Christopher Hitchens wrote serious books full of complicated arguments, vast amounts of research and considerable humor and insight.

So when I moderated three debates with him on the substance of “god is not Great,” and conducted a three-hour interview on “Hitch-22,” his dazzling memoir, I took the time to read the books closely and make extensive preparations. I was particularly careful with regard to “god is not Great,” because we had so fundamental a disagreement on the question of whether Christ is indeed God that I wanted to be sure to give his best arguments full and fair airing.