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HomeMartin LecturesWhat is tactical contemplation?Creating Contemplative CommunityBecoming an AssociateAssociates PagesBlog for AssociatesRevised Common Lectionary Sample ReflectionSample Thought of the WeekCenturies on ContemplationContact UsAbout usMake a DonationArchivesPublications by Richard Valantasis
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The Gospels and Christian Life
in History and Practice (with Douglas K. Bleyle and Dennis J. Haugh) Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, June 2009;
Hardcover and paperback A lively account of the use of the gospels as formative
documents in their original communities. Based on the most detailed scholarship, the authors skillfully weave together the
words and intent of the gospels by using contemporary examples of similar techniques used by The Colbert Report,
the films The Matrix and Almost Famous, and the television program Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.
Centuries Of Holiness: Ancient
Spirituality For A Postmodern Age Continuum, February 2005;
Hardcover. Written for those who yearn for a spiritual life that
has depth and intellectual challenge, this is a thinking person's guide to the spiritual life for the smart seeker who wants
to be fully attuned to God, fully interactive with other believers, fully connected to the wider world in which humans live,
fully engaged with the physical universe, fully committed to service to the poor and disenfranchised, and, finally, fully
postmodern. Adopting a literary device first used in the fourth century by the Desert Father Evagrios Pontikos, Richard Valantasis
offers a "century" of spiritual texts - a hundred short essays from 800 to 900 words each - on a hundred spiritual
themes. Believing that "tradition is the action of the Holy Spirit making available the wisdom of the past in a new idiom
and a new time," Valantasis moves from the premodern spiritual world of the Christian tradition to the postmodern realities
of our current world, and back again.
The Gospel of Thomas Routledge,
June 1997; Paperback and Kindle Book format. Here are fresh translations of the Coptic and Greek
text, with an illuminating commentary, examining the text line by line. A general introduction is provided, outlining previous
scholarly debates and situating the Gospel in its historical and theological contexts. "This is a brilliant book. Recommended for all."– Society of Biblical Literature.
"If the Gospel of Thomas is correct
in its claim that 'Whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death,' Richard Valantasis stands
a pretty good chance of being around at the dawn of the twenty-second century...This is a brilliant book."– Review
of Biblical Literature . "Valantasis
has written the best commentary on the Gospel of Thomas that has ever been written and it is hard to imagine that a better
internally referential one could be written. Can be strongly recommended to any reader interested in the development of early
Christianity." – Network
The Beliefnet Guide to Gnosticism
and Other Vanished Christianities Three Leaves, February, 2006; Paperback. This book, part of Beliefnet's series of short primers on religion, examines what the author
calls the "conflictual
diversity of early Christianity," focusing initially on three Gnostic sects considered schismatic by the keepers of orthodoxy.
. . .(He) then studies other interpretations both inside and outside the church, including the influence of Neo-Platonism
on the church's mystical self understanding. Along the way we meet the Montanists, the Manichaeans and other familiar groups
proclaimed heretical by the church. But Valantasis goes beyond the familiar, introducing us to an assortment of smaller, lesser-known
groups such as the "Fools for Christ" and the "Stylites," all in a compact, entertaining style that is
sure to please the casual reader. This book offers a concise but fact-filled approach to the study of early Christianity in
its broad diversity." – Publishers' Weekly
Religions of Late Antiquity in
Practice Princeton University Press, 2000; Hardcover and Paperback. This is an unprecedented
collection of nearly seventy Late Antique primary religious texts. These texts -- all in new English translation and
many appearing in English for the first time -- represent every major religious current from the late first century until
the rise of Islam. Produced through the efforts of thirty-six leading scholars in the field, they constitute a comprehensive
view of religious pracrice in Late Antiquity.
The New Q: A Fresh Translation
With Commentary T. & T. Clark Publishers, November, 2005; Paperback. Readers of this translation will be able to hear the sayings of Jesus as Matthew and Luke heard them
before the writing of their gospels. The goal is to recreate the kind of challenging and intellectually stimulating engagement
with the sayings that probably put Christianity on the Roman map.
The Making of the Self: Ancient
and Modern Asceticism Cascade Books, March, 2008; Paperback. Wide-ranging in historical scope and in developing theory, these essays address asceticism for scholar and
student alike. The theory will particularly interest students of cultural theory and analysis, while the history offers researchers
access to a corpus of academic writing on asceticism. "A tour-de-force journey through the theory and practice of asceticism in late antiquity. Valantasis focusses on
the transformative power of ascetic performance portraying asceticism through the ascetic's eyes. He 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
The Subjective Eye: Essays in
Culture, Religion, and Gender, in Honor of Margaret R. Miles (edited by Richard
Valantasis, Deborah J. Haynes, and James D. Smith, III) Pickwick Publications, May 2006; Paperback (23 essays by scholars, plus poetry and music)
Asceticism edited by Vincent L. Wimbush and Richard Valantasis.
Oxford University Press, Hardcover, 1995;
Paperback, 1998 (42 essays by scholars of asceticism)
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