The Convert Conundrum

You are here: Magazine / The Convert Conundrum

The long parade of worldly believers.

May 17, 2010, Vol. 15, No. 33 • By MARY EBERSTADT

Single Page Print Larger Text Smaller Text Alerts

The question of why so many thinking people cross the convert Rubicon even now—or perhaps especially now—is just one of the many imponderables raised by even a brief consideration of religious conversion stories. It also reminds us that there is more on heaven and earth than is dreamed of in the philosophy of our celebrity Christian-bashers—as the departed Antony Flew, however belatedly and with whatever qualifications, would roundly have agreed.

Mary Eberstadt is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, consulting editor to Policy Review, contributing writer to First Things, and author of The Loser Letters: A Comic Tale of Life, Death, and Atheism.