The Faith of Christopher Hitchens

Larry Alex Taunton

• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780718022181
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Journalist Biographies

2016 Winner of the Gospel Coalition Book Awards

At the time of his death, Christopher Hitchens was the most notorious atheist in the world. And yet, all was not as it seemed. "Nobody is not a divided self, of course, " heonce told an interviewer, "but I think it's rather strong in my case." Hitchens wasa man of many contradictions: a Marxist in youth who longed for acceptance among the social elites; a peacenik who revered the military; a champion of the Left who was nonetheless pro-life, pro-war-on-terror, and after 9/11 something of a neocon; and while he railed against God on stage, he maintained meaningful—though largely hidden from public view—friendships with evangelical Christians like Francis Collins, Douglas Wilson, and the author Larry Alex Taunton.

In The Faith of Christopher Hitchens, Taunton offers avery personal perspective of one of our most interesting and most misunderstood public figures. Writing with genuine compassion and without compromise, Tauntontraces Hitchens's spiritual and intellectual development from his decision as a teenager to reject belief in God to his rise to prominence as one of the so-called"Four Horsemen" of the New Atheism. While Hitchens was, in the minds of many Christians, Public Enemy Number One, away from the lights andthecameras a warm friendship flourished between Hitchens and the author; a friendship thatculminatedinnot one, but two lengthy road trips where, after Hitchens's diagnosis of esophageal cancer, they studied the Bible together. The Faith of Christopher Hitchens gives us a candidglimpse into the inner life of this intriguing, sometimes maddening, and unexpectedly vulnerable man.

"If everyone in the United States had the same qualities of loyalty and care and concern for others that Larry Taunton had, we'd be living in a much better society than we do." ~ Christopher Hitchens