Christopher Hitchens, Doug Wilson, and Christian-Atheist Dialogue

Last week Christopher Hitchens, author of God is Not Great and one of the "Four Horsemen" of the so-called New Atheism, died from complications of esophageal cancer.  It was a Thursday, and by Friday morning his friend and debate partner, the Christian Doug Wilson, had penned a lengthy obituary for Christianity Today.  In it Wilson does something genuine, and unorthodox: he tells about the life of the man he knew.  Genuine in that he spent quite some time, it seems, discussing the deeper things of existence with Hitchens.  Unorthodox because Christians unfortunately tend to lean towards saying of non-believers in obituaries "Guess he did some good things, but he did not know Christ!" (see Christian blogosphere post-Steve Jobs).  While knowing God and believing in Jesus are the important things, I really respect Doug Wilson for not black-and-whiting his friend - nor compromising the Gospel.  His three page article is a testament of the friendship they had.  Wilson doesn't reveal a superiority over Hitchens, or a fear of Hitchens' philosophy, or any kind of assumptions of where Hitchens is now.  It's an article about life, a life lived.  Peter Hitchens, Christopher's Christian brother, writes of the man as "courageous...My brother possessed this virtue to the very end, and if I often disagreed with the purposes for which he used it, I never doubted the quality or ceased to admire it" (read more here).

These are strange things, to read honorable phrases coming from the pens of Christians about an outspoken atheist.

There's more, and it is found here: relationship.  Things remain black and white when people remain at the surface with one another.  I believe if Wilson and Hitchens stayed on each others' side of the fence, the obituary, if there was one, would be very different.  But these two men got to know one another, and in so doing the commonalities increased, the bonds of trust grew, and the things they could say to one another, about God and faith and doubt and existence, became more and more open.  Hitchens knew the Gospel, as Wilson states, because Wilson himself told him.  When relationship is formed, when people become flesh and blood, tangible and real, when barriers begin to fall, and honesty takes root, that's when reality begins.

But what about Christian-atheist friendships and dialogue?  That is a question the relationship of Hitchens and Wilson has lead me to ask.  Is there commonality?  Much interfaith work among the religions of the world is based upon having faith in God, but when one doesn't believe in God, can there be a bond?  Atheism is inherently an intellect's pursuit, while Christianity tends not to be.  Then again, Doug Wilson is an incredibly intellectual guy - could their brains have been their link?  I wonder if the advent of an "intellectual Christian" challenged Hitchens.  Then again Hitchens, according to Wilson's article, wanted his book tour to include those of faith in open dialogues.  I wonder if the advent of a "humble atheist" challenged Wilson!

Who knows why the came together, but I wonder why we don't see more Christian-atheist dialogues - or do we?  I know I've had plenty of them.  Perhaps they are more commonplace than we think.  But I think there is a fear from the Christian side, and an ill-equipping.  A fear, because we may think we'll be somehow convinced of our own foolishness of faith; an ill-equipping because churches put very little stress on knowing the Bible, knowing theology, and knowing apologetics.  If atheism is inherently an intellectual's "faith," does the disconnect come in knowledge?  The Bible tells us to seek after knowledge, gain the wisdom of the Lord.  To know the things of God, to be able to speak about it when asked.  Are we lacking in Christian-atheist dialogues because we Christians are just too ill-prepared to have the deeper conversations?

I'd be curious to see what you think.

Doug Wilson on the death of Christopher Hitchens from Canon Wired on Vimeo.

Click here for more on the documentary of their dialogues, COLLISION.