Fasting: The Ancient Practices

by Scot McKnight

"Fasting is the body talking what the spirit yearns, what the soul longs for, and what the mind knows to be true."-- Scot McKnightChristianity has traditionally been at odds with the human body. At times in the history of the church, Christians have viewed the body and physical desires as the enemy. Now, Scot McKnight, best-selling author of The Jesus Creed, reconnects the spiritual and the physical in the ancient discipline of fasting.Inside You'll biblical precedents for the practice of fasting;How to fast effectively--and safely;Different methods of fasting as practiced in the Bible;Straight talk on pitfalls, such as cheating and motivation.Join McKnight as he explores the idea of "whole-body spirituality," in which fasting plays a central role. This ancient practice, he says, doesn't make sense to most of us until we have grasped the importance of the body for our spirituality, until we can view it as a spiritual response to a sacred moment. Fasting--simple, primitive, and ancient--still demonstrates a whole person's earnest need and hunger for the presence of God, just as it has in the lives of God's people throughout history.The Ancient PracticesThere is a hunger in every human heart for connection, primitive and raw, to God. To satisfy it, many are beginning to explore traditional spiritual disciplines used for centuries . . . everything from fixed-hour prayer to fasting to sincere observance of the Sabbath. Compelling and readable, the Ancient Practices series is for every spiritual sojourner, for every Christian seeker who wants more.

Genres: Theology, Christian, Religion, Christianity, Christian Living, Spirituality, Faith

210 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 2009

About the author

Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author or editor of forty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL. Dr. McKnight has given interviews on radios across the nation, has appeared on television, and is regularly speaks at local churches, conferences, colleges, and seminaries in the USA and abroad. Dr. McKnight obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Nottingham (1986).

Reviews

[Brennan Penner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was outside of my typical style of writing and based a lot more in church traditions/history but I appreciated it! I was glad to be challenged by theologians across generations and denominations. Scot does a good job giving a picture of fasting. I think he might focus more heavily on responsive fasting instead of longing fasting (which I think is more appropriate for the church era) but it was all really good.

[Emily Seydell · Rating 5 out of 5]

so… this was excellent.

“The focus of the Bible on fasting is not on what we get from fasting or on motivating people to fast in order to acquire something, but instead lands squarely on responding to sacred moments in life. Fasting enters into how God interprets, experiences, understands, and explains significant events. Fasting, in fact enters into God’s pathos, or into what God thinks and feels about death, sin, war, violence, and injustice.”

[Patrick Willis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must admit first off that I truly admire Scot McKnight and all that he's done to teach Bible and theology. One of my all time favorite books was "The Jesus Creed." In addition to content, his writing style is very easy to follow and conversational, and this book on fasting was no different. The most memorable part of his presentation of this discipline is how he defines fasting. The definition that he gives is "fasting is the natural, inevitable response of a person to a grievous sacred moment." He explains that for many Christians today, our focus has been on the wrong thing when it comes to fasting. He illustrates his point with the A->B->C model. A= sacred moment; B= Fasting; and C= Results. For many Christians today, and I would add for every other book on fasting that I've read so far in my life, the focus has been solely on the B->C connection. In other words, we fast TO GET something. McKnight argues that this mindset is flawed, [arguably] unbiblical, and risky. It's flawed and unbiblical because the examples proved throughout Scripture, always come about as a response to some situation that they are faced with (i.e. Jonah 3.4-10). It's also risky because there are some times when the results we are fasting for don't come. If fasting is only done to get something, and then we don't get it, how discouraging and damaging might that be for a person's continue discipline of fasting. Instead by focusing on the A->B relationship, all of those issues disappear.

In connection with other teachings from Jesus, as Christians if we are truly seeking God's Kingdom first and we pray and truly desire for God's will to be done here on earth as in heaven, then when we look around and see just how far things are from that reality, we should experience a 'grievous, sacred moment.' Since we are beings comprised of BOTH inner and outer parts (soul/spirit and body), the grieving practice is not 'complete' without both parts participating. Thus our inner selves feel sorrow, frustration, and longing for God's Kingdom to come, while our outer selves grieves through the discipline of fasting. I agree with McKnight that for some reason many Christians today have tried to separate and divide the human being into two, separate things. Some even go as far as to say the whole person is really just the inner part and the body is just a shell (which sounds dangerously close to Gnosticism to me). In reality the two parts of part of a whole, and both are needed for the whole person to be whole.

