Centuries Of Holiness: Ancient Spirituality For A Postmodern Age - Richard Valantasis

In the tradition of ancient writings on spirituality, Richard Valantasis patterns his book after works called “centuries.” A “century” consists of one-hundred independent short essays on spiritual formation. All the essays are unified by their form and trajectory. The form involves beginning with an ancient practice and then reshaping it for a postmodern world. The trajectory is our own personal divinization – an admittedly “troublesome term intended to articulate the capacity of every person to become holy, godlike, attuned to God, and united to the divine in every aspect of being” (14). In this way the wisdom of the past is made available in a new idiom and for a new time. In his words, “The ancient tradition is refracted; that is, it is passed through the prism of the postmodern context” (25). For a short summary of Valantasis’ vision for spiritual formation, click HERE.