The Practice of Fasting in Church History

A brief annotated timeline of fasting in Christian writing.

The first time in my Christian life I participated in a fast of any type was my freshman year of college.

Despite my growing up in a church body and faithfully following Christ since the age of 7, I had never fasted nor heard of fasting in the Christian context (outside of my Catholic friend who gave up Oreos for lent…ruff stuff).

This first fast was both a deeply spiritual fast for me and the first time I truly experienced hunger. It was Christmas break of my freshman year and I was at home wrestling with the weight of “my whole future ahead of me.” As I began to widen my realm of Christian influences, I had discovered fasting. So without knowing much other than I was stressed trying to figure out the future -I set out to go 40 hours with just water (40 hours that like a Jesus 40 days right? Seeing how he is the God-man and all).

Saving you from the boring details, I made it through those 40 hours hopefully a better man. From there I set out to learn more about this ancient Christian practice of fasting that I had seen in the biblical text but not in…