Booksneeze Review: Fasting by Scot McKnight & Phyllis Tickle

Fasting
The Ancient Practices
By Scot McKnight, Phyllis Tickle
*I received this book for free through the Thomas Nelson BookSneeze Program in exchange for my unbiased review.

Though I hate to admit, I struggled my way through this book, cover to cover. Not necessarily because of it's content, but because I am a lover of FICTION. So,anytime I read anything but fiction, it is a struggle for me to complete it.

I requested this book because I feel very uneducated on Spiritual Fasting.
This book did a good job of explaining some of the different reasons people fast,and how sometimes those reasons are not why it was taught in the Bible.

The recurring statement in the book "Fasting is the natural, inevitable response of a person to a grievous sacred moment in life," made complete sense as the authors explained different elements of fasting.

I appreciated how the author explained the difference between "abstinence" (the choice not to eat or drink specifice items even though one is still eating and drinking other items) "fasting" (the choice not to eat or drink for a specific period) and "dieting" (the choice not to eat or drink various items for heath reasons).

I also appreciated how the author made it clear that fasting should be a response to a certain event (such as sin, death, impending disease, the lack of justice). The author was clear that Biblical fasting was not about trying to get something from the fast. "fasting isn't a manipulative tool that guarantees results." (page xix) "Fasting is a response to a sacred moment, not an instrument designed to get desired results." (page xix) For example, fasting for the health of others is not about showing God that you really "mean" what you are praying, but responding to the grievous event (the disease).

In the beginning of the book, the author also spent some time explaining that fasting is "whole-body stuff." He explains that Westerners sometimes have a hard time with dualism. Dualism can occur when we don't see a connection between our physical bodies & our spiritual bodies. "Biblical fasting is about joining the material to the immaterial, the body to the sould, the body to the spirit in a unified, organic act," (page 17). I liked how the author explained that "Fasting is the expression of the whole person, and when the whole person is united within itself, fasting is natural," page 18.

All in all, this book was informative. It was a little above my head at times, and used terminology that wasn't always easy to understand. Personally I don't see it as a "pick up & read in a night" or "couldn't put it down" kind of book. However, as a tool to study about what the Bible says about fasting, this book hit the mark.