Won from every worldview
Famous converts to Christianity
Some of history's most striking conversions were of people who set out against the faith — Muslim scholars, rabbis, Brahmin philosophers, and hardened skeptics who were won by the thing they meant to refute. Here they are, gathered by where they came from, each telling the story in their own words.
From Islam
Muslim scholars and preachers who studied Christianity in order to refute it — and were won by it.
Imad-ud-din Lahiz
See the testimonies →
From Judaism
Rabbis and rabbis' sons who left the faith of their fathers for Christ, often at real cost.
Charles Freshman · Joseph Wolff · Joseph Frey
See the testimonies →
From Hinduism
Brahmin scholars who first argued against Christianity with all their learning, then believed it.
Nehemiah Goreh · Pandita Ramabai · Sundar Singh
See the testimonies →
From atheism & unbelief
Skeptics, freethinkers, and materialists who reasoned their way to faith.
Orestes Brownson · Giovanni Papini · Charles Finney
See the testimonies →
From Native traditions
Pequot, Ojibwe, Odawa, and Dakota Christians telling their own stories between two worlds.
William Apess · George Copway · Charles Eastman
See the testimonies →
Questions about converts to Christianity
- Who are some of the most famous converts to Christianity?
- Across the world's faiths: from Islam, the scholar Imad-ud-din Lahiz; from Judaism, the former rabbi Charles Freshman and the missionary-explorer Joseph Wolff; from Hinduism, the Brahmin apologists Nehemiah Goreh and Pandita Ramabai; and from atheism and freethought, Orestes Brownson and Giovanni Papini. Each left a first-person account of how they came to faith.
- Are there famous converts to Christianity from Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism?
- Yes — and many wrote their own accounts. We gather them by origin: converts from Islam, converts from Judaism, and converts from Hinduism each have a dedicated page of first-person testimonies, free to read in the public domain.
- Why do so many of these converts come from opposing the faith first?
- It is one of the oldest arguments for Christianity: the people most equipped to refute it — scholars, apologists, and skeptics who studied it to attack it — were often the ones won by it. Their testimonies carry the weight of a mind that resisted before it believed.
- Are these true stories, and can I read them for free?
- Every account here is a genuine first-person testimony, and all are in the public domain with a free source linked. Our clean editions add readable typesetting.
T.S. Baker Books — conversions in their own words, free sources linked.