Two fierce battles are being waged this summer — one against esophageal cancer, by the irreverent columnist, commentator and critic Christopher Hitchens (who scorns the use of the word “battle” in this context), and the other for his soul, by those who hope to persuade him to convert to Christianity in extremis. It’s a paradox that Mr. Hitchens, a confirmed atheist and the author of “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything,” can appreciate, if not relish. The country’s best-known scoffer has spurred one of the most heated discussions of belief, religion and immortality in years.

Mr. Hitchens has made no secret of his illness. On June 30, on VanityFair.com, he revealed his diagnosis and announced the abrupt end of the book tour for his memoir, “Hitch-22.” And in the September issue of Vanity Fair, he published an essay in which he movingly describes his journey “from the country of the well across the stark frontier that marks off the land of malady.”

Startlingly, these updates have elicited hundreds of responses from well-wishers (and some foes), who urge Mr. Hitchens in online comments (and in their prayers, many write) to accept salvation. One wrote: “Your conversion could do for modern-day Christianity much what Paul’s did in the early days of Christianity.” Still another implored, “Mr. Hitchens, before you die give your life to Christ. Why not.”