Light those Lights

Peter and I read from the book this past weekend at The Church of the Ascension, NYC, in an event co-sponsored by the church and the NYU Episcopal chaplaincy. A handful of my students attended. I got some thumbs up. I discussed my facial tic -- technically, atypical trigeminal neuralgia -- which I think at least some of my students were dying to hear an explanation of. They've often looked at me funny after my face dances under the pressure of this untreatable neurological disorder. After the reading itself we held a small-group discussion with Fr. John Merz, the NYU chaplain. He seems like a very good, very smart priest.

One of my students approached me this afternoon after class. She'd enjoyed herself at the reading, and was happy her boyfriend had attended the event with her, as well. He'd commented after the reading and the small-group discussion that he hadn't ever encountered smart conversation about God. (The flattery is encouraging, but I'd say he needs to go to more churches, in general.)

His point, though, is well taken, and largely motivated the conversation we reproduce in the book. The loud religious talk these days doesn't seem so smart. It's good to lean back in a room and hear a collection of nineteen-year-olds -- some religious, some not -- talk with a priest who seems, while perhaps better versed in the possibilities of what God may or may not be, no more sure about of the answers.

Happy Hanukkah. Light those lights. And thanks to the Velveteen Rabbi, rabbinic student Rachel Barenblat, for her kind words about Faith.

And look for our discussion with Bill McGarvey and Robert Anthony Siegel at Busted Halo, coming soon.