Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

A Reader has a Request. Suggestions Solicited

I hope you are doing well. I am a regular reader of your blog for quite a few years and I thank you for doing this.
 
When you have time, could you recommend books/articles written by thinking people who became believers (were not born into religious setting) and describe the processes that led them to change their worldview?
 
I've read a couple like God and the Philosophers edited by Thomas Morris and Belief: Readings on the reason for faith edited by Francis Collins, but — simplifying for sake of brevity — these books do not contain the personal accounts I am looking for. Collins' book come closest to what I am looking for, but still falls a bit short as it is too literary and short on personal & sincere accounts.
 
Thank you in advance,
 
Dmitri
 
I am well and I hope the same is true for you and yours. I have read the T. V. Morris volume and I am surprised that you don't find it helpful. It contains several outstanding essays, in particular the one by Peter van Inwagen. Other than that, I can't think of any others in this genre off the top of my head.
 
Perhaps my readers have some suggestions.

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Bill Vallicella

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18 responses to “A Reader has a Request. Suggestions Solicited”

  1. BV Avatar
    BV

    I forgot this: https://maverickphilosopher.typepad.com/maverick_philosopher/2016/12/reading-now-andrew-klavan-the-great-good-thing.html

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  2. Miloš M. Avatar
    Miloš M.

    I think that this volume can be interesting:
    https://tinyurl.com/u3zz8gyb (Faith and Reason: Philosophers Explain their Turn to Catholicism).
    It contain essays by various thinkers, with various backgrounds and many of them write about conversion to theistic belief prior to Catholicism. I found essay by Brian Cutter particularly insightful.

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  3. BV Avatar
    BV

    Try here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1621642011?tag=duckduckgo-ffnt-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1
    Thanks, Milos. I wasn’t aware of it until now. I will order it.

    Reply
  4. Vito B Caiati Avatar
    Vito B Caiati

    I can recommend several of the essays in Philosophers Who Believe: The Spiritual Journeys of 11 Leading Thinkers, edited by Kelly James Clark (Inter Varsity Press, 1993), and in particular Mortimer J. Adler’s “A Philosopher’s Religious Faith,” and Terence Penelhum’s “A Belated Return.”
    Vito

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  5. Dmitri Avatar
    Dmitri

    Thanks for excellent suggestions everybody & keep them coming. I ordered Klavan’s book already.
    To answer BV’s question about van Inwagen in the post: his entry in Morris’ book is illuminating, but he was born into what I labelled, for brevity, “religious settings” — went to Sunday school, parents were active members of Unitarian congregation etc. I’m looking for thinking ex-secular people’s accounts like Klavan…

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  6. Ingvar Avatar
    Ingvar

    Cold Case Christianity by
    J. Warner Wallace, recently retired Los Angeles Sheriff Deputy Detective (who specializing in cold-case homicides) and atheist who wanted to set his recently believing wife straight, applied his entire cold case tool kit, slowly, thoughtfully and methodically to prove to his wife that she should not throw her life away on this belief.
    The Case for Christ by
    Lee Sobel, an atheist, legal affairs editor for the Chicago Sun Times, took his journalistic resources and carefully applied them to the gospels in order to prove to his wife that she should not throw her life away on her recently acquired christian belief. His effort was rejected as an article for his paper (a long article chronicling his path from atheist, and upset husband, to belief). It became this book.

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  7. BV Avatar
    BV

    Thanks, Vito, for your suggestions.
    Dmitri,
    My Conversions category contains linkage and commentary re: various sorts of conversion and de-conversion. I draw your attention in particular to the case of R. J. Stove, son of the virulent Aussie atheist and positivist, David Stove. Scroll down.
    https://maverickphilosopher.typepad.com/maverick_philosopher/conversions/

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  8. BV Avatar
    BV

    Ingvarius Maximus,
    Your submission in this matter is greatly appreciated.

    Reply
  9. Ingvar Avatar
    Ingvar

    two typos corrected:
    Cold Case Christianity by 
    J. Warner Wallace, recently retired Los Angeles County Sheriff Deputy Detective (who specialized in cold-case homicides), and atheist, who wanted to set his recently believing wife straight, applied his entire cold case tool kit, slowly, thoughtfully and methodically to prove to his wife that she should not throw her life away on this belief.
    The Case for Christ by
    Lee Sobel, an atheist, legal affairs editor for the Chicago Sun Times, took his journalistic resources and carefully applied them to the gospels in order to prove to his wife that she should not throw her life away on her recently acquired christian belief.  His effort was rejected as an article for his paper (a long article chronicling his path from atheist, and upset husband, to belief).  It became this book.

