The Resurrection of the Body in Western Christianity, 200-1336

By: Caroline Walker Bynum

Write A Review

Hardcover | 1 January 1995 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Hardcover
384 Pages

Age
22+

Dimensions(cm)
23.6 x 15.7 x 3.0

Hardcover

$285.95

or 4 interest-free payments of $71.49 with

or

Aims to ship in 15 to 25 business days

In their study of Christian visions of the afterlife and of apocalypse, religious historians have concentrated almost exclusively on the fate of the soul. But for medieval people, the fate of the body in resurrection posed the most troubling questions: if my body is resurrected, which of the many possible bodies will return - the child, the young adult, or the old woman?; or, if my body is dissolved in the grave, in what form will it come back? This study redresses the balance of historical inquiry by examining the idea of bodily resurrection in the ancient and medieval West with respect to persecution and conversion, social hierarchy, and cultural burial practices. Examining several periods between the 3rd and 14th centuries in which discussions of the body were central to Western eschatology, it suggests that Western attitudes toward the body that arose from these discussions still underlie our modern notions of the individual. Of particular interest is Bynum's investigation of the medieval use of metaphor in the debates surrounding material resurrection. By insisting that such debates must be understood in the context of burial practices and of gender and social status, she challenges views on hierarchy and difference.

Industry Reviews

"There are few historians of whom one can say that they have actually shifted some of the landscape of the writing of history in their own generation, but Bynum is one of them." -- The New Republic "Bynum's account is a very impressive and persuasive one... well supported by textual references and by connections she makes between what the ancients wrote and their burial practices, treatment of corpses and cults of relics... [A] fascinating and wide-ranging account that tells us a lot about medieval thinking and practice." -- New York Times Book Review "A remarkable achievement of scholarship and interpretation, an imaginative, determined, and persuasive probing of a counterintuitive thesis." -- Nicholas Terpstra, Sixteenth Century Journal

Shipping

	Standard Shipping	Express Shipping
Metro postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Regional postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Rural postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95

How to return your order

At Booktopia, we offer hassle-free returns in accordance with our returns policy. If you wish to return an item, please get in touch with Booktopia Customer Care.

Additional postage charges may be applicable.

Defective items

If there is a problem with any of the items received for your order then the Booktopia Customer Care team is ready to assist you.

For more info please visit our Help Centre.

More in Religion & Beliefs

Murriyang

Song of Time

Hardcover

RRP $39.99

$35.35

12%
OFF

We Who Wrestle With God

Perceptions of the Divine

Paperback

RRP $39.99

$34.80

13%
OFF

Maps of Meaning

The Architecture of Belief

Paperback

RRP $62.99

$49.95

21%
OFF

The Great Cosmic Mother

Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth

Paperback

RRP $56.35

$46.35

18%
OFF

Back to Eden: Classic Guide to Herbal Medicine, Natural Food and Home Remedies Since 1939 : Revised & Updated Edition - Jethro Kloss

$43.25

28%
OFF

Forgiving What You Can't Forget

Discover How to Move On, Make Peace with Painful Memories, and Create a Life That's Beautiful Again

Paperback

RRP $29.99

$27.90

Ancient Egypt

The Definitive Visual History

Hardcover

RRP $59.99

$41.25

31%
OFF

How to Be an Adult in Relationships

The Five Keys to Mindful Loving

Paperback

RRP $32.99

$29.75

10%
OFF

Braving the Wilderness

The quest for true belonging and the courage to stand alone

Paperback

RRP $32.99

$30.25

Unconventional Women

The story of the last Blessed Sacrament Sisters in Australia

Paperback

RRP $39.99

$29.75

26%
OFF

The Book Of Roads And Kingdoms

Winner Indie Book Awards 2023 Non Fiction Book of the Year

Paperback

RRP $36.99

$33.25

10%
OFF

2025 Witch's Diary - Southern Hemisphere

Flexi Bound Book

$19.99

2025 Lunar and Seasonal Diary - Southern Hemisphere

Flexi Bound Book

RRP $32.99

$30.25

When Things Fall Apart

Heart Advice For Difficult Times [Thorsons Classics edition]

Paperback

RRP $24.99

$23.75

The Power of Now

A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

Paperback

RRP $22.99

$21.90

The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics

Boxed Set

Paperback

RRP $97.99

$63.35

35%
OFF

The 5 Love Languages for Men

Tools for Making a Good Relationship Great

Paperback

RRP $24.99

$20.75

17%
OFF

How To Lead When You're Not In Charge

Leveraging Influence When You Lack Authority

Paperback

RRP $23.28

$22.25

The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down

How to be Calm in a Busy World

Paperback

RRP $24.99

$23.75

The Strange Death of Europe

Immigration, Identity, Islam

Paperback

RRP $24.99

$23.75

Don't Believe Everything You Think

Why Your Thinking Is The Beginning & End Of Suffering

Paperback

RRP $19.25

$18.35

Heroes

The myths of the Ancient Greek heroes retold

Paperback

RRP $24.99

$23.75

Greek Mythology: The Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes Handbook

