Fasting: Fasting as Body Talk in the Christian Tradition

"This is not a book for the cowardly." That's how Phyllis Tickle, the General Editor of the Ancient Practices Series, introduces Scot McKnight's startling new book on "Fasting." If it's done right, she says, the experience can be downright "disturbing." Those are surprising words when talking about a subject we all think we understand: Fasting? It's giving up food, right? Or, maybe it's giving up things in general, right? Billions of people around the world do it--certainly Jews, Muslims, Baha'is, Christians and followers of many other faiths. We do it, because ... Well, because it's a tradition, right? A requirement of the faith. And because, it somehow ... somehow ... connects us with larger spiritual truths, doesn't it? Well, yes it does, writes Scot McKnight, the Karl A Olsson Professor in Religious Studies at North Park University in Chicago and the popular author of more than 20 books. But--the spiritual truth of fasting is a whole lot larger than most of us suspect. Fasting is whole-body spirituality. It's disturbing, Phyllis Tickle points out, not only because of the physical demands--but also because it's admitting that we're not merely a spirit hooked to a physical form. It can be disturbing to admit that we are whole beings--mind, body, spirit hooked together as a whole. The opening line of Scot's book is: "Fasting is a person's whole-body, natural, response to life's sacred moments." He gives us great examples of fasting out of the lives of biblical figures as well as later major figures in the Christian faith. And he also argues strongly against the temptation to recommend fasting as a sort of boot-camp quick-fix for bulking up on our prayer life. Fasting is a response of compassion to needs in God's world, Scot argues, and not a tool to juice-up our prayers. Each of the books in this series by Thomas Nelson is an in-depth look at an ancient spiritual practice, written primarily for a Christian audience--although the millions of spiritually minded Americans who aren't Christian likely will enjoy the series as well. The books are great for small-group study.

It will be unfortunate, yet not surprising, if Fasting, the newest book by Scot McKnight and newest installment in Thomas Nelson's Ancient Practices series does not sell well. Not suprising - because American evangelicals have shown little appetite for the practice of fasting. Unfortunate - because Scot's new book is one of the best treatments of this subject to find its way onto Christian bookshelves. Not too long ago, a seminary friend questioned my desire to fast during the season of Lent. When I asked him why he was opposed to the Lenten practice, he pointed to its lack of prescription in the New Testament as well as the possibility to take such fasting to extremes. My response? "I don't think that evangelicals are suffering right now from too much fasting." Scot McKnight claims that one of the reasons why we have neglected this ancient discipline is due to an unhealthy view of the body. Philosophically, we grativate toward dualism, which would have us view spiritual disciplines as just that - spiritual. We then miss the biblical view of embodied spirituality - a living out in the body that which one desires and yearns for in the spirit. For Scot, "fasting is the natural inevitable response of a person to a grievous sacred moment in life" (xx). Therefore, we are wrong to see fasting as a manipulative tool that guarantees results. It is instead a response. Fasting is a comprehensive and helpful book. I enjoyed Scot's honesty in describing his struggles with fasting (even as he was writing this book!). The distinctions he makes between normal fasting, absolute fasting and partial fasts (where we abstain from certain kinds of food or certain activities and things) help to clarify what it is that we are doing when we fast. The greatest strength of the book is Scot's picture of fasting as a response, never an instrumental practice in which we try to receive something. We go without food because of what has taken place in our hearts. The book lays out the different ways that fasting serves a response. It can be an expression of repentance, a response to a moment in which we feel we must earnestly seek God, a response to grief (Scot sees grief as the thread that connects all the various fasting practices). Fasting can sometimes be a response to our need for spiritual discipline, a response to our corporate life together, even a response to poverty and injustice. Again and again, Scot drives the point home: we do not fast to get something. We fast as a response. And if we receive something after or during the fast, it is because God has used the yearning in our heart (expressed through the fast) in order to grace us with more of his presence. I thoroughly enjoyed the historical anecdotes contained in this book. Scot uses examples throughout church history, and points to people from all spectrums of Christianity. He is not afraid to critique traditions or misguided intentions with the Bible. Though he appreciates the different streams of the c

There is a lot of spiritual yearning in our culture. Whereas some look for all new ways of connecting with God, this book helps readers find a powerful connection with God via an ancient practice. The author makes abundantly clear that fasting is not done to "get" something, but is an active response "to" something. And this physical engagement with the world helps us to not only connect with God, but to focus our heart and soul upon the needs around us and helps us to be instruments of God's justice in the world. Excellent and easy to read, I would highly recommend this book for people who want to take their spiritual life deeper. Eric N.

I am glad I got this book. In a time when people only "want from God," this is about "want God." Kudos to the author.

[ This review originally appeared on [...] ] Just in time for the season of Lent, which starts on Ash Wednesday (this year February 25), Thomas Nelson has just released the newest book in its "Ancient Practices" series: Fasting by Scot McKnight. This volume offers both a deeply rooted theological case for fasting and a firm caution against the dangers that fasting poses to one's health, if done excessively or without an understanding of how the human body works. Here at Englewood Christian Church, the only practice we have of fasting is to fast during the day on Good Friday, a fast which we promptly defame with our gigantic potluck dinner that follows our evening prayer service. I've tried fasting on my own a few times, particularly on retreats, but to paraphrase G.K. Chesterton, fasting is a practice that I've found difficult and therefore one that I've pretty much left untried. I recognize the biblical and historical significance of fasting, but have never really been part of a church community that valued fasting as a significant practice. It seems to me that at least part of our hesitancy toward fasting here at Englewood is the ways that we've seen fasting being done in theologically appalling ways. At the book's outset, McKnight names one such erroneous and detrimental way that fasting is practiced, to which he will frequently return over the course of the book: viz., fasting in order to produce results. Such a practice of fasting, which McKnight calls an instrumental view of fasting, is not a healthy spiritual discipline, but rather a "manipulative device." McKnight argues instead that fasting is a responsive practice, saying that fasting is a body's natural response to grief. He does not deny that sometimes results do come from fasting, but he is adamant that for the people of God, the why of fasting should be a response to grief and not a means to an end - however good that end might seem. McKnight is also careful to point out that avoiding chocolate, coffee, television or some other enjoyable habit for Lent can be helpful as a sort of abstinence, but should not be called fasting. Throughout this book, McKnight's approach to fasting is to examine it as a historical practice of the Church, and even more as a practice of the people of God that began in the Israelite people before the time of Christ's earthly ministry. One of the things that I deeply appreciate about McKnight's historical approach here is that he makes a seamless transition between the history of Israel and church history. In the first chapter, McKnight notes that fasting is a bodily practice and that many of our problems with fasting - both in not doing it and how it is done when we practice it - stem from our misconceptions of the body. Although in Western culture, we are inclined toward a dualism that severs the body and soul (or spirit). McKnight argues convincingly that we are biblically to understand the person as