Overall, I highly recommend this book. I read it in two days, so it's not that difficult of a commitment to read. It certainly is going to be my 'go-to' whenever someone asks me about fasting!

[David Jamison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid book! Lots of things I’d never thought about before, and several answers to questions I’ve had about fasting for a long time. I really appreciate the overall thrust of this book (and time will tell if I am disciplined enough to utilize what I’ve learned), though I have enough small quibbles that I can’t rate it above 3 stars.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF. I made it about 1/3 of the way in, but I disagreed with too many of his points and felt he made too many assumptions about Bible passages and stated his opinions as fact without sufficient biblical support for his conclusions. He makes a lot of statements about the only “natural” way, all else being sacrilege.

He really lost me when he said “Conversion is above all a serious sacred moment to which one naturally responds with fasting. I recommend that we reconsider the absence of fasting in the conversion process today.” What? No. What about all the people who met Jesus and had an Aha! moment and ran off to tell everyone they knew? There are tons of examples of becoming a Christian being a feasting, party throwing kind of occasion à la Luke 15:8-10 and 15:21-25,32. Even angels are celebrating! When did the 3,000 people who were baptized on the day of Pentecost have time to fast? What about the daily conversions and Christians eating together in Acts 2:46-47. Where’s the “conversion” fasting there? It’s not some Stoic somber rite of passage. Repentance has already been done in a moment and that person is immediately clean. And what’s this about a “conversion process”? Believing that Jesus died for you is not a process, it’s a turning point where the light flicks on and you understand what He did for you, and you have hope and peace and joy wash over you, because you’ve finally found out you’ve been set free from guilt and shame and don’t have to carry that weight anymore!! Sanctification is a process for a lifetime after that, and you may need to be reminded of what’s true and repent of stumbling on the way (and maybe fast in those moments?) but believing in Jesus’s death and resurrection and what that means for you individually is not some kind of short interim period immediately after you’ve already believed where you must wallow in the sorrow of your sins with fasting when you’ve just been set free from the weight of them!! Just…no.

That being said, I appreciated his A - B - C example where fasting (Step B) has been popularized as a kind of path to Super Christian blessing status (Step C) that twists the motive and purpose of fasting from the original point (Step A) of having the kind of heart condition that leads someone to seek God via fasting in the first place. I just disagreed with a lot of his follow up conclusions.

I picked up this book because I’ve been exploring the secular benefits of fasting (via “The Obesity Code” by Jason Fung) and have been learning about God-honoring responses regarding cravings (via “I’ll Start Again Monday” by Lysa TerKeurst) and wanted to see what the Bible has to say about fasting and our relationship with God and our bodies, but I don’t think this guy gets it.

[Taylor Vegge · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
Solid book that was easy to read and focused on the biblical reasons for fasting. The only reason the rating is lower is because it was kind of repetitive restating the main point over and over but the point was good.
Basically argues that fasting is not a way of manipulating God to get what we want which is how a lot of Christian’s think now. Biblically, fasting is a natural response to a sacred moment. In ancient times, it was believed that the body and soul were unified as the collective person so when the soul experienced deep emotion, the body reacted with the soul by abstaining from the pleasure that comes from food.
There is an A (sacred moment) > B (response) > C (results) method in fasting that are all necessary, but we tend to skip the A (sacred moment) and jump to B&C (fasting for results). Fasting will not always produce results, but when it does it is not the fasting that gets us what we want but our yearning for God/Gods action that leads us to fast.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well worth the read. Fasting has been on my mind a lot recently so I was pleasantly surprised to have this book loaned to me to read. It is well written and fairly concise, McKnight breaks down the reasons why we should be fasting and encourages us through scripture and tradition to do so.

The only significant flaw I could find with this book was that he kept stating how dangerous and bad for our health fasting can be, and that he had comments from medical professionals saying as much. Perhaps there was not much published in medical circles in 2009 about fasting, but there are numerous health benefits to fasting, especially if you are a healthy individual.

[Nathaniel Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lent. The invasion of Ukraine. The growing conviction that self-denial is far from most of us. This was exactly the book I needed right now.

