Faith in Public

We had our first events for the book this weekend, the first at my church, St. Francis Xavier, where several parishioners and a few students of mine listened to me read the introduction to Faith. We end that piece -- the only dual-authored section of the book -- with this thought about the conversation that the book creates as we alternate stories back and forth:

"Our hope is that in sharing this conversation, in appearing in public as faithful friends, we might also begin to hear other stories and participate in other conversations of belief, disbelief, hope, doubt, and the eternal desire to learn and do the will of God. We still long to find and please God. And we know were better off trying to do this together."

In that spirit, one guy from Xavier asked a few questions after I finished reading, wondering whether the age-old conflicts between Jews and Christians come up in the book (no, they don't), and how we deal with atheists. Peter and I have come down pretty hard on who in the book we call "vehemently secular atheists," but the fact of the matter is that, as I've said before, I am one, which is just what I told the guy. My priest nodded approvingly from the back.

We launched the book at Good World, a Swedish restaurant and bar on Orchard Street, New York City. Rosie Schaap, whom I've recently called incomparable (which she proved last night), hosted the event and prepared the soundtrack for the evening: Neutral Milk Hotel, Billy Bragg, Okkervil River, and the Beach Boys, mainly. I read a chapter from the book called "The Virgin." Peter read one called "The Prayer Book." Both of us mentioned vibrators at least once.

Thank you to everyone who came to the event, especially our editor Kathy Belden and our agent Jennifer Joel. (And of course our families and friends.) It was more than we'd hoped it would be.