Fasting and Religion

Fasting - partial or temporary abstinence from food, a widely used form of asceticism. Among the stricter Jews the principal fast is the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur; in Islam the faithful fast all the daytime hours of the month of Ramadan. Fasting is general in Christianity. The most widely observed fasts are Lent and Advent. Both of these are preliminary to seasons of great rejoicing Read More...

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Fasting and Religion

1.

The Catechism of Thomas Becon: With Other Pieces Written by Him in the Reign of King Edward the Sixth ("A Fruitful Treatise on Fasting" begins on p. 523)
by John Ayre. 674 pgs.

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Title Page

Contents

Errata and Addenda.

A New Catechism,: Set Forth Dialogue-Wise in Familiar Talk Between the Father And the Son,

The Preface of the Author: Unto His Children, Theodore and Basil His Two Sons, and Rachel His Only Daughter:

The Jewel of Joy,

The Principles of Christian Religion,

A Fruitful Treatise of Fasting,

The Castle of Comfort,

The Solace of the Soul, By Thomas Becon.

The Preface

The Fortress of the Faithful,

The Christian Knight, By Thomas Becon.

An Homily Against Whoredom,

Index
2.

Augustine the Bishop: The Life and Work of a Father of the Church ("Fasting" begins on p. 177)
by Frederik van der Meer, Brian Battershaw, G. R. Lamb. 679 pgs.

Book

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Title Page

Contents

Sources of the ILlustrations

List of Illustrations

Introduction

Part 1: The Church of Hippo Regius

1: A Prisoner in the Lord

2: The Town and the Country

3: The Pagans

4: The Legacy of Paganism

5: The Jews

6: The Pars Donati and the Heretics

7: Day-to-Day Pastoral Work

8: The Clergy and the Ascetics

9: The Bishop

Part 2: The Cultus

10: The Theoretical Aspect

11: Augustine's LIturgical Practice

12: Becoming a Christian

13: A Sunday in Hippo

Part 3: Preaching

14: The Handbook for Preachers

15: The Servant of the Word

16 Instruction for Beginners:: The Guide for Deogratias and Its Plan

Part 4: Popular Piety

17: The Cult of the Martyrs

18: The Feasts of the Dead

19: Belief in Miracles

Epilogue

20: Augustine and Our Own Day

Notes

List of Abbreviations for Main Works Referred To

Index

Index to Notes
3.

The Candle of the Lord: And Other Sermons (Chap. XII "Fasting")
by Phillips Brooks. 376 pgs.

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Contents

Sermons.

II: The Joy of Self-Sacrifice.

III: The Young and Old Christian.

Iv. The Pillar in God's Temple.

V: The Eye of the Soul.

VI: The Man of Macedonia.

VII: The Symmetry of Life.

Viii. How Many Loaves Have Ye?

Ix. The Need of Self-Respect.: A Thanksgiving Sermon.

XII: Fasting

XIII: A Whitsunday Sermon.

XVI: Help from the Hills.

XVII: The Curse of Meroz.

Xviii. The Mystery of Light.: A Sermon for Trinity Sunday.

XX: Christian Charity.

XXI: The Marks of the Lord Jesus.
4.

Religious Melancholy and Protestant Experience in America (Discusses fasting in multiple chapters)
by Julius H. Rubin. 310 pgs.

Book

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This original examination of the spiritual narratives of conversion in the history of American Protestant evangelical religion reveals an interesting paradox. Fervent believers who devoted themselves completely to the challenges of making a Christian life, who longed to know God's rapturous love, all too often languished in despair, feeling forsaken by God. Ironically, those most devoted to fostering the soul's maturation neglected the well-being of the psyche. Drawing upon many sources, including unpublished diaries and case studies of patients treated in nineteenth-century asylums, Julius Rubin's fascinating study thoroughly explores religious melancholy--as a distinctive stance toward life, a grieving over the loss of God's love, and an obsession and psychopathology associated with the spiritual itinerary of conversion. The varieties of this spiritual sickness include sinners who would fast unto death ("evangelical anorexia nervosa"), religious suicides, and those obsessed with unpardonable sin. From colonial Puritans like Michael Wigglesworth to contemporary evangelicals like Billy Graham, among those who directed the course of evangelical religion and of their followers, Rubin shows that religious melancholy has shaped the experience of self and identity for those who sought rebirth as children of God.