The critical distinction the book provides is between “Instrumental” fasting vs. “responsive” fasting. It’s amazing how easily we think of fasting (or anything) as a method of getting the result we want. Which is never guaranteed.

[Katie Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

McKnight has one main message: in the Bible, fasting is a whole-body *response* to a grievous or holy moment.

He stresses that fasting is not a tool that manipulates God. Desirable outcomes are not the point and they are not guaranteed.

I've mainly practiced what McKnight calls "body discipline" fasting and I expect his perspective (that scheduled fasting should find a locus of grief i.e. injustice, personal failings, yearning for heaven to respond to) will be very helpful as I continue.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book!
There are certainly some areas where I disagree with McKnight, but overall I agreed with his message. There were moments where I felt he was over-repeating or even overstating some points, but it's hard not to love a book that makes references to multiple church fathers in every chapter. It comes across as a very well researched book and isn't too long, either.

His main point is this: fasting shouldn't be pursued for the potential benefits you might get out of it (as though you could manipulate God by pursuing fasting), rather, fasting comes out of contemplation of what McKnight calls "grievous sacred moments," of which he gives many different types of examples.

Special shout out to the 2009 reference to ketosis in the chapter on the biological dangers of fasting.

[Trevor Atwood]

A book about fasting. Worth the read if you want to learn about fasting.

[Alex O'Connor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful, erudite and well researched. An excellent primer, chock full of more resources to explore.

[Conor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has changed my whole view on fasting. McKnight gently leads you to conviction and a deeper longing for Christ.

[Graham Gaines · Rating 4 out of 5]

I reread this in preparation for a sermon on fasting. It's one of the better resources I've found on the subject. 4 stars because he has little to no room for regular fasting in his definition. But I was compelled by his showing the reader how most, if not every fast in the Bible is a response to a "grievous, sacred event".

[Bryan Neuschwander · Rating 2 out of 5]

Here is, I think, the strength of the book: "Fasting along with our prayer requests is not some kind of magic bullet to ensure the answer we want. Fasting doesn't reinforce the crumbling walls of our prayers like a flying buttress, nor is it a manipulative device. We fast because a condition arises--what we are calling the sacred moment--that leads us to desire something deeply. We fast because our plea is so intense that in the midst of our sacred desire eating seems sacrilegious" (49).

I'm glad, however, that others have found the book helpful. Personally, I'd recommend Willard's Spirit of the Disciplines, Foster's Celebration of Discipline, or even Piper's Hungering for God over this title.

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

First of all, I don't have anything against fasting. It's a Biblical practice many modern Christians, myself included, could stand to engage with more often.

I did appreciate the basic point that fasting should be a response to something in life (grief, sin, yearning for God's presence, etc.), not a way to try to manipulate God into doing what we want. This was covered in the introduction, and we could have stopped there. The rest of the book was extremely repetitive; I got tired of the phrase "grievous sacred moment" very quickly.

McKnight's Biblical illustrations often felt stretched, in the way that happens when your point doesn't provide enough material for the number of words you need to write. I didn't think they always applied in the way he said they did. This was annoying, and not great, but not something I would usually think worth the effort of arguing with.

But in the chapters about fasting as a discipline to curb sin and fasting on a regular, scheduled basis, it became more problematic.

He does give a warning that these things can be taken too far. But he also opens these chapters with a glowing story about a modern day monk who eats only one meal a day, perpetually. So I'm not sure what his definition of "too far" is. Never eating? I had other concerns as well. But here I want to focus on his treatment of Paul.

He claimed Paul would support regular fasting as a way to discipline yourself because of the passage about punishing his body and enslaving it so he's not disqualified (1 Cor. 9:27), and because he includes hunger in his lists of hardships he endured (2 Cor. 6:4-5, 11:27). He admits that these passages don't explicitly connect fasting to growing in righteousness, and I don't find them particularly convincing myself. But he also never, in these chapters or elsewhere in the book, discusses anything Paul DOES explicitly say about fasting/abstaining from food.

What about Paul's warning to Timothy that a sign some have renounced the faith will be demanding abstinence from foods (1 Tim. 4:1-3)? What about his teaching that regulations like, "Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch," "have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-imposed piety, humility, and severe treatment of the body, but they are of no value in checking self-indulgence" (Col. 2:20-23)?

