Draft:Caroline Walker Bynum (historian)

Education and career

Bynum attended Radcliffe College before completing a bachelor's degree with high honors in history at the University of Michigan in 1962, and master's and doctoral degrees from Harvard University in 1969. Her honors include the Jefferson Lecture, a MacArthur Fellowship, and fourteen honorary degrees including degrees from the University of Chicago in 1992, Harvard University in 2005, the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania in 2007. She taught at Harvard University from 1969 to 1976, the University of Washington from 1976 to 1988, Columbia University from 1988 to 2003, and the Institute for Advanced Study from 2003 to 2011. In 2015, she was the Robert Janson-La Palme Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University.

When discussing Bynum’s accomplishments, it is important to incorporate the ways in which Bynum views herself. Bynum discusses this idea in her Retrospective “Who Does She Think She Is?”. In this article, Bynum recounts one particular instance in her career in which, when trying to get one of her books published, the only critique she received was “Who does Bynum think she is?”. This one line speaks volumes about the kinds of adversity that women experience in academic fields. Bynum speaks about the ways in which women must fit themselves within this convoluted and hypocritical box that men have created for them. Women must be competent, well learned and knowledgeable, but not show it. In order to keep up in the male dominated academic field, women must be decorated and accomplished, but never more than their male contemporaries, but if they are, they must not brag or benefit from it.   Bynum emphasizes that women must “justify [their] status by 'being kind'". This isn’t in reference to polite manners, but rather to stifling yourself for the sake of man’s comfort. It makes men uncomfortable to feel inferior, especially when their superior is a younger woman. So in “being kind” women don’t brag about their accomplishments, they don’t publish because they serve better as a housewife than as a scholar. Caroline Bynum says that women should completely reject this idea, instead saying that it is man's job to teach themselves to be comfortable with a woman’s superiority, and that it is a woman’s job, not a man’s, to judge their accomplishments and assert their value.

Thought

Bynum's work has focused on the way medieval people, especially women, understood the nature of the human body and its physicality in the context of larger theological questions and spiritual pursuits. Bynum's work centers around late-medieval Europe. Her focus on female piety has brought increased attention to the role of women in medieval Europe.

Important Works

In her paper, The Blood of Christ in the Later Middle Ages, Caroline Bynum discusses the true nature of the blood as expressed in the eucharist. She initially explores the different ways that the blood has been defined. Bynum has an interest in the verbiage of the Eucharist, particularly in how the changing of blood to wine “[hides] the horror of sacrifice, a complex image of violence and division as well as of cleansing, fertility, and spiritual arousal, even ecstasy.” In this essay, Bynum argues for acknowledging the importance of blood piety in English scholarship as well as identifying what she calls the “asymmetry” between the body and blood. The ways in which the symbol of the blood has been so carefully curated is an act of control and suppression. Bynum pulls evidence from Nicholas of Cusa, noting that the real blood was “completely un-seeable.” As Bynum explains, this is especially important because it separates the people from the religion. No longer are people an active participant in religion. This creates a heavy reliance on the interpretation and message of the church, exemplifying another instance of religion being a tool of oppression. She further explains that the blood “gave access to God” which created the complex position of being both the saved and the condemned. Bynum introduces an interesting concept here of the practice of the Eucharist enabling people to take part in the passion of Christ, experiencing salvation through condemnation. Throughout her paper she argues that blood was both symbolic eucharist as well as relic, something people can physically connect with and gain power from. Here we see her continued fight against simplifying history. History is nuanced, and if we continue on with the colloquial notion that everything old is bad, we can learn nothing. In this way, Bynum addresses a phobia that people have of the middle ages. If we ignore certain aspects of religion just because they make us uncomfortable, we lose out on the beauty of religion itself.

