The essay was controversial at the time of publication because of its attempt to validate graffiti as an art form by linking it with great artists of the past.

Faith grew out of Mailer's existential philosophy of the hip, in which a Hipster is guided by his instincts regardless of consequences or perception, and upholds graffiti as a subversive and healthy check on the status quo.

Like several of his other non-fiction narratives, Mailer continued his use of new journalism techniques, adopting a persona, the A-I or "Aesthetic Investigator", to provide both an objective distance from the topic and to engender the text with the creative and critical eye of the novelist.

[8] In June 1972, Mayor Lindsay announced an anti-graffiti program which included fining and jailing anyone caught with an open spray paint can near any public city building or facility.

[9] Robert Laird, Lindsay's Assistant Press Secretary, admitted to a New York Times reporter that "the unsightly appearance of the subway and other public places created by the so-called graffiti artists has disturbed the Mayor greatly".

"[10] In 1969, Norman Mailer, who had achieved literary renown for his first novel The Naked and the Dead and had been a public figure in the decades since, unsuccessfully campaigned for the Democratic nomination for Mayor of New York City.

[12] During the campaign, Mailer and his running mate Jimmy Breslin ran on the platform that New York City would become the 51st state, along with other, more creative, initiatives.

[15] Procaccino later ended up losing in the general election to incumbent John Lindsay, who ran as a member of the Liberal Party of New York.

[17] In 1974, his Marilyn collaborator Lawrence Schiller sent Mailer photographs of New York City graffiti by Jon Naar and offered him $35,000 for an essay to accompany them.

To understand the motivations and drive of the graffitists, the A-I interviews four retired graffiti artists: CAY 161, JUNIOR 161, LI'L FLAME, and LURK.

[25] He draws references to the works of Henri Matisse, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Vincent van Gogh, and Willem de Kooning as their art may have "streamed down from the museums through media to the masses".

[31] Beginning with his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Armies of the Night in 1967,[32] Mailer developed a form of new journalism wherein he adopts a third-person persona[33] to become an integral part of the story and to endow the chronicle with emotion and drama it might otherwise lack.

[36] In Faith, Mailer adopts the persona of the "Aesthetic Investigator", or A-I, allowing him to comment objectively about himself as a character and a foil through which to engage graffiti.

[52] Mailer, like the graffitist, is an existential artist who pushed boundaries, challenged the status quo, and daily forged his identity through art.

[50] A large part of The Faith of Graffiti sees Mailer musing about whether tags scrawled on public spaces have any artistic merit.

[41] While Mailer "tells his media story superbly", writes New York Times critic Corinne Robins, it falls short of gaining any true "cosmic insights" about graffiti as art more than it is political.

[53] Throughout Faith, Mailer connects New York City's graffiti culture to the hip, a concept he developed in his 1957 essay The White Negro.

[56] Similarly, by defining CAY 161 as hip and linking him to earlier graffitists like TAKI 183, art critic Edward Birzin argues that Mailer elevates graffiti to an artistic movement.

[66] A New York Times review by Corrine Robins claims that Mailer did a disservice to graffiti by using the work as a platform for his own political gain and to highlight the flaws in the city's administration.

[67] Literary critic Eliot Fremont-Smith calls the essay "convoluted", "circular", "provocative", and ultimately interested in the "enticement, the thrall, the dread, the value, and the metaphysics of risk alone".