Since Catholicism was a large part of medieval society and thought, its concept of Judgement Day inspired the speculation of death and the physical mechanics of resurrection – namely the importance of the physical human body and the role it played. A lengthy portion is dedicated to providing a historical narrative to provide context. Bynum proceeds to constantly jump back and forth between her two eras of focus and provides numerous philosophical and theological examples, listing off scholars and philosophers, their ideas and responses to each other, how they compare to their earlier and later counterparts, and so on. She uses these examples to illustrate newer concepts – such as reincarnation, mind-body dualism, and organ transplants – from the modern world bridge into this initially and seemingly small idea. Throughout, Bynum reiterates how there is no clear cut answer, which shows how much of a broad issue these medieval thinkers stumbled upon. She concludes by delving deeper into how the Christians perceived proceedings with corpses of different people, caused by various kinds of death, once again using a historical re-telling in order to reiterate her
Since Catholicism was a large part of medieval society and thought, its concept of Judgement Day inspired the speculation of death and the physical mechanics of resurrection – namely the importance of the physical human body and the role it played. A lengthy portion is dedicated to providing a historical narrative to provide context. Bynum proceeds to constantly jump back and forth between her two eras of focus and provides numerous philosophical and theological examples, listing off scholars and philosophers, their ideas and responses to each other, how they compare to their earlier and later counterparts, and so on. She uses these examples to illustrate newer concepts – such as reincarnation, mind-body dualism, and organ transplants – from the modern world bridge into this initially and seemingly small idea. Throughout, Bynum reiterates how there is no clear cut answer, which shows how much of a broad issue these medieval thinkers stumbled upon. She concludes by delving deeper into how the Christians perceived proceedings with corpses of different people, caused by various kinds of death, once again using a historical re-telling in order to reiterate her