From Feasting to Fasting: The Evolution of a Sin

ISBN-13: 9780415135955 / Angielski / Twarda / 1996 / 304 str.

Veronika Grimm

Opis

This study 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 Chritian 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 analyze Christian attitudes towards food. 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. The book should be of use to those interested in early Christianity, and to those searching for historical roots of modern attitudes.

Spis treści

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

O autorze

Veronika Grimm, Wolfson College, Oxford.