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Title Page

Religion in America Series Harry S. Stout, General Editor

Preface

Contents

1: The Protestant Ethic and the Melancholy Spirit

2: Evangelical Pietism in America

3: Evangelical Anorexia Nervosa

Conclusion

4: What Hath God Wrought? Religious Melancholy in the Second Great Awakening

5: Sinners Who Would Fast Unto Death

Conclusion

The Passing Away of Religious Melancholy?

Appendix A: Pastoral Care

Appendix B: Revivalists as Mediatorial Elites

Notes

Bibliography

Index
5.

The Psychological Phenomena of Christianity ("Fasting" begins on p. 127)
by George Barton Cutten. 500 pgs.

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Preface

Contents

Chapter I: Through the Human Mould

Chapter III: Mysticism

Chapter IV: Ecstasy

Chapter V: Glossolalia

Chapter VI: Visions

Chapter VII: Dreams

Chapter VIII: Stigmatization

Chapter IX: Witchcraft

Chapter XI: Monasticism and Asceticism

Chapter XII: Religious Epidemics

Chapter XIII: Contagious Phenomena

Chapter XIV: Revivals

Chapter XV: Faith Cure

Chapter XVI: Christian Science

Chapter XVII: The Miracles

Chapter XVIII: Conversion

Chapter XIX: Age

Chapter XX: Sex

Chapter XXI: Intellect

Chapter XXII: Knowledge

Chapter XXIII: Imagination

Chapter XXIV: Inspiration

Chapter XXV: Will

Chapter XVII: Emotions

Chapter XXVII: Worship

Chapter XXVIII: Prayer

Chapter XXIX: Sexuality

Chapter XXX: Denominationalism

Chapter XXXI: Immortality

Chapter XXXII: Preaching

Index of Names

Index of Subjects
6.

Dealing with Religious Diversity in the Work Place: A Managerial Guide and Religious Calendar for 1994, in SAM Advanced Management Journal
by John A. Pearce III. 9 pgs.

Journal Article
7.

Holy Men and Hunger Artists: Fasting and Asceticism in Rabbinic Culture
by Eliezer Diamond. 228 pgs.

Book

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The existence of ascetic elements within rabbinic Judaism has generally been either overlooked or actually denied. This is in part because asceticism is commonly identified with celibacy, whereas the rabbis emphasized sexuality as a positive good. In addition, argues Eliezer Diamond, it serves the theological agendas of both Jewish and Christian scholars to characterize Judaism as non- or anti-ascetic. In fact, however, Diamond shows that rabbinic asceticism does indeed exist. This asceticism is mainly secondary, rather than primary, in that the rabbis place no value on self-denial in and of itself, but rather require of themselves the virtual abandonment of familial, social, and economic life in favor of an absolute commitment to the study of the Torah. It is an asceticism of neglect, rather than negation. He also notes that this asceticism of neglect dovetails with the rabbinic theology of sin and punishment, which encourages delaying gratification in this world in the hopes of a greater reward in the next. The rabbis believed, moreover, that every pleasure taken in this world detracts from what awaits one in the future. The rabbis valued and occasionally engaged in primary asceticism as well. In fact, as Diamond shows, the vocabulary of holiness was often used by the rabbis in connection with voluntary self-denial. One form of primary asceticism--fasting--became increasingly popular in the wake of the destruction of the second temple. He traces this development to the need to mourn the temple's devastation but also to the cessation of three forms of temple-related rituals: the sacrificial cult, the Ma'amadot (groups that would fast, pray, and read from the Torah while daily sacrifices were offered), and naziritism. Fasting is linked by the rabbis to each of these practices and Diamond shows that fasting was seen as a substitute for them after the temple was destroyed. In a final chapter, Diamond shows that there is a greater tendency toward asceticism among the Palestinian rabbis than among the Babylonian. He contends that the divergent political histories of these communities as well as differing external cultural influences account for this disparity.

