Holy Feast and Holy Fast (Masterplots II: Women’s Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Caroline Walker Bynum
- First Published: 1987
- Type of Work: Social criticism
- Genres: Nonfiction, History, Religion and spirituality, Sociology
- Subjects: Power, personal or social, Gender roles, Religion, Spiritual life or spirituality, Women, Food, Middle Ages, Religious life, Starvation, Sacraments
Form and Content
Focusing on the lives of several hundred Christian women in Europe between 1200 and 1500 who were noted for their religious devotion, Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women is a groundbreaking exploration of their lives. These women’s religious practices centered on the Eucharist: a rite of communion by which, in partaking of bread and wine, they received into their bodies the body and blood of Christ in all of its redemptive power. According to author Caroline Walker Bynum, in their elaboration of Eucharistic...
[The entire page is 2079 words long]
