Editing Asceticism (section)

==Etymology and meaning==
The adjective "ascetic" derives from the ancient Greek term {{lang|grc-Latn|áskēsis}}, which means "training" or "exercise".<ref>{{cite web |title=Asceticism {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/philosophy-and-religion/philosophy/philosophy-terms-and-concepts/asceticism |website=www.encyclopedia.com |access-date=10 January 2021}}</ref> The original usage did not refer to self-denial, but to the physical training required for athletic events.<ref name="Asceticism"/> Its usage later extended to rigorous practices used in many major religious traditions, in varying degrees, to attain redemption and higher [[spirituality]].<ref name="TF">{{cite book |author1-last=Clarke |author1-first=Paul A. B. |author2-last=Linzey |author2-first=Andrew |year=1996 |title=Dictionary of Ethics, Theology and Society |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=idsNAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA58 |location=London |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |isbn=978-0-415-06212-1 |series=Routledge Reference |page=58}}</ref>

[[Edward Cuthbert Butler]] classified asceticism into natural and unnatural forms:<ref name="WimbushValantasis2002p9">{{cite book |last1=Wimbush |first1=Vincent L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EIqym5Pw_O8C |title=Asceticism |last2=Valantasis |first2=Richard |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-19-803451-3 |pages=9–10}}</ref>

* "Natural asceticism" involves a lifestyle which reduces material aspects of life to the utmost simplicity and to a minimum. This may include minimal, simple clothing, sleeping on a floor or in caves, and eating a simple, minimal amount of food.<ref name="WimbushValantasis2002p9"/> Natural asceticism, state Wimbush and Valantasis, does not include maiming the body or harsher austerities that make the body suffer.<ref name="WimbushValantasis2002p9"/>
* "Unnatural asceticism", in contrast, covers practices that go further, and involves body mortification, punishing one's own flesh, and habitual self-infliction of pain, such as by sleeping on a bed of nails.<ref name="WimbushValantasis2002p9"/>