S.H. Mathews

Rooted in a rigorous social-scientific reading of the New Testament, S.H. Mathews illuminates how fasting functioned within the honour-shame, kinship-bound, and collectivist world of the first-century Mediterranean. Drawing on anthropology, sociology, and historical criticism, the volume re-situates fasting not as a universal spiritual discipline but as a culturally coded practice signalling mourning, repentance, solidarity, and communal identity. By positioning early...