Paul definitely fasted at times. He might have done so regularly. But he firmly warned against the human tendency to think, "Fasting is hard, therefore it must be good for my righteousness, therefore I should make it a requirement for my own faithfulness and that of others." And that is exactly what McKnight does, by ignoring relevant passages and pulling his evidence from conjecture about passages even he acknowledges might not be related.

That's a bad, dishonest way to handle scripture, folks.

[Adam Shields · Rating 4 out of 5]

My full review is at http://bookwi.se/fasting-by-scot-mckn...

Short version review: This is a very good book. I think the best of the three Ancient Practices books I have read. It is enough background and history to understand fasting while still being personal and relevant to fasting today.

The majority of the book was really about how not to fast (bad motivation, bad theology, bad health, etc.). I have read or started a few books on fasting in the last week or so and the main addition of this book was the focus on motivation. McKnight says that "fasting should always be the natural result to a grievous sacred moment." Something that draws us to fasting, not because of what we can learn or what we can get but something that causes us to fast because we don't have any other thing we can do.

[Sam Poat · Rating 5 out of 5]

It totally changed my view of fasting for the better. I would highly recommend it.

[Taylor Flowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prayer has a bundle of natural companions -- like prayer and kneeling, prayer and pleading, prayer and pondering, prayer and struggling, prayer and praising -- and prayer and fasting.

Sometimes it is necessary to check the delight of the flesh in respect to licit pleasures in order to keep if from yielding to illicit joys. -Augustine

Fasting helps us to express, to deepen, and to confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, even ourselves, to attain the Kingdom of God. -Andrew Murray

Fasting was no longer a constraint and penance for me, but a joy and need of body and soul. I practiced it spontaneously because I loved it. -Adalbert de Vogue

They were hungry enough for God's leading that they wanted to say it with the hunger of their bodies and not just the hunger of their hearts. -Piper about the early church

Wrong body image:
-a monster to be conquered
-a celebrity to be glorified
-a cornucopia to be filled
-a wallflower to be ignored

Fasting is the body talking what the spirit yearns, what the soul longs for, and what the mind knows to be true.

Fasting is about pathos, taking on the emotions of God in a given event.

The wisdom of the ages is that sensitive people fast to communicate with God during dry days.

Body grief is perhaps the purest example of what fasting is all about: a human being, overwhelmed by the sacredness of a moment, chooses not to eat in order to sanctify his or her communion with God and participate fully in one of life's grievous moments.

To love fasting is just that -- to delight in a life regulated by sacred rhythms and fasting.

It is as if the man who fasts were more himself, in possession of his true identity, and less dependent on exterior objects and the impulses they arouse in him.

Paul is an advocate for a total person (body and soul) battling with desire in order to "present your members to God" (Rom 6:13).

Fasting, one might say, is the faithful person's pathos for and with the poor -- fasting embodies God's disposition to the poor. Fasting, then, is body poverty in response to injustice in our world.

There are two companions to fasting, according to Isaiah 58. The first is that fasting be converted into justice and solidarity with others. The second is that fasting leads to holiness.

So I would say that a more complete view of fasting suggests that it is the combination of our yearning to know God and our present state of not knowing God intimately enough that prompts the person to fast with the hope of encountering God.

John the Baptist was well known for his fasting . . . He couldn't get settled into this world until God's will was more firmly established.

The Christian era is an age of fasting and feasting, of holding the tension of unfinished business, while confessing in faith to the outcome.
Christ has come -- we can feast.
Christ is yet to come -- we should fast.

The inflammation of things we will [supposedly] get from fasting is what I call benefit-itis.

[Fasting] is a safeguard of a soul, a stabilizing companion to the body, a weapon for the brave, a discipline for champions. Fasting knocks over temptations, anoints for godliness. She is a companion for sobriety, the crafter of a sound mind. In wars she fights bravely, in peace she teaches tranquility. -Basil

Half of Christian fasting is that our physical appetite is lost because of our homesickness for God is so intense. The other half is that our homesickness for God is threatened because our physical appetites are so intense. -Piper

More than any other discipline, fasting reveals the things that control us. -Richard Foster

[Peter Adams · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an OK book. It has some interesting things here and there, and I'm happy with the emphasis on the non-duality of spirit and body, though I'm not entirely on board with the central emphasis of the book, namely that fasting isn't to be done "instrumentally," but as a reaction to a sacred moment. Well, I agree that bodily discipline is for the long haul and that to cling for immediate reward is not ideal, I think the author has too much of a negative view on fasting, because he believes it's dangerous, that it's a sort of reaction toward God. He states that the holy men who had a close connection with God, fasted a lot, but he denies that fasting was a cause. His point is that they fasted because of God's presence, not the other way around.

