Richard Valantasis

Augustine and the Fundamentalist’s Daughter

History & Biography

“For over thirty years we have read and heard Margaret Miles on Augustine, and her insights on this spectacular ancient have been compelling. Now we read Miles in Augustine's Confessions, and her self-disclosure is as compelling as Augustine's. This is a soul-rending book that opens the world of Augustine to the world of a fundamentalist's daughter. We have known for a long time that scholarly study reflects the life experience of the scholar, but Miles has taken this both to new heights and new depths. This book reveals both Augustine and the world of a fundamentalist, and it is simply stunning in its depth of disclosure and revelation--all what we have come to expect from Augustine and now from Miles.”

Rereading Historical Theology

Theology

“Reading Miles reading Augustine is a delight and a window on the development of modern critical theory applied to historical theology. Miles is simply brilliant and her Augustine shines with a brilliance borne of Miles's careful and close reading, important new theories, and her love of Augustine that brings the ancient theologian to life. This is a significant collection of essays that no serious historian of theology should miss.”

The Long Goodbye

Counseling, Grief & Mental Health

“Few books have opened whole new worlds of unknown and unexperienced arenas. Margaret Miles's Long Goodbye is one of them. Miles explores in subtle and rich ways the experience of saying goodbye to her beloved husband as he recedes more and more into his dementia. It is a love story and an expression of beauty in the face of what is increasingly becoming a common reality in our society. How do we find beauty as those we love become strangers to us? Miles writes the love story weaving together fragments of lived experience from ancient thinkers to modern writers to expose the richness and wonder of living with someone with dementia. . . . Miles has opened that world to us to understand and to wonder at the ability of a person to find beauty there in the midst of anguish. This is an important and timely book that everyone should read, not just those with loved ones who suffer from dementia, but for everyone who lives in our society where dementia is becoming a more common disease.”