Talk:List of converts to Christianity from nontheism

From Former Atheists article

 * Mortimer J. Adler – Philosopher who co-founded Great Books of the Western World. Agnostic convert to the Catholic Church.
 * Steve Beren – Former member of the Socialist Workers Party (United States) who became a Protestant conservative politician.
 * Anders Borg – Sweden's Minister for Finance.
 * Paul Bourget – French author who became agnostic and positivist at 15, but returned to Catholicism at 35.
 * Ferdinand Brunetière – Rationalist and freethinking writer who became a Catholic.
 * Julie Burchill – British journalist and feminist.
 * Kirk Cameron – An American actor best-known for his role as Mike Seaver on the television situation comedy, Growing Pains, as well as several other television and film appearances as a child actor. Today he is a Protestant Evangelical. Recently, he portrayed the lead roles in the Left Behind film series and in the 2008 drama film, Fireproof.
 * Whittaker Chambers – Former Communist turned conservative writer.
 * Francis Collins – Geneticist who was an atheist until age 27, but then converted to Christianity.
 * Larry Darby – Holocaust denier and former member of the American Atheists.
 * Joy Davidman – Poet and wife of C. S. Lewis.
 * Avery Dulles – A Jesuit priest, theologian, and cardinal in the Catholic Church. He was raised Presbyterian, but was an agnostic before his conversion to Catholic Christianity.
 * Dawn Eden – Rock journalist of Jewish ethnicity who went from an agnostic to a Catholic writer, who was particularly concerned with the moral values of chastity.
 * André Frossard – French journalist who was atheist, but converted to the Catholic Church in 1935.
 * Maggie Gallagher – Conservative activist and a founder of the National Organization for Marriage.
 * Eugene D. Genovese – Historian who went from Stalinist to conservative theist.
 * Bo Giertz – Atheistic in youth he became a Lutheran bishop and writer.
 * Tamsin Greig – British actress.
 * Nicky Gumbel – Raised atheist and became an Anglican. He is known for his work with the Alpha course.
 * Keir Hardie – Raised atheist and became a Christian Socialist.
 * Anna Haycraft – Raised as a member of Britain's Comtist and atheistic "Church of Humanity", but became a conservative Catholic Christian in adulthood.
 * Ammon Hennacy – Initially an atheist labor activist he became a religious pacifist in the Atlanta Penitentiary.
 * Peter Hitchens – Journalist who went from Trotskyism to Traditionalist conservatism, and estranged brother of outspoken anti-theist and Vanity Fair writer Christopher Hitchens.
 * Paul Jones – Musician, of Manfred Mann. Previously atheist and in 1967 he argued with Cliff Richard about religion on a TV show.
 * Mary Karr – Memoirist and poet who switched from agnosticism to Catholicism in 1996.
 * Ignace Lepp – French psychiatrist whose parents were freethinkers and who joined the Communist party at age fifteen. He broke with the party in 1937 and became a Catholic priest.
 * Félix Leseur – Doctor turned Catholic priest. His conversion, in part, came by efforts of his wife who was declared a Servant of God by the Catholic Church.
 * C. S. Lewis – Writer who became an atheist as a young man, later paradoxically describing himself as being "very angry with God for not existing". He later returned to Anglicanism and wrote many books about his faith.
 * Arnold Lunn – A skier, mountaineer, and writer. As an agnostic he wrote Roman Converts, which took a critical view of Catholicism and the converts to it. He later converted to Catholicism due to debating with converts, and became an apologist for the faith, although he retained a few criticisms of the faith.
 * Gabriel Marcel – A leading Christian existentialist. His upbringing was agnostic.
 * Alister McGrath – Biochemist and Christian theologian. Founder of 'Scientific theology' and critic of Richard Dawkins in books like Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life and The Dawkins Delusion?
 * Claude McKay – Bisexual Jamaican poet who went from Communist atheist to a devout Catholic Christian.
 * Czesław Miłosz – Poet who won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature.
 * Nina Karin Monsen – A Norwegian moral philosopher and author who grew up in a humanist family, but later convert to Christianity through philosophic thinking.
 * Malcolm Muggeridge – British journalist and author who went from agnosticism to the Catholic Church.
 * William J. Murray – Son of Madalyn Murray O'Hair who became a Born again preacher.
 * Bernard Nathanson – A founder of NARAL Pro-Choice America who dubbed himself a "Jewish atheist", but later became a Pro-life activist within the Catholic Church.
 * Marvin Olasky – Former Marxist turned Christian conservative, he edits the Christian World Magazine.
 * Giovanni Papini – He went from pragmatic atheism to Catholicism, also a Fascist.
 * Joseph Pearce – An anti-Catholic and agnostic British National Front member who became a devout Catholic writer with a series on EWTN.
 * Charles Péguy – French poet, essayist, and editor. He went from agnostic humanist to a pro-Republic Catholic.
 * Rosalind Picard – Director of the Affective computing Research Group at the MIT Media Lab. She was raised atheist, but converted to Christianity in her teens.
 * Enoch Powell – Conservative Party (UK) member who converted to Anglicanism.
 * Kirsten Powers – News commentator, raised Episcopalian who drifted to atheism but eventually began to "view everyone as God's child and that means everyone deserves grace and respect."
 * George R. Price – Geneticist who became an Evangelical Protestant and wrote about the New Testament. Later he moderated his evangelistic tendencies and switched from religious writing to working with the homeless.
 * Gerald Priestland – News correspondent who discusses having once been the "school atheist" in Something Understood: An Autobiography. He became a Quaker after an emotional breakdown.
 * Michael Reiss – British bioethicist and Anglican priest.
 * Dame Cicely Saunders – Templeton Prize and Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize winning nurse known for palliative care. She converted to Christianity as a young woman.
 * E. F. Schumacher – Economic thinker known for Small Is Beautiful, his A Guide for the Perplexed criticizes what he termed "materialistic scientism." He went from atheism to Buddhism to Catholicism.
 * Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn – Nobel Prize-winning dissident author who converted to Russian Orthodoxy.
 * Edith Stein – Phenomenologist philosopher who converted to the Catholic Faith and became a Discalced Carmelite nun; declared a saint by John Paul II.
 * Peter Steele – Lead singer of Type O Negative.
 * John Lawson Stoddard – Divinity student turned "Scientific humanist" turned Catholic. His son Lothrop Stoddard remained agnostic and would be significant to Scientific racism.
 * Lee Strobel – Writer, Christian apologist, a former journalist and megachurch pastor.
 * Lacey Sturm – Vocalist and lyricist for alternative metal band Flyleaf.
 * Allen Tate – American poet, essayist and social commentator, and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress.
 * Evelyn Waugh – British novelist who converted to Catholicism from agnosticism.
 * Simone Weil – Raised by agnostic Jewish parents, and a Marxist for a time, she became a religious mystic.
 * Fay Weldon – British novelist and feminist.
 * A. N. Wilson – Biographer and novelist who entered the theological St Stephen's House, Oxford before proclaiming himself an atheist and writing against religion. He announced his return to Christianity in 2009.
 * John C. Wright – A science fiction author and libertarian atheist who later converted to the Catholic Faith.