    Reply
  10. BV Avatar
    BV

    Ingvar,
    The second title became a movie, did it not?
    Just to be clear: did Wallace conclude that Christianity was buncombe, or the opposite?

    Reply
  11. Dominik Kowalski Avatar
    Dominik Kowalski

    Well I don’t know what “buncombe“ means, but he is a Christian Apologist now, so there is that.
    Otherwise Alasdair MacIntyre could qualify, and of course Mortimer Adler. Checking out their respective biographies should prove fruitful.

    Reply
  12. Ingvar Avatar
    Ingvar

    Professor,
    In regard to Sobel, there is
    1. a documentary, and,
    2. a 2017 ‘Hollywood’ movie, “The Case for Christ.”
    3. (Faye Dunaway is in the movie Hollywood movie.)
    Wallace is a christian. His carefully applied toolkit took him there.
    His book is also a textbook on careful investigatory method.
    He says (my wording by memory) that the successful detective:
    1. must be good at not missing details,
    2. cannot be easily misled (the effort to mislead is often made against the detective prosecuting his sleuthing),
    3. at the end of the final investigative step, and for the analysis, one must have common sense or it’s all for naught.
    Both Wallace and Sobel are decided ‘type A’ personalities.

    Reply
  13. Jonathan Barber Avatar
    Jonathan Barber

    A book that interests me particularly is “There is a God” by Anthony Newton Flew. Before Dawkins & Co rose to notoriety, Flew was one of the leading atheist philosophers. I remember hearing him lecture to the Foundation Year at Keele University in the late 60s, where he was somewhat idolised by the students – who were for the most part radical disbelievers. I heard nothing of him for many years, until the early 2000s when I was most surprised that he (of all people) had changed his mind about the existence of God on purely rational grounds.
    Another book I would mention is “Surprised by Joy” by CS Lewis, who is much better known among the general public than Flew, so I will leave it at that.
    Finally I would mention Ed Feser whom I have found a very sound writer on the whole. While not a personal conversion account, his “The Last Superstition” is very good at showing the weaknesses of the case for atheism.
    You could argue that none of these books meets your criteria, because all the writers were brought up as Christians and became atheists as young men; but they are worth mentioning anyway.

    Reply
  14. Dominik Kowalski Avatar
    Dominik Kowalski

    William Lane Craig grew up in a non-religious environment.

    Reply
  15. BV Avatar
    BV

    Kowalski,
    Has Craig published an autobiographical statement?
    Barber,
    Good suggestions.

    Reply
  16. Dmitri Avatar
    Dmitri

    An update: in addition to Klavan’s book, I’ve ordered also Philosophers Who Believe that has Penelhum’s paper recommended by Vito.
    Today I read the conversion account of R.J.Stove that BV shared. Definitely a medicine of the type I have been asking about in the thread. JFYI I have (and read) Flew’s & Feser’s books mentioned by Jonathan.
    The bottom line is thank you all again. I have enough material to work with for now.
    Unrelated but probably interesting to most of you: Thomas Nagel published a detailed review of Swinburne’s latest book on NDPR’s site. https://ndpr.nd.edu/news/are-we-bodies-or-souls/

    Reply
  17. BV Avatar
    BV

    Dmitri,
    I am glad we could be of some help to you.
    And thank YOU for pointing us to Nagel’s review of Swinburne. I have the latter’s new book, but I was not aware of Nagel’s review. I have a high degree of respect for Nagel. He is one of our best philosophers.
    Here is my Nagel category in case anyone is interested: https://maverickphilosopher.typepad.com/maverick_philosopher/nagel-thomas/

    Reply
  18. Joe Odegaard Avatar
    Joe Odegaard

    Well, the book “Seven Story Mountain” by Thomas Merton comes to mind. Merton was not born with absolutely no contact with religion, but he was a functional non-beliver in his early days, I would say. (Post by”Brother Joe”)

    Reply

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