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Title Page

Acknowledgments

Contents

Holy Men and Hunger Artists

Introduction

1: The Ascetic Discipline of Torah Study

2: Delayed Gratification and Avoidance of Pleasure in Rabbinic Thought

3: The Language of Rabbinic Asceticism

4: The Asceticism of Fasting

5: Rabbinic Attitudes Toward Fasting and Asceticism in Palestine and Babylonia in Late Antiquity

Conclusion: Rabbinic Asceticism: Alternative, Not Aberration

Abbreviations

Editions of Rabbinic Works Cited

Notes

Bibliography

Index of Primary Sources

General Index
8.

Because It Gives Me Peace of Mind: Ritual Fasts in the Religious Lives of Hindu Women
by Anne Mackenzie Pearson. 316 pgs.

Book

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Title Page

Contents

List of Plates

Abbreviations of Sanskrit Texts

Notes on Translation and Transliteration

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1: Six Women

2: The Concept of Vrata in the Hindu Textual Tradition

3: Vrats, the Seasons and the Festival Calendar in Banaras

4: Precept and Practice: The Contours of a Vrat

5: Precept and Practice: The Constituents of a Vrat

6: Vrats and the Life Stages of Hindu Women

7: Because It Gives Me Peace of Mind": Meanings and Functions of Vrats in Hindu Women's Religious Lives"

Conclusion

Appendix A History of Scholarship on Vrata

Appendix B Fieldsite, Research Population, and Fieldwork Methods

Appendix C Tables of Months, Tithis, and Vrats

Appendix D HaritĀlikĀ (tĪj) and JĪvit Putrika (jiutiyĀ) Stories

Notes

Glossary

Bibliography

Index
9.

Gandhi's Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth (Chap. XXXI "Fasting")
by M. K. Gandhi, Mahadev Desai. 627 pgs.

Book

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Gandhi's Autobiography

Contents

Introduction

Part I

I: Birth and Parentage

II: Childhood

III: Child Marriage

IV: Playing the Husband

V: At the High School

VI: A Tragedy

VII: A Tragedy (contd.)

VIII: Stealing and Atonement

IX: My Father's Death and My Double Shame

X: Glimpses of Religion

XI: Preparation for England

XII: Outcaste

XIII: In London at Last

XIV: My Choice

XV: Playing the English Gentleman

XVI: Changes

XVII: Experiments in Dietetics

XVIII: Shyness My Shield

XIX: The Canker of Untruth

XX: Acquaintance with Religions

XXI

XXII: Narayan Hemchandra

XXIII: The Great Exhibition

XXIV: Called' — but Then?

XXV: My Helplessness

Part II

I: Raychandbhai

II: How I Began Life

III: The First Case

IV: The First Shock

V: Preparing for South Africa

VI: Arrival in Natal

VII: Some Experiences

VIII: On the Way to Pretoria

IX: More Hardships

X: First Day in Pretoria

XI: Christian Contacts

XII: Seeking Touch with Indians

XIII: What It is to Be a 'Coolie'

XIV: Preparation for the Case

XV: Religious Ferment

XVI: Man Proposes, God Disposes

XVII: Settled in Natal

XVIII: Colour Bar

XIX: Natal Indian Congress

XX: Balasundaram

XXI: The £ 3 Tax

XXII: Comparative Study of Religions

XXIII: As a Householder

XXIV: Homeward

XXV: In India

XXVI: Two Passions

XXVII: The Bombay Meeting

XXVIII: Poona and Madras

XXIX: Return Soon'

Part III

I: Rumblings of the Storm

II: The Storm

III: The Test

IV: The Calm After the Storm

V: Education of Children

VI: Spirit of Service

VII: Brahmacharya — I

VIII: Brahmacharya — II

IX: Simple Life

X: The Boer War

XI: Sanitary Reform and Famine Relief

XII: Return to India

XIII: In India Again

XIV: Clerk and Bearer

XV: In the Congress

XVI: Lord Curzon's Darbar

XVII: A Month with Gokhale—I

XVIII: A Month with Gokhale—II

XIX: A Month with Gokhale—III

XX: In Benares

XXI: Settled in Bombay?

XXII: Faith on Its Trial

XXIII: To South Africa Again

Part IV

I: Love's Labour's Lost?