All the truly jewels in the book are quotations of other people. And it does offer a lot of biblical context to what he's saying. The book isn't useless but the author doesn't impress me and contains a lot of mistakes. If you are to write a book about fasting, you should at least have to experience with it. Instead, we're given health advice from an overweight man, that fasting is dangerous, who's only fasting experience seem to be that of skipping lunch while writing a book, apparently instrumentally to be more connected with what he's writing.

The fact is that the author doesn't have experience with fasting and has no idea what he's talking about. He says "Let's be honest here: fasting of more than a few hours-- in its most graphic term-- starves the body." He continues saying that the body is harmed if fasts endure more than a dozen or so hours.

Unfortunately, we normally sleep for eight hours. That means, according to our friend here, our body is starved and harmed every time we get a full night's sleep. This is just blatantly ridiculous. Further, there is a vast abundance of scientific evidence that intermitted fasting, which usually implies limiting the time window of eating to around 8 hours a day, is beneficial for the body. Not to mention the abundance of science revealing the healing effects of longer fasts.

He also states that ketosis (when the body is fueled by fat, not carbs) is a dangerous condition for the body, and that fasting should not be done by diabetics. All evidence point to the opposite. Not only is it false, it instills a dangerous and unhealthy idea, that people, including diabetics rely on carbs in order to stay healthy. Idiocy. Carbs is precisely what diabetics need to avoid to keep their blood sugar down. Long and deep ketosis have proven to be healing both for the body and also psychiatric- it has even proven to reduce symptoms of schizophrenia.

The author has no real grasp on the true reality of health - he has actually no experience with fasting, other than skipping lunch - misinformed - overweight himself and is heavily concerned with the dangers of fasting and anorexia nervosa. He's not nowhere near qualified to write a book about this. It is no wonder, therefore, how he downplays fasting as something useful to practice, and instead merely reducing it as a byproduct of sacred events.

[Bruce Colella · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is more about the history of fasting (e.g. one should never fast on a Sunday) and why we fast, rather than how to fast. There are ten chapters each with a different reason to fast; to list them would not be worthwhile unless you read the book. The types of fasting are followed by chapters on fasting and its problems, fasting and its benefits, and fasting and the body.

Fasting is an ancient discipline practiced by Jews and later adopted by early Christians, most of whom were Jewish and probably had fasted for most of their lives. The early Christians saw fasting as a sacred rhythm. In the middle ages Calvin called fasting an inner resolution. Fasting is also called a means of grace. Fasting has in the past few decades become trendy (McKnight's description). His basic formula for fasting begins with a Sacred Moment (e.g. death, sin, needs) leading to responsive fasting which is resolved by a result (e.g. life, forgiveness, answers).

Fasting leads to results. Probably not as fast as one would wish it happen. And maybe God knows better than we do for the result that might not have been what we thought we needed, and when it happens.

[Scott Kercheville · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book. McKnight sees fasting as the proper embodied response to life’s sacred moments. Western Christianity often sees the body as unnecessary for spirituality, and McKnight seeks to correct that. He offers and explores many reasons why someone might and should fast.

On a number of occasions I would have liked there to be more exploration from scriptures of some themes. I’m not particularly troubled though at his use of early Christian practice outside of Scripture — maybe they were carrying on some verbal or lived traditions (2 Thess. 2:15), or even just trying to do their best at living out Jesus contention that his followers would return to the practice of regular fasting when he left. He doesn’t treat these examples as authoritative but as instructive. And he’s not afraid to critique what clearly misses the mark.

Ultimately, this is a well rounded book on fasting and I would think where you would want to start on the subject before reading other books that may have a narrower focus.

