler who was deaf in one ear, found God after being healed by a preacher.
73. Marvin Olasky – former Marxist turned Christian conservative; edits the Christian World magazine
74. 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
75. Maurice Baring – English author who converted in his thirties
76. Michael Reiss – British bioethicist, educator, journalist, and Anglican priest; agnostic/secular upbringing
77. Mira Sorvino – Academy Award-winning actress who had been on Humanist lists
78. Mortimer J. Adler – American philosopher, educator, and popular author; converted to Catholicism from agnosticism, after decades of interest in Thomism
79. Nicky Gumbel – Anglican priest known for the Alpha course; from atheism
80. Nicole Cliffe – writer and journalist who co-founded The Toast
81. Nina Karin Monsen – Norwegian moral philosopher and author who grew up in a humanist family, but later converted to Christianity through philosophic thinking
82. Paul Bourget – French author who became agnostic and positivist at , but returned to Catholicism at
83. Paul Jones – musician, of Manfred Mann; previously atheist; in 1967 he argued with Cliff Richard about religion on a TV show
84. Peter Baltes – former heavy metal musician, member of Accept
85. Peter Guirguis –
86. Peter Hitchens – journalist who went from Trotskyism to Traditionalist conservatism; estranged brother of the late outspoken anti-theist and Vanity Fair writer Christopher Hitchens
87. Peter Steele – lead singer of Type O Negative
88. R. J. Stove – raised atheist, converted to Catholicism
89. Ray Comfort – evangelist and author.
90. Rodney Stark – a formerly agnostic sociologist of religion.
91. Rosalind Picard – Director of the Affective computing Research Group at the MIT Media Lab; raised atheist, but converted to Christianity in her teens
92. Sally Read – Eric Gregory Award-winning poet who converted to Catholicism
93. 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
94. Sigrid Undset – Norwegian Nobel laureate who converted to Catholicism from agnosticism
95. Simon Greenleaf – one of the main founders of Harvard Law School
96. Steve Beren – former member of the Socialist Workers Party (United States) who became a Christian conservative politician
97. Steve Tillman – an ex-atheist who did everything to suppress the idea of God
98. Tamsin Greig – British actress raised as an atheist; converted at
99. Terry A. Davis – American computer programmer who created and designed an entire operating system, TempleOS, by himself. Davis grew up Catholic and was an atheistbefore 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.”
100. Victor Turner – A British cultural anthropologist best known for his work on symbols, rituals and rites of passage.
101. Vittorio Messori – Italian journalist and writer called the “most translated Catholic writer in the world” by Sandro Magister; before his conversion in he had a “perspective as a secularist and agnostic”
102. Vladimir Putin – current President of the Russian Federation
103. Dr. Wayne Rossiter – assistant professor of Biology at Waynesburg University and earned his PhD in ecology and evolution from Rutgers University.
104. Whittaker Chambers – former Communist turned conservative writer
105. William J. Murray  – author and son of atheist activist Madalyn Murray O’Hair