II: Autocrats from Asia

III: Pocketed the Insult

IV: Quickened Spirit of Sacrifice

V: Result of Introspection

VI: A Sacrifice to Vegetarianism

VII: Experiments in Earth and Water Treatment

VIII: A Warning

IX: A Tussle with Power

X: A Sacred Recollection and Penance

XI: Intimate European Contacts

XII: European Contacts (contd.)

XIII: Indian Opinion '

XIV: Coolie Locations or Ghettoes?

XV: The Black Plague — I

XVI: The Black Plague — II

XVII: Location in Flames

XVIII: The Magic Spell of a Book

XIX: The PhŒnix Settlement

XX: The First Night

XXI: Polak Takes the Plunge

XXII: Whom God Protects

XXIII: A Peep into the Household

XXIV: The Zulu 'Rebellion'

XXV: Heart Searchings

XXVI: The Birth of Satyagraha

XXVII: More Experiments in Dietetics

XXVIII: Kasturbai's Courage

XXIX: Domestic Satyagraha

XXX: Towards Self-Restraint

XXXI: Fasting

XXXII: As Schoolmaster

XXXIII: Literary Training

XXXIV: Training of the Spirit

XXXV: Tares Among the Wheat

XXXVI: Fasting as Penance

XXXVII: To Meet Gokhale

XXXVIII: My Part in the War

XXXIX: A Spiritual Dilemma

XL: Miniature Satyagraha

XLI: Gokhale's Charity

XLII: Treatment of Pleurisy

XLIII: Homeward

XLIV: Some Reminiscences of the Bar

XLV: Sharp Practice ?

XLVI: Clients Turned Co-Workers

XLVII: How a Client Was Saved

Part V

I: The First Experience

II: with Gokhale in Poona

III: Was It a Threat ?

IV: Shantiniketan

V: Woes of Third Class Passengers

VI: Wooing

VII: Kumbha Mela

VIII: Lakshman Jhula

IX: Founding of the Ashram

X: On the Anvil

XI: Abolition of Indentured Emigration

XII: The Stain of Indigo

XIII: The Gentle Bihari

XIV: Face to Face with Ahimsa

XV: Case Withdrawn

XVI: Methods of Work

XVII: Companions

XVIII: Penetrating the Villages

XIX: When a Governor is Good

XX: In Touch with Labour

XXI: A Peep into the Ashram

XXII: The Fast

XXIII: The Kheda Satyagraha

XXIV: The Onion Thief

XXV: End of Kheda Satyagraha

XXVI: Passion for Unity

XXVII: Recruiting Campaign

XXVIII: Near Death's Door

XXIX: The Rowlatt Bills and My Dilemma

XXX: That Wonderful Spectacle!

XXXI: That Memorable Week! — I

XXXII: That Memorable Week! — II

XXXIII: A Himalayan Miscalculation'

XXXIV: Navajivan' and 'Young India'

XXXV: In the Punjab

XXXVI: The Khilafat Against Cow Protection?

XXXVII: The Amritsar Congress

XXXVIII: Congress Initiation

XXXIX: The Birth of Khadi

XL: Found at Last!

XLI: An Instructive Dialogue

XLII: Its Rising Tide

XLIII: At Nagpur

Farewell

Index
10.

A Reader on Classical Islam ("O Believers, Fasting Is Enjoined on You" begins on p. 252)
by F. E. Peters. 417 pgs.

Book

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To enable the reader to shape, or perhaps reshape, an understanding of the Islamic tradition, F. E. Peters skillfully combines extensive passages from Islamic texts with a fascinating commentary of his own. In so doing, he presents a substantial body of literary evidence that will enable the reader to grasp the bases of Muslim faith and, more, to get some sense of the breadth and depth of Islamic religious culture as a whole. The voices recorded here are those of Muslims engaged in discourse with their God and with each other--historians, lawyers, mystics, and theologians, from the earliest Companions of the Prophet Muhammad down to Ibn Rushd or "Averroes" (d. 1198), al-Nawawi (d. 1278), and Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406). These religious seekers lived in what has been called the "classical" period in the development of Islam, the era when the exemplary works of law and spirituality were written, texts of such universally acknowledged importance that subsequent generations of Muslims gratefully understood themselves as heirs to an enormously broad and rich legacy of meditation on God's Word."Islam" is a word that seems simple to understand. It means "submission," and, more specifically in the context where it first and most familiarly appears, "submission to the will of God." That context is the Quran, the Sacred Book of the Muslims, from which flow the patterns of belief and practice that today claim the spiritual allegiance of hundreds of millions around the globe. By drawing on the works of the great masters--Islam in its own words--Peters enriches our understanding of the community of "those who have submitted" and their imposing religious and political culture, which is becoming ever more important to the West.