[Daniel Addo · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow

Probably the best book on fasting I have read. Perhaps the two big points are these: fasting is not a way of becoming more spiritual by escaping our bodies, but a way of embodying our spirituality. Fasting is using our bodies to express our soul’s desire, grief, and need for God. In other words, Scott delivers us from the gnostic and platonic views of the body that have affected how and why we fast. The second major point is that fasting is not merely instrumental (a way of getting something from God). Rather, it is a response to a “sacred, grievous moment.” Fasting is how we respond to death, grief, a lack of love, injustice, and a desire for God. Often, such fasting will produce results of closeness to God or love…but these are not the major impulse for fasting. I find this reasoning to be in line with the gospel as it keeps fasting from becoming a meritorious work by which we back God into a corner. Excellent!

[Phillip Howell · Rating 4 out of 5]

McKnight makes a good argument for A —> B —> C process for fasting.

A = Sacred Moments (Sin, Grief, Absence from God, Lack of Clarity, etc...)

A biblical response to these moments is...

B = Fasting (the whole body talking to God)

The results of fasting may include but are not guaranteed as some kind of magic power or manipulation tactic...

C = Results (Intimacy with God, miraculous signs, guidance, healing, answered prayer, etc...)

Additionally, the other major contribution this book makes is that he helpfully points out that we do not fast in response to sacred moments because of our deficient views of the human body. I think he is spot on with this observation and critique. I know I need more of an embodied spirituality and not merely an intellectual one.

It’s a good short little read.

[Glen · Rating 4 out of 5]

McKnight’s work is a valuable contribution to a neglected area of spirituality. The tone is pastoral and incorporates the rich wealth of Christian tradition taken from Biblical passages. Biographical examples are offered that enrich the reader’s perspective on how fasting operates in a believer’s life.

The writer’s distinction between abstinence (e.g., foregoing sweets or medium, etc.) and fasting (refusing food) is well argued. Of particular import is the way he delves into the negative influence of western cultural views on the body and how these present challenges for Christians engaging this discipline.

What you have here is a well-rounded, loving presentation that offers insight to those who feel compelled to respond bodily and spiritually to certain sacred moments.

[Kelly Gwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book extremely helpful, balanced, and insightful. I feel it has reframed my view of this discipline and corrected some wrong thinking that is common among Christians in our time and culture in regards to fasting. McKnight talks about fasting from many angles and draws all of His points very clearly from Scripture. He emphasizes our motivations/heart and our thinking about fasting in order to encourage a more balanced and effective approach to it that focuses on intimacy with God and not manipulation for results. I would highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to grow in understanding and practice of fasting as well as spiritual disciplines in general.

[Drew Heindel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book completely changed how I view fasting as a Christian discipline. It teaches that fasting is a response to a grievous, sacred event. It is not primarily an instrument used to get a short term something or other from God. It is a way for the body to join in unity with mind, soul, and heart in responding to an event. And the author contends that this is the primary motivation for fasting found in the Bible and modeled in the early church. The author does a good job sharing the fasting traditions that have been practiced over the centuries in Judaism and in various Christian denominations and attempts to call out both the positives and negatives of each.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

McKnight's book on fasting is a very practical step by step take on the sacred practice. It is very easy to read and understand. McKnight does a great job at bringing the Ancient Voices to light each step of the way while also illuminating contemporary concerns. I read this while I am doing a 21 day abstinence/fast. It helped a lot with my focus and warning me of my own pious weaknesses. I enjoyed the book. IT is a helpful resource for Christians and others to understand religious motivations and practices.

[Almachius · Rating 2 out of 5]

The little gems sprinkled throughout - quotes from the bible, saints and other fasting advocates - make the book worth picking up if only as a guide to further reading. I would have liked to have read much more about the history of Christian fasting and less of the author's own chatter. It should have been edited down to a decent 20 page booklet or a long blog post. The writing style is repetitive and inelegant. The science on fasting and ketosis is out of date, but this is forgivable to some extent considering the date of publication (2009).

[Nick Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m actually not totally convinced by McKnight’s narrow claim (which he never systematically argues) of the nature of Biblical fasting, especially because he tends to discount the Tradition (traditions) of Christian and Jewish (and Muslim) practice. Still, his focus on fasting on making a unity between the parts of the self (body and “spirit”) that Christians have so often divorced, is a great argument for embodied theological anthropology. Highly recommended, in conversation with other resources on fasting.