FASTING, in the strict sense of the word, denotes complete abstention from food and drink; but it is commonly applied also to the use of a diet somewhat severely limited, either by the rejection of certain customary kinds of food or by a diminution of the total quantity of food consumed. Fasting, in the former sense, is generally required in preparation for a surgical operation; in the latter sense it is often recommended for health's sake, and is voluntarily undertaken by many. Occasionally an individual will keep a prolonged fast, in the stricter sense, as a public view, in order to earn the reward of entertainment by giving a demonstration of unusual vitality. In recent times fasting has been used as a means of protesting against the alleged injustice of the law of the land, and even of defeating that law, the hunger strike being practised with such persistency that it has led either to the release of the protesting prisoner or to his death. A close resemblance is to be seen between this modern application of the practice of fasting and an older use of it as an expression of overmastering desire and stern intention in the quest of justice. Thus men of different lands and ages have bound themselves by an oath to take no food until they have performed some act of revenge for their own honour, or for the sake of their people (cf. Acts xxiii. 12) ; and among the Celts it was not uncommon for a man who was refused a lawful request, to "fast against" the one who had denied him his right, so as either to persuade him to an act of justice or to bring upon his head the blood of the oppressed.
Commonest by far, however, of all the uses of voluntary fast ing, in the past and at the present time, is its practice as an act of self-denial with definite religious intention. By the greater number of religions, in the lower, middle, and higher cultures alike, fasting is largely prescribed ; and where it is not required it is nevertheless practised to some extent by individuals in response to the promptings of nature.
Among the religions of intermediate development, now extinct, that of the Celts laid some stress on the practice of fasting, while the religion of the Teutons appears to have found little or no place for it. The ancient Mexicans and Peruvians resembled the Babylonians and Assyrians in that fasting was largely used by them in connection with penance and the offering of sacrifice; and, though the records do not show that fasting bulked very large in the religious life of the ancient Egyptians, there are clear indica tions of its use. The Romans appear to have used the practice but little until they came under the influence of the later Greek reli gion, in which fasting was required of all initiates by the guardians of the mystery-religions, and recommended to individuals by philosophers of various schools, Cynics, Stoics, Pythagoreans, and Neo-Platonists.
In the Far East, Hindu and Jain ascetics are committed by their faith to very severe fasting in conjunction with numerous other austerities; and abstinence in lesser degree is imposed upon Hindus generally by the requirements of caste-law, and by the performance of due accompaniments of pilgrimages and of prep aration for certain festivals. Primitive Buddhism recommends moderation rather than extreme self-deprivation; but in practice in its various developed forms the religion covers a considerable amount of fasting, especially in Tibet, in direct contradiction of the Buddha's teaching. The higher Taoism of China imposes periods of strict abstinence upon its professors ; and Confucianism has followed the practice of its great expounder in approving the customary observance of fasting as a preparation for the worship of ancestral spirits.
Judaism requires an annual fast on the Day of Atonement. For a long time the Jews observed four other annual 4f ast-days appointed during the Babylonian exile to commemorate the siege and destruction of Jerusalem ; and a fifth day was added subse quently in remembrance of the three days' fast of Esther. Addi tional voluntary fasts on the part of individuals were common, and at the beginning of the Christian era, Monday and Thursday in each week were kept as voluntary fast-days by the stricter Jews (cf. Lc. xviii. 12). The Qur'an (ii. 179 sqq.) requires all Muslims other than young children and idiots to observe the ninth month (Ramadan) of the year as a fast, food and drink being forbidden from sunrise to sunset during each of the 3o days. Any who are prevented from keeping the fast by sickness or by the necessity of travelling, must fast for an equivalent period at another time. Voluntary fasts are also recommended on certain days in the year; and fasts are required in recognition of responsibility for specified offences and in discharge of obligation for the same. Muslim mystics (Sufis) and members of the darwesh orders practice much additional fasting for their special purpose of communion with the Divine.