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Title Page

A Reader on Classical Islam

Contents

Preface

A Reader on Classical Islam

Introduction: A Primer on Islam

Chapter 1: The Past, Sacred and Profane

Chapter 2: The Life and Work of the Prophet

Chapter 3: The Community of Muslims

Chapter 4: The Word of God and Its Understanding

Chapter 5: The Quran, the Prophet, and the Law

Chapter 6: The Worship God

Chapter 7: Saints and Mystics

Chapter 8: Islamic Theology

Sources Cited: Except Where Specifically Noted, Ancient and Medieval Texts Are Cited According to Their Standard Editions. Translations of the Quran Are Derived from Ahmed Ali, Al-Qur'an (princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988).

Index
11.

Go Fast and Live, in The Christian Century
by Mark Buchanan. 6 pgs.

Magazine Article
12.

Hungry Together, in Commonweal
by Roger F. Repohl. 2 pgs.

Magazine Article
13.

From Feasting to Fasting, the Evolution of a Sin: Attitudes to Food in Late Antiquity
by Veronika E. Grimm. 294 pgs.

Book

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In this highly original study, Veronika Grimm discusses early Christian texts dealing with food, eating and fasting. Modern day eating disorders often equate food with sin and see fasting as an attempt to regain purity, an attitude which can also be observed in early Christian beliefs in the mortification of the flesh.Describing first the historical and social context of Judaism and the Graeco-Roman world, the author then proceeds to analyse Christian attitudes towards food. Descriptions of food found in the Pauline Epistles, the Acts of the Apostles, Tertullian or Augustine are compared to contemporary Jewish or Graeco-Roman pagan texts. Thus a particular Christian mode of fasting is elaborated which influences us to the present day; ascetic fasting for the suppression of the sexual urges of the body. From Feasting to Fasting is of interest to all students of Early Christianity, and to those searching for historical roots of modern attitudes. Winner of the 1995 Routledge Ancient History Prize

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Title Page

Contents

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Introduction

1: The Jewish Background

2: The Graeco-Roman Background

3: Food and Fasting in the Pauline Epistles

4: Food and Fasting in the Acts of the Apostles

5: Clement of Alexandria

6: Food and Fasting in the Works of Tertullian

7: Food and Fasting in Origen and Eusebius

8: Jerome and Ascetic Propaganda

9: Augustine and Ascetic Practice

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index
14.

Born Again Bodies: Flesh and Spirit in American Christianity
by R. Marie Griffith. 323 pgs.

Book

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"This is a wonderful book, well-conceptualized, written with style and wit, and impressive for its ambition, reach and achievement. R. Marie Griffith brings to the scene learning, theoretical subtlety, critical acumen, historical skill, and humane sensibility. She has emerged as one of the most sophisticated and insightful scholars of the Christian body in any period of Christian history."--Robert Orsi, Harvard University
""Born Again Bodies is extraordinary. It uncovers an arena of knowledge never before looked at with this level of critical attention when examining American religious culture; Griffith's strength is that she looks across the 'evangelical' denominations. Her work is elegant and truly original."--Sander L. Gilman, author of "Difference and Pathology and "Jewish Frontiers

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Title Page

Contents

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Perilous Body Gospels

A Note on Reading the Images

1: Anglo-Protestant Culture and the Reorientation of Appetite

2: New Thought Physiques

3: Divergent Paths of New Thought Perfectionism

4: Shaping Devotional Fitness Culture

5: Denial, Indulgence, and Exclusion in Christian Diet Culture

Epilogue: Bodies in Crisis?

Notes

Primary Source Bibliography

Index

Books	Journals	Magazines
Newspapers	Encyclopedia	Research Topics

Books	Journals	Magazines
Newspapers	Encyclopedia	Research Topics

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