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Asceticism Old and New: A Theological Critique of the ‘New Asceticism’ for the Aging Body

Bioethics & the Body
Parallel Paper
June 25, 2021

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Recent developments in the science of slowing human aging have demonstrated a strong causal link between reduced caloric intake and greater longevity. These developments have spawned new dietary regimens, such as Valter Longo’s The Longevity Diet, designed to promote bodily health and extend human longevity. This paper explores the role of the human body in the construction of human identity as it relates to the human body. I begin by exploring the implications of the “New Asceticism” as outlined by Hervé Juvin’s recent work, The Coming of the Body (2010). I will focus on the practice of fasting—or fast mimicking regimens—as proffered by the illuminati of contemporary anti-aging science such as Valter Longo, professor of gerontology at the University of Southern California, and David A. Sinclair, director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging at Harvard Medical School and author of Lifespan: Why We Age—and Why We Don’t Have To (2019).

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