Includes bibliographical references (p. [392]-413) and index.

The Christian movement in the second and third centuries -- Inclusions and exclusions : the fourth century -- Fleshing out the Word : medieval Christianity East and West -- The voice of the pages : incarnation and hierarchy in the medieval West interlude -- Death and the body in the fourteenth-century West -- The suffering body of Christ : the fifteenth century -- Re-forming the body of Christ : the sixteenth century, part 1 -- Reforming the body of Christ : the sixteenth century, part 2 -- Rationalism and religious passion : the seventeenth century -- Keeping body and soul together : eighteenth-century Christianity.

Prelude : flesh and word -- 1. The Christian movement in the second and third centuries -- 2. Inclusions and exclusions : the fourth century -- 3. Fleshing out the Word : medieval Christianity East and West -- 4. The voice of the pages : incarnation and hierarchy in the medieval West -- 5. Death and the body in the fourteenth-century West -- 6. The suffering body of Christ : the fifteenth century -- 7. Reforming the body of Christ : the sixteenth century, part 1 -- 8. Reforming the body of Christ : the sixteenth century, part 2 -- 9. Rationalism and religious passion : the seventeenth century -- 10. Keeping body and soul together : eighteenth-century Christianity -- Postlude : the Word made flesh.