Vice President J.D. Vance Publishes Memoir on Faith Journey

Vice President J.D. Vance has released a new memoir detailing his spiritual journey from a Protestant upbringing to atheism and, ultimately, to Catholicism. The book, "Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith," was published on June 16, 2026, and serves as a sequel to his 2016 bestseller "Hillbilly Elegy."

In the book, Vance recounts being raised in a devout but "unchurched" Baptist and Pentecostal-influenced environment by his grandmother, whom he credits with instilling his early Christian faith. He writes that after her death when he was 20, and amid personal struggles including his mother's addiction and his own deployment to Iraq as a Marine, his faith quickly faded. He cites the evangelical church's focus on cultural issues, specifically the Terri Schiavo case, as contributing to a sense of disconnect and betrayal, leading him to atheism.

Vance describes his eventual return to Christianity as a process that began during his time at Yale Law School, where he was influenced by encountering Christians who seemed fulfilled and by a talk from tech billionaire Peter Thiel, who openly identified as a Christian. This intellectual exploration led him to convert to Catholicism in...