In a Western culture of increasing skepticism towards conservative Christianity, what motivates intellectually-driven atheists to believe in the reality of God and become passionate followers of Christ? Review of social science literature confirms a predominant functional approach to religious conversion, effectively reducing a complex, substantive phenomenon to a partial functional explanation. In response, the chief focus of this book is to take a broader look at religious conversion to determine the precursors and pathways from atheistic disbelief to belief in God and Christianity within an educated population. Findings are drawn from PhD-based research evaluating a broad range of functional and substantive variables influencing religious conversion. Data was collected through both survey and interview of fifty educated, skeptical atheists in the contemporary West who once held belief God and Christianity as implausible, unattractive, and irrelevant. Yet, they became utterly convinced that the Christian faith was true and good, worth personal life commitment. These former atheists not only experienced a change of their worldview, but also a dramatic transformation of their 'whole world.' In-depth narrative analysis revealed the integrated, transformative nature of religious conversion in areas of sense-making, identity, experience, meaning and purpose, community, language, and spirituality. Overall, this book advances the case for using an inclusive, transformational perspective in future description, conception, and modeling for religious conversion of atheists to conservative forms of Christianity.
Jana Harmon is teaching fellow for the C.S. Lewis Institute of Atlanta and a former adjunct professor in Cultural Apologetics at Biola University.
Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter One: Religious Conversion-Changing Stories of Reality Chapter Two: Atheism and Christianity-Conflicting Worldview Stories Chapter Three: Becoming an Atheist-Atheists' Reasons for Atheism Chapter Four: Being an Atheist-Atheists' Views on Religion and Life Chapter Five: Catalysts Towards Change-Disruptive Challenges and Longings Chapter Six: Catalysts Towards Change-Disruptive Experiences Chapter Seven: Questing Towards Belief-Seeking After Truth Chapter Eight: Questing Towards Belief-Experiencing God Chapter Nine: Putting the Pieces Together-the Complexity of Conversion Chapter Ten: Putting the Pieces Together-the Comprehensiveness of Conversion Appendix: From Atheism to Christianity-Unlikely Stories of Conversion Bibliography About the Author
In a cultural climate where "nones," "exvangelicals," and atheists often capture scholarly and media attention, Jana Harmon shifts our gaze in an altogether different direction. Through surveys and extensive interviews of fifty former atheists, Harmon documents the dramatic change in beliefs, identity, and sense of purpose by former atheists who discovered in (primarily evangelical) Christianity a more credible, coherent, and intellectually satisfying view of reality. Attentive to recent theories and methods in the study of religious conversion-indeed, to the complexities of the conversion process-Harmon's book is a significant and welcomed contribution to contemporary studies on religious conversion. -- David W. Kling, University of Miami