In the Christian world there exists, at the present day, con siderable diversity of opinion and practice in the matter of fasting ; but on a historical survey it may be said that in no other religion has fasting been more widely approved, more rigorously required, and more extensively practised. The Founder Himself laid down no rules on the subject. He fasted (Lc. iv. 2) ; He declared that fasting would have a place in the practice of His followers (Mk. ii. 19 seq.) ; and He required that fasting, like the almsgiving and prayer with which it is associated, should be with out ostentation (Mt. vi. 16 seq.) . But it was left to the Church to prescribe the rules that were to govern the corporate practice of the fast. Out of the voluntary use of individuals there gradually arose a common mind and a common discipline, according to which a fasting preparation was required by the Church for the due observance of appointed festivals, and for the reverent reception of the benefits of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion. The prep aration for the feast of Easter developed slowly from a fast of one day, 4o hours (the time during which the Lord's body rested in the tomb), two days or more, to the full 4o days of Lent; and in close association with it the pre-baptismal fast came to be required of catechumens. The fasting varied in rigour according to locality, but on the whole it involved real self-denial, and in places was literally a complete abstention from food and drink. From the 2nd century it began to be the custom in some countries to fast on Wednesday and Friday in each week, these days being known as "stations," when Christians considered themselves to be on guard. Under the influence of the Montanists this fasting increased in strictness, and by the end of the 4th century it had become a universal custom in the Church, Saturday being added to Friday as a "superposition" in many parts of the West. By the same date the fast before Communion, dictated long before this time by a growing appreciation of the full significance of the sacrament, had also become oecumenical. Dispensation from this fast, in particular, seems to have been very rarely granted, only the dying being recognized as necessarily exempt. Bishops prescribed additional fasts for their own dioceses as occasion re quired; voluntary fasts were added to these obligatory acts of dis cipline at the discretion of individuals ; and, with the growth of monastic communities from the middle of the 4th century, special fasts began to be largely used.
The Eastern Church took an independent line in the develop ment of appointed fast-days, and its present practice differs considerably from that of the Church in the West. In Lent the Saturdays (with the exception of Easter Even) are excluded from the fast as well as the Sundays. The Fast of the Apostles lasts for a week from the octave of Pentecost, which is the Sunday of All Saints, or in some cases until June 29, which is the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul. The fortnight before the Feast of the Repose of the Virgin, which is celebrated on August 15, is kept as the Fast of the Mother of God. The Fast of the Nativity of our Lord, beginning on November 15, lasts until Christmas, thus covering a period of 4o days. Anc: the Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year are fast-days. The fast before Communion is generally insisted on.
The post-Reformation Church of Rome continued to fast, as in the middle ages, during Lent, on the Ember Days and Rogation Days, on the days appointed as Vigils, and on Fridays, the Wednesday and Saturday fasts having practically lapsed; but in 1781 a reduction was made in the severity of the fasting required of the English Roman Catholics by the introduction of a distinc tion between fasting and abstinence. Recent years have seen further concessions, and the new Codex Juris Canonici, issued in 1917, shows that abstinence from flesh meat is alone required on days of abstinence, no restriction being laid upon the quantity of food taken. Days of fasting which are not marked also as days of abstinence admit of any kind of food being taken at the one full meal that is allowed, flesh meat being forbidden, however, at the two smaller meals which are permitted. The strict fast before Communion, rarely excused at all before the present century, may now be modified in the case of any who are in serious ill-health, dispensation being granted both to lay-people and to priests.
