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This is the third of a trilogy of talks dedicated to fasting in the three monotheistic traditions. 

In today’s "Christian West", the emphasis on the joy and material abundance during the sacred seasons of – notably – Christmas and Easter has all but eradicated the tradition of fasting prior to these feasts. Yet, from the very beginning of Christianity, fasting has been an important component of religious life. Initially a continuation of Jewish fasting traditions, the early church developed a variety of localised traditions where the concept of fasting would be adapted to the religious convictions of the urban bishopric and the surrounding agrarian communities. This would in time lead to differing interpretations concerning the scope and aims of bodily abstinence. 

The Roman church unified its definitions of feasts and fasts at the Council of Tours as late as in 567. The Council fixed the dates when fasting and the attendance of obligatory masses were required, but religious orthopraxis was as localised as ever. The Reformation further contributed to the divergence of fasting habits, much to the annoyance of "Catholic Protestants" such as Martin Luther. Today’s Protestant congregations have developed a wide variety of definitions, which sometimes resemble those of entirely secular health regimes (e.g. "Dry January").

This talk will furthermore introduce fasting in the Orthodox traditions, some of which exist within Muslim majority populations. When during the colonial centuries Christian missionaries took their belief to non-Christian regions, synergies with the local religious environment soon emerged. I therefore look forward to discussing the interrelationship between "lived faith" within societies of mixed religious composition. Apart from nutritional fasting, this introduction will also relate to sexual abstinence, the giving of alms and the deepened spiritual awareness which fasting is meant to enhance. 

About the speaker

Dr Lars Peter Laamann is Senior Lecturer at the SOAS History Department (HRP), and is associated to Jilin Normal University 吉林師範大學. His research interests include popular religions, chiefly Christianity, during the Qing period and in Republican China, the history of medicine and drugs in modern China and the history of the Manchus in Qing China. Dr Laamann is also the editor of the Central Asiatic Journal (ISSN 0008–9192).