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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Embodying Our Grief., February 7, 2009
[ 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 an "organic unity." He goes on to elaborate some destructive ways that we come to view our bodies as a result of making a sharp body/soul distinction: "a monster to be conquered," "a celebrity to be glorified," etc. He concludes this chapter by concisely stating his understanding of fasting:
[A] unified perception of body, soul, spirit, and mind creates a spirituality that includes the body. For this kind of body image, fasting is natural. Fasting is the body talking what the spirit yearns, what the soul longs for, and what the mind knows to be true. It is body talk - not the body simply talking for the spirit, for the mind or for the soul in some symbolic way, but for the person, the whole person, to express himself or herself completely (11).
The bulk of this book is spent on examining the variety of contexts in which fasting has been practiced throughout Scripture and church history. The first such context is that of "body talk," and here McKnight emphasizes again that fasting should be a response to a "grievous sacred moment," a way of communicating (or "talking") our grief through our whole person. The next context is that of "body turning," which McKnight notes is the most common form of fasting in the scriptures (24). Fasting in this context is a practice of repentance, individual and corporate. He notes here practices of fasting during Lent, during times when God seems absent, at times when we realize our complicity, and at the time of conversion and baptism. Two more contexts in which fasting occurs are those of "body plea," when fasting accompanies our prayers, and "body grief." Fasting has also been practiced throughout the history of God's people as a regular (often weekly) practice of "body discipline." Such routine, stationary fasts come in response to grief that is rooted in "consciousness of sin, consciousness of weakness, the need for God's empowering grace, the desire to cut back in life in order to find our center, and a yearning to grow morally in love and holiness" (64). He is quick to emphasize however that excessive body discipline can become "body battle," which is rooted in the "monster to be conquered" variety of dualism and is very unhealthy. Another context of the church's fasting is to remember seasons of the Christian year, particularly Lent and the Holy Week leading up to Easter. Perhaps the most striking context in which McKnight examines the practice of fasting - particularly for churches in urban places like Englewood - is that of "body poverty": i.e., as a response of grief to the injustices that occur around us. McKnight points out that fasting in this context should often be accompanied by the twin practices of generosity (given what we would have eaten in food to those who need it) and solidarity. The final two contexts in which McKnight examines fasting are as a form of worship or "body contact" - which comes as a grievous response to the realization of "the superficiality of [our] intimacy with God" (113) - and fasting as "body hope," a response to the deep longing for the full realization of God's kingdom.
The second part of this book is much shorter than the first and in it, McKnight looks at the problems with the ways in which we practice fasting (e.g., manipulation, cheating, legalism, hypocrisy, etc.) and the benefits of fasting (a very brief chapter with strong emphasis on the fact that we should not fast in order to receive these benefits). The book concludes with a chapter on the effects of fasting on one's body. I have read a few other books on fasting in the life of the church, and I've never seen another chapter like this one that pleads with the reader to understand how fasting works physiologically and to practice fasting with extreme caution. Indeed, this chapter is a refreshing one because it reminds us that God created us as beings with an organic unity of body, mind, soul and spirit and that one way of understanding the shalom that God intends is in terms of health in the most holistic sense. With God's shalom in mind, McKnight firmly warns us that fasting, if not done properly, can cause great damage to ourselves - and thus indirectly to others with whom we are in relationships - and possibly even death.
Fasting is a rich book that seeks to understand the practice of fasting in the contexts of Christian theology and of the history of God's people. I hope and pray that Englewood and other churches will read this book - perhaps during the season of Lent - and consider how fasting can be a part of their community's life together. Ultimately, fasting is primarily a practice of the church, and when I or anyone else undertake fasting as an individual practice, we are at a much greater risk of falling into one of the unhealthy patterns of fasting that McKnight names here.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
An Eye-Opening Look at a Sometimes Disturbing Spiritual Practice: Fasting, April 29, 2009
"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.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A Much Needed Discipline, April 2, 2009
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 church, he does not appreciate them uncritically. He constantly points us back to the Bible. Even men like Francis of Assisi and Dallas Willard are evaluated, appreciated, and critiqued in light of Scripture.
As I came to the end of this book, I could not help but feel challenged and convicted as I considered the apathy often evident in my Christian life. Am I risky enough or take on some of the practices in this book?
Do I respond with a heavy heart to my sinfulness in a way that would take away my appetite?
How much do I truly feel when it comes to motives for grief in this world?
Fasting comes highly recommended. It is a comprehensive treatment of the subject written in terms any layperson can understand. But let me warn you. God may do a work in your life that will then lead you to respond by fasting!
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