God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens Literary Analysis Essay Sample

📌Category: Books, Religion
📌Words: 549
📌Pages: 2
📌Published: 19 June 2022

Religion is a subject as intricate as it is multifarious. It is a subject often treated with delicacy and reverence, for it is widespread and it is powerful. Christopher Hitchens’ book, God is not Great, is a tactical approach to the subject with strong rhetorical appeals and witty commentary. Hitchens expresses a sense of fearlessness, and occasional outright indignation, for the matter in which he deals, marking the book as a contemporary exposé of religion as a whole. God is not great is a book I would recommend to others not only for its stimulating argument, but for its unique and bold outlook on such an acclaimed subject. 

God is not Great is an integral piece of literature for it’s fundamental nature as an expository on the history of religion. Hitchens begins the work off strong with detailed accounts from both his own life and from historical experiences of various religions. Hitchens’ regales the reader with brutality and hypocrisy. He mentions his visit to Belfast where he saw “whole streets burned out by sectarian warfare”, and he includes the “ghastly” nature of the Taliban regime, “which slaughtered the Shiite population”(Hitchens 18, 31). His work is revealing of the aspects of organized religions, and is essential in its thoroughness and inclusion. Hitchens puts a heavy emphasis on Chrisianity, Islam, Judiasm, and several eastern religions. His work continues and he amasses his collection of evidence through chapters like “Revelation: The Nightmare of the ‘Old’ Testament” and “The Koran is Borrowed”. He builds his argument on the back of phrases like “Chrisitans had been at work for the same wishful attempt at ‘proof’” and “all religions'' have “resisted any attempt to translate their sacred texts into languages ‘understanded of the people” (103, 125). Hitchens’ work is comprehensive and his repertoire of evidence is profound. God is not Great is a fundamental work in the exploration of religion and its implications, if only in its right to provide an unfiltered explanation of historical and contemporary organized religion. 

God is not Great, however, is not simply an expository work. Hitchens writes in order to deconstruct the preconceived notions of organized religion and reveal it’s sometimes virulent effects. In doing so, he also reveals religion’s long standing foundation for discrimination. In the chapter “Religion Kills”, Hitchens provides a thorough analysis of sectarian crimes, their implications, and the reactions garnered by the public. He ends the chapter on a significant note: “religion has been an enormous multiplier of tribal suspicions and hatred” with its speech in “tones of the bigot” (36). The book focuses primarily on religious descrimination, but mentions its parallels to racism and infers them to homophobia. The book is an important read specifically for these connections. Hitchens points out the hypocrisy of the church through the notion that “nothing could be sillier than having a maker who then forbades the very same instinct he instilled” (214). He argues that the nature of many religious preachings are counterintuitive, leaving the reader with the concept that religion is an enabler for discrimination.

God is not Great is more than an expository and more than a comment on discrimation. It is a thorough and complex take on organized religion that provides a number of diverse lines of reasoning. It takes on religion in a simultaneously calculated and impassioned way that accumulates strength as you read. This book is an important read and one I would recommend both for its parts and the sum of its whole. It was vital in broadening my perspective of religious history and deepening my understanding of the reality of organized religion.

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