The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives by Dallas Willard

Author:Dallas Willard [Willard, Dallas]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Religion, Christianity, General, Christian Life, Spiritual Growth, Christian Rituals & Practice
ISBN: 9780060694425
Google: 9tGaxjXkNQsC
Amazon: 0060694424
Publisher: HarperOne
Published: 1999-05-04T16:00:00+00:00

IS JUDAISM AN ASCETIC RELIGION?

To have an adequate perspective on the present, we must look at it through the past. And we must begin by clearing up a mistake that says Judaism is a nonascetic religion. There is no need to document the point, since any reading at all on the subject will constantly discover such pronouncements. But its legitimate meaning must be clarified, since the gospel of Christ arises within Judaism.

What is meant, perhaps, is that the branding of the body as evil and the infliction of pain upon it as its “just deserts,” as punishment, or to gain merit—all the negative ideas attached to ascetic behavior we’ve been taught—are no part of the Hebrew tradition. And that is largely true. But when we look at the exemplars of Hebrew religion such as Abraham, Moses, David, Daniel, John the Baptist, Jesus, and St. Paul, we are looking at people who fast, pray, seek solitude, and give themselves up to humankind and God in ways that are readily recognizable as ascetic. They all serve as models for these practices.

What R. L. Nettleship said of Plato’s views of the philosophical life can equally be said of these leaders and of Judaism generally—possibly excepting some of its modern variants:

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