It is instructive that his book begins with a nine-year old child’s disappointment in the religious instruction of a kindly old teacher (whom he calls a “pious old trout,” by the way). I would say, in fact, that Mrs. Watts’ teaching took root in nine-year old Christopher and he has never gotten over his disappointment that religion is not nearly as simple or straight-forward as she presented it. The “religion” he chooses to attack with venom in his work is presented in the “straw man” version.

The chapters in God is Not Great on biblical interpretation, “Revelation: The Nightmare of the ‘Old’ Testament” and “The ‘New’ Testament Exceeds the Evil of the ‘Old’ One,” are so ham-handedly literalist as to make a fundamentalist blush. I looked in the index to be sure I hadn’t missed any encounter with modern biblical scholarship. I looked for some reference to the mind-searching biblical interpretation of “Marcus Borg,” but found instead only an index reference to “Klaus Barbie.” I looked for some engagement with the depth of scholarship and breath of biblical interpretation of “John Dominic Crossan”, but found in the index only a reference to “Crusades.” Feminist theology? Forget it.

The kind of religion Hitchens chooses to make the target of his wrath is indeed violent, narrow-minded and out of touch with the real world. This is why we in the Congregational tradition abandoned it in the nineteenth century in favor of a faith that wrestles with the contradictions and genuine mysteries of human life, that both understands and confronts modern science (Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, anyone?), and that does not understand the power of God as a big puppeteer in the sky pulling all the strings of existence. Grownup faith actually grapples with the contradictions of the finite and the infinite; “When I was an adult, I put away childish things.”

Christopher Hitchens seems to be continuously staggered by the fact that people who profess faith in God fail to live up to their expressed beliefs. We call that sin, Mr. Hitchens. Reinhold Niebhur once said, “the Doctrine of Original Sin is the only Christian doctrine we can prove empirically.” As one who has such a touching reverence for empirical method, I would think you would find that compelling, Christopher.

I will take these atheists more seriously in their “argument with faith” when they actually take the time to acknowledge me and others in my liberal Protestant tradition. Until that time, my honest assessment is just this: grow up.