John Hamilton Book Launch: Honest To God

A night of entertainment with music and words that "transcends" the ordinary. John Hamilton’s book, “Honest To God” is designed to make people think. It’s memoir structure allows readers to identify with the character’s experience. The September 27 book launch performance will be, quite literally, a high-wire act, poised on the edge of flight, without a net.

After years spent chasing transcendence on dive-bar rock 'n' roll stages and LA film shoots as a corporate advertising executive, John Hamilton's spirited quest for meaning is finally fufilled by ordination and a call to serve a picturesque church in small-town New England.

But slowly, unsettling doubts begin to creep in. Combining the introspective depth of Thomas Merton with the wry humor of Anne Lamott, Honest to God brings the reader into the daily life of a pastor secretly wrestling with the limits of a theology seemingly inadequate for modernity. Nagging questions begin to compound, such as the vastness of the cosmos made clear by startling new images from the James Webb telescope. Hamilton wonders: is the human mind even capable of understanding something as expansive and impenetrable as the Divine?

Tracing the cognitive dissonance between the small God of the sanctuary and an unnamable God beyond human comprehension, Honest to God is a love song to what once was even as it imagines authentic possibilities. In a world sharply polarized by dogma and skepticism, Hamilton’s writing allows space for mystery and wonder. It is a beacon for anyone who has grappled with the big questions of life and found answers in the most unexpected places.

John Hamilton was born into a spirited Irish-American family of singers and storytellers. Breaking with his strict Catholic upbringing, he embarked on a career in music that immersed him in the colorful but dangerous world of drugs, alcohol, and rock clubs. A debilitating onset of panic disorder abruptly halted his musical pursuits, propelling him into the business world where he thrived as a creative director in advertising. Despite professional success, Hamilton’s persistent quest for the transcendent led him to seminary and, eventually, to two decades of parish work as a pastor. In “Honest To God,” he eloquently chronicles the collapse of the mainstream Christianity, his loss of connection to the transcendent and his walk into the wilderness to search for it again.

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Tickets:
$45.00 (Ticket includes signed copy of book and signed copy of CD)
$25.00 (Ticket includes signed copy of CD)

Seating/Bar: 6:30PM Show: 7:30PM

This event is indoors.

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Parking is limited at the venue so please utilize the three public parking lots in Town. One is across from the Post Office, one is behind Berkshire Bank and the other is just off Main Street. They are clearly marked. Do not park at Trúc Orient Express Restaurant or the Post Office or you might receive a ticket.

Visit Amici Berkshires for dinner before the show and with your ticket receive 10% off your meal.

All sales are final – The Foundry is unable to make any returns or exchanges.

Host or Publisher The Foundry