At the Reformation the Church of England included in its Book of Common Prayer a list of days of fasting or abstinence, the two terms being used synonymously, and required that notice of these days should be given in church. No directions for their observance were issued, the matter presumably being left to every man's conscience ; yet there can be no doubt that the list was issued with serious intention, for provision was made by law for the granting of dispensations by the archbishop of Canterbury, by diocesan bishops, and by incumbents of parishes, according to the nature of the case (25 Hen. VII., cap. 21, 5 Eliz., cap. 5) . The list includes the 4o days of Lent, the Ember-days at the four seasons, the three Rogation-days, and all the Fridays in the year, except Christmas Day. The fast before Communion was not referred to; but in the form provided in 1661 for the ministration of baptism to such as are of riper years, the first rubric states that candidates "may be exhorted to prepare themselves with prayers and fasting for the receiving of this Holy Sacrament." On the whole the practice of English churchmen of ter the Reformation included less and less fasting until the time of the Tractarian movement. It was never entirely lost, and there were notable revivals of the practice in the Wesleyan and Evangelical movements; but the recovery of a true sense of its earlier obliga tion and importance and of a steady persistence in its practice dates from the second quarter of the 19th century. Special stress has been laid by the followers of the Tractarians upon the neces sity of the fast before Communion; and this, together with the evangelical opposition which it has aroused, led to the insertion in the revised Prayer Book which was presented to parliament in 1928 of a new rubric stating that "It is an ancient and laudable custom of the Church to receive this Holy Sacrament fasting. Yet, for the avoidance of all scruple, it is hereby declared that such preparation may be used or not used, according to every man's conscience in the sight of God." The new Prayer Book also revised the list of days of fasting or abstinence, excluding the Epiphany when it chances to fall on a Friday, and the Fridays in the octaves of Christmas, Easter, and the Ascension, and adding the Vigils before the Nativity of our Lord, Pentecost, St. John the Baptist, All Saints and St. Andrew.
In the other Reformed churches and in the Free churches which have separated themselves from the Church of England, fasting has had its place; but the sense of its importance has generally dimin ished, and there has arisen not a little prejudice against its use. II. Purposes of Fasting.—In any general survey of the different types of religious fasting, it is important to remember that great diversity exists between the mind and motives of men of different cultures and religions who yet do the same thing for what is ostensibly the same purpose, and that, in consequence, it is highly erroneous to suppose that the religious value of any one variety of fasting is constant in all cases that admit of being placed in that particular class.
(I.) Purificatory Fasting.—Under the influence of the mistaken idea that it is that which enters into a man which defiles him, the rejection of food and drink is often practised by those who would avoid every possibility of the contagion of evil at times of special importance. In the lower culture the initiation of lads and girls to adult membership of their tribe, admission to secret societies, and entry into the married state, are prefaced by a period of fasting, mainly on the basis of this idea; and the same precaution has much to do with the fasting that belongs to the ritual of mourning after a death and of preparation for the reception of sacred food. The endurance of fasting leads, some times, to the experience of seeing visions and hearing voices, and it is naturally adopted as a means thereto by "holy" men of all sorts who interpret the operation of the method they use with a physical or a psychological emphasis according to their under standing. Again, fasting is practised as a preparation for spiritual and sacramental communion, because the spirit is intent on its guest. For the sake of its own purgation and freedom of activity, it subordinates the desire for bodily food to the craving for spiritual sustenance. This is the ultimate basis of the Christian fast of purification before Communion. It is not prompted by a Manichaean conception of matter, but is due solely to concentra tion on the things of the Spirit and an ancillary rejection for the time being of the means of physical life. Thus, in the Church of England homily "of Fasting" the second "end" specified is that the spirit may be made more earnest and fervent to prayer"; and Hooker says (Eccl. Pol. v. 72) that the object of fasting is to temper the mind, lest contrary affections coming in place should make it too profuse and dissolute." (2.) Sympathetic Fasting.—The practice of fasting after a death is complex in its origin and significance. It may be connected with the sacrifice involved in making provision for the dead; it may have to do with the placation of the ghost ; it may be purificatory. or it may be a contradiction of normal practice intended to sever connection with the departed ; but in most cases it is undoubtedly to be regarded also as an expression of grief, whether formal or sincere. Such sympathetic fasting becomes a recurring practice in the case of a saint or deity who has con ferred benefits and is to be duly honoured. Thus March 24 was observed as a day of fasting and mourning in the ritual of the Mater Magna, in memory of the mother's grief for Attis; the Shi'ah Muslims similarly commemorate the martyrdom of 'Ali and his two sons, Hasan and Husain ; and the Christian observance of Lent is largely inspired by the thought of fellowship with Christ in His suffering during the 4o days in the wilderness and during the events leading to His death.
