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If you’re challenged, disturbed or, by any chance, persuaded by the anti-religious diatribes of Christopher Hitchens, then consider turning to Ludwig van Beethoven for the best available answer.

Instead of confronting the specific arguments in the Hitchens bestseller “god is not Great,” or listing its various flaws of fact or logic, settle back in front of whatever sound system you possess and spend a bit more than an hour listening to one of the great masterpieces of western civilization (especially in a new CD version that will cost you less than eight bucks – but more on that later).

Beethoven wrote the Missa Solemnis (or “Solemn Mass”) in 1823 at a point in his life when his progressive hearing loss left him almost totally deaf. Four years before his death, the great composer labored mightily on his stirring, audacious, occasionally heart-breaking treatment for chorus and orchestra of the traditional Catholic liturgy. The very heart of the piece features a gigantic, complex, profoundly inspiring setting of the “Credo,” featuring Latin words declaring: “I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, born of the Father, before all ages; God of God, light of light, true God of true God…”

Would Hitchens suggest that Beethoven, already world famous, beloved and adored by the music-loving public (some 20,000 ultimately attended his funeral), only wrote this piece to curry favor or attract an audience?

Hitchens insists that Jerry Falwell never sincerely believed in the silly religious messages he preached. Would he make the same charge against Beethoven, one of the greatest artistic geniuses in all of human history?

If so, how would he explain an even later work by The Master: one of his final and most intimate statements before his death, the great String Quartet in A minor Opus 132. The third movement of that soul-baring chamber work, and the clear spiritual center of the piece, bears the title (in Beethoven’s own handwriting): “Holy Song of Thanksgiving to the Godhead from One Who Has Recovered” (in the original German, “Heiliger Dankgesang eines Gesenen an die Gottheit”)

The point in all of this is that Beethoven’s unmistakably heartfelt religiosity gives the lie to Hitchens’ assumption that Judeo-Christian faith can engage only those who count as stupid, unsophisticated, crude, dishonest, weak, manipulative, illogical or barbaric.

I don’t deny that Hitchens possesses a brilliant mind and singular eloquence (a gift from God, I would say) but it’s safe to conclude that people will still be listening to the Missa Solemnis, and feel inspired by its majesty, for centuries after the collected works of Christopher Hitchens have moldered into dust and obscurity.

Hitchens argues that “religion poisons everything” – but it hardly poisoned the work of Beethoven, or Bach, or Haydn, or Brahms, or Bruckner, or Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky or Michelangelo or T.S. Eliot, or countless other immortal creators who shaped music or poetry or paintings or novels with the conscious intention of glorifying God.

For those who don’t know the Missa Solemnis, a gorgeously performed and gloriously well-recorded new version recently appeared on the budget-priced Arte Nova-Classics label. The CD contains the masterpiece in its entirety (some 66 minutes of startlingly beautiful music) and can be purchased at major chain stores (or through the internet) for $5.99 or $6.99. The performance by the great Tonhalle Orchestra of Zurich, with the Scweizer Kammerchor (the Swiss Chamber Choir) under the direction of the American conductor David Zinman, features striking commitment, stunning emotional depth, and the vivid, detailed, resonant acoustics of the historic concert hall where they performed the piece in 2001. For the impatient, go directly to the ecstatic and explosive “Gloria” (the second movement) or the huge, lovely “Credo” (the third movement, previously mentioned). The catalogue number for this outstanding rendition of a celebrated masterpiece is Arte-Nova Classics, ANO 870740.

The great composer Felix Mendelssohn once declared: “Music communicates thoughts that are not too indefinite for words, but thoughts that are too definite.”  

In this context, the Missa Solemnis communicates the indelible and unmistakable thought that God exists, and shows His love for His children by reaching us through music.