Vice President JD Vance, the country’s most powerful Roman Catholic politician, will publish a memoir about his conversion to the faith, his publisher, HarperCollins Publishers, announced on Tuesday.
The book, titled “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith,” will be released on June 16 and will detail Mr. Vance’s return to Christianity after leaving the loosely evangelical practice of his childhood and his eventual conversion to Catholicism.
“I’m a Christian, and I became a Christian because I believe that Jesus Christ’s teachings are true,” Mr. Vance said in a news release announcing the book. “But I didn’t always think that, and by sharing my journey I might be helpful to others — Catholic, Protestant or otherwise — who are seeking reconciliation with God.”
The publisher framed the book as an exploration of how Mr. Vance’s faith guides his politics and also as a spiritual guide intended to draw others to the Catholic faith.
The announcement comes as many Republican strategists, officials and voters look to Mr. Vance as the early front-runner in the 2028 Republican primary race to succeed President Trump. While Mr. Vance has said “it feels so premature” to discuss the contest, he has been taking steps to demonstrate his support of the president’s MAGA base.
Mr. Vance’s faith has become a conspicuous part of his political biography, driving his views on issues like opposition to abortion rights and encouraging Americans to have more children. It has earned him early support from influential conservative Christian leaders.
His book is an effort to position Mr. Vance as a political leader — and potential next Republican presidential nominee — but also supports a larger effort by socially conservative leaders, activists and politicians to strengthen the power of conservative Christianity in American life.
Mr. Vance converted to Catholicism in 2019 at age 35, after a bespoke, private instruction with Dominican Friars in Cincinnati. He was inspired by St. Augustine, the political theologian whom he chose as his patron saint, and whose treatise “City of God” challenged Rome’s ruling class in the fifth century.
“It was the best criticism of our modern age I’d ever read,” Mr. Vance later wrote in a Catholic journal. “A society oriented entirely towards consumption and pleasure, spurning duty and virtue.”
But his newfound faith has come with complications, particularly as he has at times justified the Trump White House’s aggressive deportation campaign with his own interpretation of Catholic doctrine. His views prompted a strong denunciation from leaders in the Vatican and are in opposition to the priorities set by the most high-profile American Catholic, Pope Leo XIV.
Conservative Catholicism has grown increasingly powerful in American politics in recent years, particularly as converts, lay people like Mr. Vance and Catholic justices on the Supreme Court have elevated the place of their religious beliefs into American public life. This Easter, Catholic churches across the country have reported a surge of converts.
The title of Mr. Vance’s new book, “Communion,” also references the Eucharist, a central sacrament of Catholicism. The Eucharist has become a powerful symbol in American politics, as some American Catholic bishops publicly argued that top Democratic leaders, including former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Representative Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, should be denied communion over their support for abortion rights.
Mr. Vance’s first book, “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” detailed his journey from a hardscrabble childhood in Middletown, Ohio, a decaying steel town, and a family riddled with addiction struggles to Yale Law School.
Published in the summer of 2016, the best-selling book was widely seen by many liberals as an insightful analysis of the white working class that drove Mr. Trump to his surprise victory that year. It became a global hit that spent more than 200 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list and sold more than five million copies worldwide, according to HarperCollins.
The book put Mr. Vance on the political map, making him a national celebrity and a natural messenger for Mr. Trump’s populist movement — even as he, at times, delivered public and private criticism of the president.
In the years since, Democrats have accused Mr. Vance of overstating his blue-collar roots and turning his back on the working-class voters he purports to represent. This month, Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky said Mr. Vance’s first memoir amounted to “poverty tourism” and “trafficked in this tired stereotype” about the region.
With a memoir about his faith, Mr. Vance could appeal to a different and potentially wider audience than a purely political book might draw. Sales of books about religion and faith, including Bible sales, have surged recently, while overall nonfiction sales have stagnated.
Mr. Vance had previously been at work on a book about his Christian faith for HarperCollins, but set it aside in 2022. “Communion” is partly a continuation of that project, according to a HarperCollins spokeswoman.
Alexandra Alter contributed reporting.
Lisa Lerer is a national political reporter for The Times, based in New York. She has covered American politics for nearly two decades.
The post New Book by JD Vance Will Explore His Conversion to Catholicism appeared first on New York Times.
