“Fast from that Which is Not Perfect”: Food Abstinence and Fasting Cures in the Kingdom of God

In her work on American Christianity and diet, R. Marie Griffith has argued that food abstinence is one of the most “enduring and elastic devotions aimed at bodily discipline.”4 Food abstinence was historically a method of bodily discipline that transformed the body into a vessel more capable of spiritual insight. This was the case for Orlean, whose diary entries reveal a lifelong interest in food abstinence for its spiritual and health benefits. Orlean Kingston never hid her poverty, a possible material explanation for her intense interest in food and proper nutrition. However, she never mentioned this as the direct cause of her fasts. Her primary concern for the body was rooted in her faith and revelatory experiences. Bodily and spiritual well-being were intimately connected, and her food preferences, or lack thereof, stemmed from divine encounters.