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Caroline Walker Bynum

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description Caroline Walker Bynum Overview

Caroline Walker Bynum is an American historian of medieval Christianity whose work examines religious practice, bodily symbolism, gender, and ideas about transformation. Her book Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women analyzed fasting and devotional culture among medieval women and influenced the study of religion and gender. Bynum's scholarship combines close reading of historical sources with analysis of broader social and theological patterns.

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What is Caroline Walker Bynum best known for?

She is best known for Holy Feast and Holy Fast, her 1987 study of food, Eucharistic devotion, and medieval women’s spirituality. The book helped make gender and religious practice central topics in medieval history.

How did Holy Feast and Holy Fast change medieval religious history?

Bynum showed that fasting, eating, and bodily practices were not marginal details but major forms of religious expression for medieval women. Her approach challenged interpretations that treated female spirituality mainly as a passive version of male religious life.

What other Caroline Walker Bynum book should I read after Holy Feast and Holy Fast?

The Resurrection of the Body, published in 1995, examines medieval ideas about bodily resurrection and identity. Wonderful Blood, published in 2007, turns to the religious meanings attached to blood, relics, and sacrifice.

Was Caroline Walker Bynum a historian of gender or of religion?

She worked at the intersection of both fields, especially medieval Christianity, gender, the body, and material religious practice. Her scholarship treats gender as part of broader questions about theology, ritual, and lived spirituality.

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