I apologize if this book has been the subject of any discussions on BT in advance of its release. I do not mean to revisit any comments on the book but I must confess ignorance regarding any such comments. BUT I do find the book so interesting that I might actually buy it. The below review presents the book as a story or mismatched friends not unlike the friendships of G.K. Chesterton and H.G. Wells or George Bernard Shaw.

What is a frequent source of interest to me is that the Chesterton-'atheist' friendships persisted despite some fairly strident language on both sides.

Review of 'The Faith of Christopher Hitchens'

Thanks Stahrwe, fascinating book review.

After Hitchens was diagnosed with what amounted to a death sentence (esophageal cancer), he undertook two private road trips with Taunton: one through the Shenandoah Valley, and another through Montana and Yellowstone Park. The purpose of these trips was to study the Gospel of John together.

Completely amazing! I love the Gospel of John, but it is immensely challenging to get beneath the surface and read it in a way that is compatible with scientific knowledge. I can really imagine this bucket list conversation with the Hitch.

I also particularly liked the review comment

one shouldn’t take biblical literacy for granted, even when it comes to one of the world’s great public intellectuals. Hitchens’s familiarity with the Bible was shockingly shallow. Rather than mock, berate, or shame, Taunton invited Hitchens to study the Bible with him.

I read a newspaper comment piece the other day saying that no one the writer knew regularly read the Bible. But for people who are familiar with the Bible, its core ideas become like second nature and the character of Jesus becomes very familiar. As another example, I used the phrase 'the meek shall inherit the earth' and an acquaintance in a very senior job asked me who said that. We live in delinquent times.

This review illustrates how much atheism engages with a Christianity it has constructed itself, and not directly with the Bible, except in a selective way picking out passages to build a story that fails to engage with any of the big ideas about God.

It seems the swaggering brash public persona of Christopher Hitchens concealed a possibly more honest and humble private soul.

I think it would be interesting to see if Hitchens commented on the 'road trips'.

stahrwe wrote:I think it would be interesting to see if Hitchens commented on the 'road trips'.

As Johnny Depp explains, dead men tell no tales.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance meets the Word Made Flesh.

Were you talking about the law of the excluded middle Stahrwe?

Wazzup with "the Hound of Heaven" in the title of the review (not the book)? He doesn't elaborate, izzit this poem?

The Hound of Heaven by Francis Thompson

Is that dog's name Vicarious Redemption?

i thought that was the hound of heaven after he finally caught up with Christopher and got Hitchslapped

I'm surprised to learn about his Christian friends, but shouldn't be because he appeared to be an honest man. He speaks of Christian friends in God Is Not Great, but I assumed that he was talking about, you know, people he was on okay terms with, but not really what we'd call real friends.

The real Hounds of Heaven were the Dominican Order - canus domini - engaged in the blood sport of sniffing out heresy. Their ruthless efficiency and almost fanatical devotion to the Pope has become a subject of mockery.

There have been other famous friendships between believers and atheists. Bultmann and Heidegger is a good case in point. I would say Jung and Pauli except both were atheist mystics.

http://brandonvogt.com/grace-filled-poe ... ien-loved/ says Chesterton called The Hound of Heaven the greatest poem in modern English.