From Aphrodite to Zeus, a Profile of Who's Who in Greek Mythology

Hardcover

RRP $29.99

$27.25

List of Illustrations
Preface
Introduction: Seed Images, Ancient and Modern	p. 1
Resurrection and Martyrdom: The Decades Around 200	p. 21
Early Metaphors for Resurrection: Fertility and Repetition	p. 22
The Second Century: Organic Metaphors and Material Continuity	p. 27
Irenaeus and Tertullian: The Paradox of Continuity and Change	p. 34
Martyrdom	p. 43
Burial Practices	p. 51
Resurrection, Relic Cult, and Asceticism: The Debates of 400 and Their Background	p. 59
The Legacy of the Second Century	p. 59
Origen and Methodius: The Seed versus the Statue	p. 63
Aphrahat, Ephraim, and Cyril of Jerusalem: Immutable Particles in Process	p. 71
Gregory of Nyssa: Survival, Flux, and the Fear of Decay	p. 81
Jerome and the Origenist Controversy: The Issue of Bodily Integrity	p. 86
Augustine and the Reassembled Statue: The Background to the Middle Ages	p. 94
Relic Cult	p. 104
Asceticism, the Church, and the World	p. 108
Reassemblage and Regurgitation: Ideas of Bodily Resurrection in Early Scholasticism	p. 117
Herrad of Hohenbourg: An Introduction to Twelfth-Century Art and Theology	p. 117
A Scholastic Consensus: The Reassemblage and Dowering of the Body	p. 121
Honorius Augustodunensis and John Scotus Erigena: An Alternative Tradition?	p. 137
Psychosomatic Persons and Reclothed Skeletons: Images of Resurrection in Spiritual Writing and Iconography	p. 156
Hildegard of Bingen: The Greening of Person and the Body as Dust	p. 157
Cistercian Writing: Images of First and Second Resurrection	p. 163
Peter the Venerable and the Pauline Seed	p. 176
Otto of Freising's Uneasy Synthesis: Resurrection "Clothed in a Double Mantle ..."	p. 180
The Iconography of the General Resurrection: Devouring and Regurgitation of Fragments and Bones	p. 186
Resurrection, Heresy, and Burial ad Sanctos: The Twelfth-Century Context	p. 200
Fragmentation and Burial Practices	p. 201
Hierarchy, Heresy and Fear of Decay	p. 214
Miracles	p. 220
Resurrection, Hylomorphism, and Abundantia: Scholastic Debates in the Thirteenth Century	p. 229
The Discourse of High Scholasticism: The Rejection of Statues and Seeds	p. 232
Bonaventure and the Ambivalence of Desire	p. 247
Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, and Giles of Rome: Resurrection, Hylomorphism, and Formal Identity	p. 256
The Condemnations of 1277 and the Materialist Reaction	p. 271
Somatomorphic Soul and Visio Dei: The Beatific Vision Controversy and Its Background	p. 279
Purgatory	p. 280
The Controversy Over the Beatific Vision	p. 283
Otherworld Journeys and the Divine Comedy	p. 291
The Hagiography and Iconography of Wholeness	p. 305
Fragmentation and Ecstasy: The Thirteenth-Century Context	p. 318
The Practice of Bodily Partition	p. 320
Devotional Literature: Body as Locus of Experience and as Friend	p. 329
Women Mystics and the Triumph of Desire	p. 334
Epilogue	p. 341
General Index	p. 345
Index of Secondary Authors	p. 359
Illustration Credits	p. 367
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.

The Resurrection of the Body in Western Christianity, 200-1336

At a Glance

Hardcover

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

More in Religion & Beliefs

Murriyang

Song of Time

We Who Wrestle With God

Perceptions of the Divine

Maps of Meaning

The Architecture of Belief

The Great Cosmic Mother

Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth

Back to Eden: Classic Guide to Herbal Medicine, Natural Food and Home Remedies Since 1939

Revised & Updated Edition

Holy Bible (Barnes & Noble Collectible Classics: Omnibus Edition)

King James Version

Forgiving What You Can't Forget

Discover How to Move On, Make Peace with Painful Memories, and Create a Life That's Beautiful Again

Ancient Egypt

The Definitive Visual History

How to Be an Adult in Relationships

The Five Keys to Mindful Loving

Braving the Wilderness

The quest for true belonging and the courage to stand alone

Unconventional Women

The story of the last Blessed Sacrament Sisters in Australia

The Book Of Roads And Kingdoms

Winner Indie Book Awards 2023 Non Fiction Book of the Year

2025 Witch's Diary - Southern Hemisphere

2025 Lunar and Seasonal Diary - Southern Hemisphere

When Things Fall Apart

Heart Advice For Difficult Times [Thorsons Classics edition]

The Power of Now

A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics

Boxed Set

The 5 Love Languages for Men

Tools for Making a Good Relationship Great

How To Lead When You're Not In Charge

Leveraging Influence When You Lack Authority

The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down

How to be Calm in a Busy World

The Strange Death of Europe

Immigration, Identity, Islam

Don't Believe Everything You Think

Why Your Thinking Is The Beginning & End Of Suffering

Heroes

The myths of the Ancient Greek heroes retold

Greek Mythology: The Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes Handbook

From Aphrodite to Zeus, a Profile of Who's Who in Greek Mythology

This product is categorised by

Popular Searches