Customer Reviews

Christian Fasting - A Theological Approach

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This book was written as a PhD dissertation for Trinity Evangelical Divinity School of Trinity International University, Deerfield, Illinois. It is perhaps the most comprehensive study of fasting in the biblical and Christian history tradition available, with a theological integration for the contemporary relevance of fasting. The central theological thesis is that Christian fasting must ultimately be centered on Christ, reflect proper ways of engaging the human body in sanctification, and remember the corporate nature of the believer's community. Included are two valuable appendices. One catalogs all biblical references to fasting. The other is the author's own translation of two important Greek sermons "de jejunio," "About Fasting" sermons 1 and 2, by the 4th century bishop, St. Basil of Caesarea, otherwise unavailable in the English language. The book includes a foreword by Scot McKnight of North Park University, and the cover includes the following endorsements from the dissertation committee professors, Robert Yarbrough and Wayne Grudem.

Endorsements

"There is simply no book about fasting that is this biblical, and I'm grateful that it is now being offered to the public."--from the Foreword.
Scot McKnight
Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies
North Park University
Chicago, Illinois

"'Cornucorpia' may seem out of place in describing a book on fasting, but that's what this volume is. It combines biblical interpretation, historical analysis, and theological reasoning to furnish a full and challenging account of an ancient Christian practice. Just as important, the author provides a framework for truly Christian fasting today. In an age of obesity and self-indulgence--from which many long for deliverance-- this is a study worthy of diligent attention and wide circulation."
Robert W. Yarbrough
Associate Professor and New Testament Department Chair
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School Deerfield, IL

"Here is an academically grounded, theologically insightful, Christ-centered study of fasting that carefully moves through all the relevant passages in both Old and New Testaments, then surveys various periods of church history, and then draws balanced, well-supported conclusions with special reference to the doctrines of sanctification and longing for Christ's return. This is a significant, ground-breaking study on a much-neglected topic."
Wayne Grudem, Ph.D.
Research Professor of Bible and Theology
Phoenix Seminary, Phoenix, AZ

In my research for a book on fasting I read a shelf full of books and a stacks of journal articles, and without question the finest thing I read was by Kent Berghuis, called <em>Christian Fasting: A Theological Approach</em>. He gets the essence of fasting right, and he is one of the very few who sees fasting as having an eschatological dimension. This may be a research book but it is written so well anyone seriously interested in thinking about fasting at a level deeper than "what should I do? how should I do it?" will find this book delightful.