This is a list of authors who are religious converts. This list is necessarily restricted to people who have formally affiliated with a religious tradition other than one they were raised in. (Naturally, if we included all authors who have experienced philosophical or spiritual changes in their life of any kind, we would have to include most authors.* For many authors, each book they write is a kind of conversion experience.)
To limit this list to a manageable size, it does not include authors who have only written religious books or autobiographies about their conversion.
| Author | Previous Affiliation | New Religious Affiliation | Genre | Example of Writing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gael Baudino | Dianic Wicca | Quaker | fantasy | Dragonsword Trilogy |
| James BeauSeigneur | Catholic/ Baptist | Evangelical | Evangelical science fiction | Christ Clone trilogy |
| Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff | Protestant | Baha'i | fantasy | The Meri |
| Hermann Broch | Judaism | Catholic | novels | (German/Austrian) The Sleepwalkers; The Death of Virgil |
| Jo Clayton | ? | Catholic | fantasy | The Burning Ground; A Bait of Dreams |
| G. K. Chesterton | Unitarian; Anglican | Catholic | science fiction; mystery; religious non-fiction | The Man Who Knew Too Much; Orthodoxy |
| Avram Davidson | Orthodox Judaism | Tenrikyo | science fiction fantasy | Clash of Star-Kings |
| John Donne | Catholic | Anglican (priest) | metaphysical poems, songs, sermons | (English writer) "Dead Souls" |
| Theodore Dreiser | Catholic | Congregationalist | novels | (American) An American Tragedy; Carrie |
| J. M. DeMatteis | ? | Hindu (Meher Baba) | comic books | Moon Shadow |
| David Doering | Episcopalian | Latter-day Saint | science fiction | "Dan Venture and the Gurad Marauders" |
| John Dryden | ? | Catholic | poetry, plays, critical essays | (English writer) Marriage A-la-Mode (1672) |
| Thom Duncan | Evangelical | Latter-day Saint | playwright science fiction | "A Sceptre, A Sword, A Scented Rose" |
| Richard Dutcher | Pentecostal | Latter-day Saint | screenwriter | "Girl Crazy"; "God's Army" |
| Anthony Flew | Methodist, atheist | Deism | philosophy | formerly one of world's leading atheists; God and Philosophy; New Essays in Philosophical Theology, "Theology and Falsification" (1950): article which introduced: "principle of falsifiability"; "The Presumption of Atheism" (1989) |
| Graham Greene | ? | Catholic | novels | (British) The Power and the Glory; The Third Man; The Heart of the Matter |
| Robert Hayden | Baptist | Baha'i | poet | Ballad of Remembrance |
| Chris Heimerdinger | ? | Latter-day Saint | YA fiction | Ben Franklin and the Chamber of Time; "Tennis Shoes" series |
| Heinrich Heine | Judaism | Lutheran | poetry, songs | (German) Buch der Lieder (The Book of Songs) |
| Ernest Hemingway | Congregationalist | Catholic | novels, short stories | (American) The Sun Also Rises; The Old Man and the Sea |
| Carolivia Herron | Baptist | Judaism | novels; non-fiction; children's books | Thereafter Jonnie; Nappy Hair |
| Gerard Manley Hopkins | ? | Catholic (Jesuit priest) | poems | (British Victorian poet) The Windhover; Pied Beauty |
| Deal Hudson | Baptist (minister) | Catholic | philosophy | Understanding Maritain; professor at Fordham University; Editor of Crisis Magazine |
| Robert Hugh Benson | Anglican (clergyman) | Catholic | fantasy, science fiction, non-fiction, historical novels | Lord of the World; The Dawn of All; The Light Invisible; A Mirror of Shalott; The Religion of the Plain Man; By What Authority?; The King's Achievement |
| Katherine Kurtz | Christian Church (Disciples of Christ); Roman Catholic; Old Catholic | Celtic Christian | fantasy | Camber of Culdi |
| Kathryn H. Kidd | ? | Latter-day Saint | science fiction non-fiction | Lovelock |
| Linda Hoffman Kimball | Methodist | Latter-day Saint | contemporary fiction; essay | Home to Roost |
| Ronald Knox | Anglican minster | Catholic priest | mystery; satire; Bible scholarship | The Viaduct Murder |
| Karl Kraus | Judaism | Catholic | satire, essays, plays, poems | (German/Austrian) The Last Days of Mankind |
| Neil LaBute | ? | Latter-day Saint | screenwriter; playwright | "In the Company of Men" |
| Julius Lester | Methodist | Judaism | black history | Black Cowboy, Wild Horses: A True Story; From Slave Ship to Freedom Road; Lovesong: Becoming a Jew |
| Clare Boothe Luce | nonreligious | Catholic | journalist; playwright | Stuffed Shirts; Europe in the Spring; Abide With Me; Kiss the Boys Goodbye |
| Margaret Marcus/ Maryam Jameelah | Judaism | Islam | essayist; poet journalist | ? |
