Giving the powerful role that fasting might play in developing this perspective, the biblical authors are roundly critical of those who abuse it. Typically, the presentation of fasting is surrounded by positive connotations, as when Luke mentions the widow Anna, who spent her days at the temple praying and fasting (Luke 2:36-37). But those who presumed that the mere act of fasting was sufficient in and of itself as leverage with which to force the Almighty into