Moved back
Although I understand the idea of the move if you feel people are improperly being labeled" former atheists" than you can remove them. Also the move name was a bit clunky as it could seem to have indicated they were raised non-religious and that wasn't always the case either. I intended to be on my Christmas break, but noticed this and felt it couldn't wait.--T. Anthony (talk) 02:43, 25 December 2012 (UTC)

Move ideas
As there are some issues with the article here are some ideas on a move.


 * List of converts to Christianity from nontheism
 * List of converts to Christianity from atheism or agnosticism
 * List of converts to Christianity from irreligion
 * List of converts to Christianity from non-religious backgrounds (The move I undid)
 * Keep as is, don't move again.

If you don't like any of these feel free to think of something else. This is sort of an informal brainstorming.--T. Anthony (talk) 05:30, 27 December 2012 (UTC)


 * It's not Epiphany yet, but I made the move. I wish there had been some discussion, that's why I objected to the one move, but I had opened it for such for around a week. If there are any objections that's fine.--T. Anthony (talk) 01:33, 5 January 2013 (UTC)

Sub-category
Hello, I think this list is very interesting, but I that it would be better to categorize by denominations... especially to put together catholics and in other sub-category non catholics. --Goose friend (talk) 02:13, 10 February 2013 (UTC)


 * I'd work on that, but alas I mostly give up the Internet for Lent so I'm not sure I'll have the time. Maybe. Also when you add a name it's better to have a source. Was Tolstoy not a theist before his religious awakening?--T. Anthony (talk) 06:16, 10 February 2013 (UTC)


 * Okay I did after all. I don't know if I did it right, but I'll look at it later. I'm sorry to you for taking out Tolstoy, but I haven't found a source. I may put him back when/if I do.--T. Anthony (talk) 13:13, 10 February 2013 (UTC)

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why is this a wikipedia page?
I think this page is nothing but a christian apologetic page: its only purpose it to make the impression that important people converts to christianity. As a list it has no place at wikipedia., 92.34.244.166 (talk) 14:55, 10 February 2022 (UTC)