(3.) Penitential Fasting.—In the minds of wrongdoers who are suffering or anticipating the reward of sin and convicted by their consciences, fasting serves to attest the genuineness of their re pentance, to turn aside the wrath of the offended gods, and either to forestall and cancel at an easy rate the punishment due to them, or to denote a readiness to accept whatever is right, if only reconciliation may be had. At the lowest there is a large element of commercialism; at its best it is the expression of a truly con trite heart, and is associated with "prayers and supplications" and with "strong crying and tears." Such penitential fasting is found particularly in Jewish and Christian practice; and it may be said of all Christian restraint in the matter of food and drink that it partakes of this character.
(4.) Meritorious Fasting.—The fasting that is undertaken in order to obtain reward or to secure power is sometimes held to work magically, as in the Intichiuma ceremonies of the tribes in Central Australia, where fasting is practised for the increase of the totem food supply. Or again, it is a personal appeal for favour, as when Jain girls fast in order to win a good husband and a happy married life. Both ideas are mingled in the fasting which is practised as a means of gaining power to exorcise evil spirits and to secure the "holiness" which is the reward of works of superero gation.
(5.) Disciplinary Fasting.—This figures in those religions at taching great importance to moral conduct, and it is regarded as a reasonable and useful practice, even by those who consider all other forms of fasting to be misconceived and vain. When it is undertaken as a reaction from surrounding voluptuousness, and in protest against prevailing licence, it is apt to be unduly severe; but normally it is a reasonable part of the soul's preparation for the maintenance of self-control in times of strong temptation. The Lenten discipline of Christians is shared by not a few to whom its religious significance makes no appeal, solely because they recog nize its moral value.
Thus, it is frequently urged that the strenuous conditions of modern life make it practically impossible, and that the use of frequent and light meals renders unnecessary a discipline which was, perhaps, of some service when men ate less frequently but more immoderately. The plea of difficulty and inutility may be reinforced by arguments drawn from quite a different quarter. Zoroastrianism taught that "he who fasts commits a sin," for he rejects that which is good, in so doing he tortures in himself an other part of the good creation, and he weakens himself for the conflict with evil which is his proper work. Protests have also been made in the name of true religion by Old Testament prophets and early Christian writers, who have resented the abuse of fasting as a formal and merely external act, unblushingly offered as the accompaniment of an immoral life. "Behold, in the day of your fast ye find your own pleasure, and exact all your labours. Behold, ye fast for strife and contention, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye fast not this day so as to make your voice to be heard on high." (Isai. lviii. 3 seq.) To the rebuke of the religious critic may be added the unfavourable verdict of some who regard the matter from medical and psycho logical standpoints, doubt as to the wisdom and efficacy of fasting as an aid to devotion and self-control being seriously increased by the citation of numerous cases in which physical and mental evil has resulted from excess.
In spite of such criticism the practice of fasting persists, and it is likely to continue so long as men are capable of religious and moral aspiration. For it has the authority of very wide spread use from time immemorial; it is supported by ecclesiasti cal authority in by far the greater part of Christendom; and, above all, it is rooted in some of the strongest emotions incident to human nature. There will always be the few who practise fasting rigorously, according to the strict interpretation of the term; the many will no doubt continue, according to a growing fashion, to regard fasting as a term which covers self-denial in general, and will impose it upon themselves in a variety of forms, including the discipline of some sort of abstinence in respect of food and drink at stated times. (0. H.)