Fasting in early Christianity
The temptation to see the history
of fasting in early Christianity as a fall from some early freedom and
festivity into the fetters of ascetic and institutional drudgery is as
implausible as it is unhelpful. Fasting was practiced in Christian circles from
the earliest times historically accessible, its forms and purposes
(unsurprisingly) varied, given the background just noted.
Enthusiasm for fasting may have
varied, of course. There is an obvious contrast between the characterization of
Jesus as "glutton and drunkard" (Matt 11 : 19) and the fasts
attributed to the disciples of John, and for that matter the practice of the
communities who first read the canonical Gospels (Matt 6:1 6). An indifference
or even perhaps hostility to fasting might be reflected in the Gospel of Thomas
(Gos. Thom. 14, 27, 104). Yet, there is more evidence for how Christians fasted
than of debates about whether to do so.
Early Christian literature
suggests varied purposes and concerns for fasting, broadly comparable to the
practices already noted. The Acts of the Apostles depict fasting for the choice
and commissioning of leaders (13:2-3; 14:23). Colossians refers to a
controversy over food and drink, presumably referring to some form of fasting
(Col 2: 16-23). The Didache urges fasting as a form of prayer for
enemies (1.3; cf. Matt 5:44), instructs baptismal candidates and those
administering the rite to fast (7.4), and assumes regular fasts on Wednesdays
and Fridays each week (8.1). Justin Martyr also reports baptismal fasting (1 Apol.
6 1). Diognetus distances itself from Jewish fasting customs, but lauds
personal dietary discipline (6. 1; cf. 4.1). Ptolemy's Letter to Flora supports
fasting - as reminder of a truer, spiritual fast (5.13- 14). Seasonal fasting
before Easter is already attested in the second-century Gospel of Peter, as
well as in the slightly later Didascalia.
The Shepherd of Hermas reveals
tensions over the theory and practice of fasting. In the Visions section, the
narrator fasts in order to seek visions or their interpretation (Herm. Vis.
2.2; cf. 2.1; 3.1; 3.10). This is a personal spiritual discipline, without
obvious communal or (other) ritual dimensions. In the Similitudes, however,
there is reference to a statio or set fast (Herm. Sim. 5). The
heavenly Shepherd who addresses Hermas must underline the communal dimension in
ethical and not merely ritual terms, criticizing fasts undertaken for purely
personal ends - for seeking personal revelations, or adding to the power of
one's prayers - and advocating a diet of bread and water on these stational
days so the resulting funds could be set aside for charity (5.3.7).
This brief survey of fasting and
the variety of its purposes prior to or contemporary with Tertullian at least
illustrates its ubiquity and diversity. Fasting was both habitual and communal,
but could be personal and occasional; it was associated with unique initiatory
processes, but also with repeated spiritual quests; it was connected with
personal prayer and also with social practice; it was conceptualized as
effective in itself and as a sign whose real meaning lay beyond the material
practices of abstinence. Tertullian's controversy with the Carthaginian psychici
- less ascetically inclined Christians or opponents of the New Prophecy - must
be seen within this diversity, where many things about dietary asceticism could
be contested, but fasting itself was not. (Andrew McGowan, “Tertullian on
Fasting: Asceticism and the New Prophecy in Carthage,” in Montanism in the
Roman World: The New Prophecy Movement from Historical, Sociological, and
Ecclesiological Perspectives. Festschrift for William Tabbernee on the Occasion
of His 80th Birthday, ed. Peter Lampe and Heidrun E. Mader [Novum
Testamentum et Orbis Antiquus/Studien zur Umwelt des Neuen Testaments 132; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht, 2024], 95-97)
