Richard Valantasis is Professor of Ascetical Theology and Director of the Anglican Studies Program at the Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. He is the author of The Gospel of Thomas, Centuries of Holiness: Ancient Spirituality Refracted for a Postmodern Age, and The New Q: Translation and Commentary.
In the context of belligerently hedonistic North American society,
a society reduced to waging war to support our lifestyle, Richard
Valantasis's The Making of the Self has never been more relevant.
Valantasis proposes that past and present can best be compared, not
through ideas, but through analysis of practices and what they
produce. This book asks, What did historical people seek to achieve
through the ascetic disciplines they practiced? What do we seek?
Could some of the ascetic repertoire of historical people be of
practical use toward our goals? Valantasis describes a theory and
practice of asceticism for secular twenty-first-century society.
Both informative and inspirational, The Making of the Self should
be required reading for everyone who seeks to make intentional
choices that shape the self.
--Margaret R. Miles, Professor Emerita of Historical Theology,
Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, and author of A Complex
Delight: The Secularization of the Breast, 1350-1750
A tour-de-force through the theory and practice of asceticism in
late antiquity. Valatansis's insightful focus on the transformative
power of ascetic performance permits one to see asceticism through
the ascetic's eyes. His work compels us to reflect anew on the
nature and role of asceticism in antiquity, and, in the process, to
consider its meaning and relevance today.
--James E. Goehring, Professor of Religion, University of Mary
Washington and author of Ascetics, Society, and The Desert The
Making of the Self: Ancient and Modern Asceticism opens up
traditional Christian and Roman sources to a new kind of close
reading, showing us what difference it makes to recast asceticism
in a theoretically rich and provocative way. In undertaking this
task, Richard Valantasis invites his readers to rethink the
historical texture of ancient Mediterranean asceticism as well as
the ongoing legacies of asceticism's hardwiring of human society in
any time and place where people resist the current order of things
and dream of a new and better reality.
--Elizabeth A. Castelli, Professor of Religion, Barnard College at
Columbia University and author of Martyrdom and Memory: Early
Christian Culture Making This wide-ranging collection of essays is
a remarkably coherent and compelling presentation of Valantasis's
mature theorizing about a complex and fascinating phenomenon.
Through his writings and through our conversations and
collaborations over the years, Valantasis had already taught me
much about asceticism. But this book I read as the capstone of his
musings, playfulness, and hard work. It is Valantasis at his
best--articulate, creative, witty, feisty, provocative, brilliant.
All students of religion and culture will be enlightened and
delighted and challenged by this book.
--Vincent L. Wimbush, Professor of Religion, Claremont Graduate
University and editor of Ascetic Behavior in Greco-Roman Antiquity:
A Sourcebook
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