SC - Holy Feast and Holy Fast

[Laura C. Minnick]

Marian Deborah Rosenberg wrote:
> 
> Greetings,
> 
>   For those who have read it, what was their opinion of Caroline Walker Bynum's
> Holy Feast and Holy Fast?  Expecting something more on food and maybe cooking,
> I was rather surprised to discover the main focus being spirituality of food
> and the context of that spirituality in the middle ages.

I have not only read it, I have worked with the book in an academic
context. I own two of her other books- and they are wonderful. Fine
work.

As to the unrealized expectations- you missed part of the title on the
first pass- 'Holy'. Food and fasting and body issues are deeply imbedded
into the medieval psyche. There are female mystics, particularly in the
14th and 15th century during the heyday of something called 'affective
piety', who eat nothing but the Host, or report mystical experiences
while eating it. There are those who imagined/dreamed/envisioned
drinking from the wound in Christ's side. Really weird stuff. More
similar weird stuff has been written by Karma Lochrie (best known for
her work on Margery Kempe). I have others but the books are in Eugene
and I am not. Really interesting stuff though, if you are interested in
the flakier side of medieval life. Some of these folks, if living now,
would be heading for Roswell and telling the _Weekly World News_ about
being abducted and probed and made to eat large quantities of
Cheez-Whiz...

You might have been looking for _Fast and Feast_ by Barbara Ann Henisch,
which _is_ about food and eating and not eating (Lent and such). I
jighly recommend it.

'Lainie