All that Simon, a young boy, wants for Christmas is the stigmata, and to be God’s prophet, and if prayer and sacrifice have anything to do with it, Simon is well on his way. Theresa, his mother, prefers that he go to the mall and let Walmart tell him what he wants for Christmas. Simon does visit the mall, or more exactly, the Walmart’s parking lot as it is the closest approximation to a desert that he can find in his snowswept upstate New York home to wander in. And it came to pass that, there, in the parking lot, Simon saw the Harbinger, a visitor to him from the heavens and, no doubt, God’s emissary to him and earth, hovering just above the halogen glow of the parking lot lights. His prayers have been answered.

Or have they?

Faith considers the quintessentially egocentric origins of fanaticism, a timely subject in a world where fanatics, domestic and foreign, seem to threaten our nation, if not our civilization. Faith places its subject matter in an immediate, rather than a remote, setting. That is, the play does not consider how fanaticism develops on the Arab Street or in an Islamic madras, but rather in a suburban Christian (Catholic to be exact) American home for the simple reason that, while we readily recognize foreign-born fanatics, we are not so quick to perceive our home-grown varieties.