The Spirituality of fasting (a review)

When purchasing a book titled The Spirituality of Fasting- rediscovering a Christian practice, I naturally expected a book that would draw distinctions between the modern emphasis on intermittent fasting (strictly for health benefits, blood sugar control and weight loss) and the ancient emphasis from the Scriptures and church fathers (to discipline the will and for purpose of devotion and spiritual breakthroughs).

In fairness, the book starts in that vein and spends a significant portion of it's pages there.

About mid-book, however, it takes a decidedly leftist turn into railing against economic globalism and capitalism and promotes food stamps, combating global warming and even Buddhist influenced meditation as something we should all be on board with.

When I looked up the author- Charles M. Murphy, I discovered that it is actually Father Charles M. Murphy who had written environmentalist pieces for then Pope Benedict VI.

Now, I don't know who Father Murphy is and I expect that he is a fine priest. I also will not say that the book had no value. I am one who positively needs to do a better job in fasting- for all of the reasons mentioned above.

However, all things considered, I cannot really recommend this book as one that is worth the cost of purchase and the time in reading. I was a bit disappointed.