Finding Faith, Losing Faith
Stories of Conversion and Apostasy

This book examines conversion stories as told by people who have actually undergone a conversion experience, including experiences of apostasy. The stories reveal that there is not just one "conversion story." Scot McKnight and Hauna Ondrey show that "conversion theory" helps explain why some people walk away from one religion, often to another, very different religion. The book confirms the usefulness-particularly for pastors, rabbis, and priests, and university and college teachers-of applying conversion theory to specific groups. However, the book's sensitive detailing of the stories themselves makes conversion more than a theoretical occurrence; it makes the immediacy, and often the difficulty, of conversion both real and moving.

Conversion: What Really Happens?

1 Leaving Church, Finding Freedom  
   Anatomy of Apostasy

2 Leaving the Synagogue, Finding the Church
   When Jews Become Messianic Jews  

3 Leaving Rome, Finding Wheaton
   Catholics Behaving Protestantly

4 Leaving Wheaton, Finding Rome
   The Improbable Conversion of Evangelicals to Catholicism

Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

Scot McKnight (Ph.D. University Nottingham) is the Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies at North Park University.  He is the co-editor of Who Do My Opponents Say That I Am? (2008), and the author of A Community Called Atonement (2007), and Jesus and His Death (2005).

Hauna Ondrey is currently an M.A. candidate in theology at North Park Theological Seminary.