| Lee Martin | ? | Latter-day Saint | mystery | "Deb Ralston" series; e.g., Hacker |
| Daniel Moore/ Abd al-Hayy Moore | Zen Buddhism | Islam | poet | "The Chronicles of Akhira", "Halley's Comet", Holograms |
| K. L. Morgan | Latter-day Saint | young adult fantasy; holiday | Castledance | |
| David Morse | ? | Quaker | alternative history | The Iron Bridge |
| Michael McKenny | Baha'i | Pagan | fantasy | "Slug Lizard" |
| Michael McNulty | ? | Latter-day Saint | documentaries | Waco: Rules of Engagement (received an Emmy award and an Academy Award nomination) |
| Walter M. Miller, Jr. | atheist | Catholic | science fiction | A Canticle for Leibowitz |
| John Henry Newman | Anglican | Catholic (cardinal) | Apologia Pro Vita Sua, A Grammar of Assent | |
| Walker Percy | agnostic Presbyterian | Catholic | contemporary fiction; philosophy | The Moviegoer |
| Anne Perry | ? | Latter-day Saint | mystery fantasy | The Sins of the Wolf Tathea |
| Katherine Ann Porter | ? | Catholic | short stories, novels, essays | (American) The Ship of Fools |
| Joseph Roth | Judaism | Catholic | novels | (German/Austrian) The Radetzky March |
| Jean Jacques Rousseau | Calvinist | Catholic | philosophy, essays, some music | (French) The Confessions; Emile |
| Mary Doria Russell | Catholic | Judaism | science fiction | The Sparrow |
| Frank Schaeffer | Evangelical; Protestant fundamentalism | Greek Orthodox | contemporary fiction; non-fiction religious | Portofino; Saving Grandma; The Scrapweed Goat |
| Laura Schlessinger | father: non-practicing Jew mother: cultural Catholic | Orthodox Judaism | self-help/advice | The Ten Commandments: The Significance of God's Laws in Everyday Life |
| Joan Slonczewski | ? | Quaker | science fiction romance | Daughter of Elysium |
| Cordwainer Smith | Methodist | Episcopalian | science fiction | Norstrilia |
| Eliza R. Snow | Disciples of Christ | Latter-day Saint | poetry; hymns; history | My First View of a Western Prairie |
| Mickey Spillane | Protestant | Jehovah's Witnesses | mystery/crime | The Girl Hunters received the title of Grand Master from the Mystery Writers of America in 1995 |
| D. T. Steiner | Catholic | Wicca | science fiction | "Moon Time" |
| Pamela Taylor | Atheist | Islam | science fiction | "The Cathedral" in Citizen Culture Magazine, Feb 2005; "First Impressions" (comtemporary) and "Hajar's Long Walk" (fable) in Many Voices, One Faith: Islamic Writers Alliance Anthology 1 (2004) |
| Clarence Thomas | Baptist Episcopalian | Catholic | law | "I Am a Man, a Black Man, an American" many Supreme Court rulings, opinions, etc. |
| Juliet Thompson | ? | Baha'i | playwright | I, Magdalene |
| J. R. R. Tolkien | Protestant (Methodist/Baptist/Anglican) | Catholic | fantasy | The Hobbit; The Lord of the Rings |
| Sigrid Undset | Lutheran | Catholic | novels | (Norwegian) Kristin Lavransdatter |
| Evelyn Waugh | ? | Catholic | satirical novels | (English writer) Vile Bodies; A Handful of Dust |
| Sharon D. Welch | RLDS (now Community of Christ) | Unitarian-Universalist | feminist | A Feminist Ethic of Risk (Other Feminist Voices); Sweet Dreams in America : Making Ethics and Spirituality Work; Communities of Resistance and Solidarity: A Feminist Theology of Liberation |
| Roger White | Catholic | Baha'i | poet | Another Song, Another Season: Poems and Portrayals |
| Oscar Wilde | Church of Ireland (Anglican) | Catholic | plays, short stories, novels | (Anglo-Irish writer) The Happy Prince; The Picture of Dorian Gray |
| Gene Wolfe | Presbyterian | Catholic | science fiction | The Claw of the Conciliator |
| Michael Wolfe | Christian mother Jewish father | Islam | journalist | The Hadj: An American's Pilgrimage to Mecca |
| Peter Q. Warinner | Latter-day Saint | science fiction/fantasy | Sumdar, the Tetralogy: Book One: Birth into Dreams (Wysteria Ltd., 2002); Clinical Microbiology Review (Wysteria); EKG and Heart Murmurs (Pocket Brain) | |
| Dave Wolverton | Latter-day Saint | science fiction/fantasy | The Courtship of Princess Leia; Runelords |
NOTE: "Latter-day Saint" refers to a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sometimes abbreviated "LDS".
Note to authors: Adherents.com has no desire to intrude upon the personal lives of any individuals. The information on this page comes from publicly available files such as interviews, book notes, etc. All authors speak primarily through their writing. If anybody prefers to not be noted here, we will respect their request, remove the information and think nothing of it.
Web page created 6 January 2000. Last modified 29 May 2006.