Body Part Reliquaries and Body Parts in the Middle Ages as an overall introduction into a greater article discussing the topic. Bynum dissects each contributor's sections to build a greater case of understanding what a relic really is. She provides a baseline definition of a reliquary as “containers for the holy bodies around which cult and pilgrimage developed”. In this introduction, Bynum attempts to identify the distinction, if any, the difference between a relic and its reliquary; not only in terms of physicality, and thus iconography, but the power and response that springs forth as a result of these relics and reliquaries. Bynum identifies the cult of relics going back to the great persecutions of Christians in the second and third centuries. These relics were so important to medieval understandings of worship that it was the translation of relics onto the altar that defined sainthood. Relics were defined as loci of power. There is much debate as to whether or not these reliquaries truly represent the saint that they contain, but there was no mistaking the power they represented. Saint relics were the bodies of the heavenly blessed, bodies who touched God, and came back. This culture of the power of relics in part explains why they were stolen so frequently, Bynum noting that “monasteries, monarchs, and towns used saints, and hence relics, in order to establish both authority and boundaries”. Bynum transitions this topic into discussing how relics toe the line between symbol and icon. What to call reliquaries is another “hot topic” within art history. Terms like “speaking reliquaries” (reliquaries that “speak” to the body part beneath i.e a hand bone would reside in a hand shaped reliquary) and “shaped reliquaries” (reliquary shapes that reflect the function of the relic as opposed to the physical content), in Bynum’s mind, do not reflect the true complexities of relics/reliquaries; instead Bynum chooses the term “body-part reliquaries” which is the more inclusive term. Relics, Bynum argues, are “multi-layered” as they parts of the saint represent not only the narrative of that particular part, but the whole saint as well. They are the reference to the metaphysical gesture as well as the physical manifestation of it. Relics and reliquaries are manifestations of holy narratives, and their power comes from their tangibility to the common. Her work with relics adds to her overall quest to demystify the medieval world. As opposed to categorizing it as one or the other, she allows the nuance to flourish.

In her paper, The Blood of Christ in the Later Middle Ages, Caroline Bynum discusses the true nature of the blood as expressed in the eucharist. She initially explores the different ways that the blood has been defined. Bynum has an interest in the verbiage of the Eucharist, particularly in how the changing of blood to wine “[hides] the horror of sacrifice, a complex image of violence and division as well as of cleansing, fertility, and spiritual arousal, even ecstasy.” In this essay, Bynum argues for acknowledging the importance of blood piety in English scholarship as well as identifying what she calls the “asymmetry” between the body and blood. The ways in which the symbol of the blood has been so carefully curated is an act of control and suppression. Bynum pulls evidence from Nicholas of Cusa, noting that the real blood was “completely un-seeable.” As Bynum explains, this is especially important because it separates the people from the religion. No longer are people an active participant in religion. This creates a heavy reliance on the interpretation and message of the church, exemplifying another instance of religion being a tool of oppression. She further explains that the blood “gave access to God” which created the complex position of being both the saved and the condemned. Bynum introduces an interesting concept here of the practice of the Eucharist enabling people to take part in the passion of Christ, experiencing salvation through condemnation. Throughout her paper she argues that blood was both symbolic eucharist as well as relic, something people can physically connect with and gain power from. Here we see her continued fight against simplifying history. History is nuanced, and if we continue on with the colloquial notion that everything old is bad, we can learn nothing. In this way, Bynum addresses a phobia that people have of the middle ages. If we ignore certain aspects of religion just because they make us uncomfortable, we lose out on the beauty of religion itself.

Fast, Feast, and Flesh: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women works to explain the unique ways in which food was a central part of medieval Christian worship: particularly as it relates to women. Women seemed to be uniquely susceptible to food related miracles. Female saints were more likely to be involved in food related miracles than their male counterparts by a significant margin. When men would be connected to food and worship in this way, Bynum notes that they would be “satires on monastic life, in which there is some suggestion that monks are more prone to greed”. The concept of it being a satire is extremely important because it connects to the idea that women were incapable of interacting with religion in the same way that men could. In religious contexts, women were seen to be the more greedy (greed and lust may be synonymous here) sex, and so to see monks gorging on food would be akin to acting “womanish”.  Bynum argues that the ways in which medieval women interacted with food and the mysticism that surrounded them allowed them to transcend the limitations set upon them by societal norms. Bynum claims that “in union with Christ, woman became a fully fleshly and feeding self – at one with the generative suffering of God.” Here we see The tangibility of the Eucharist, of the divinity of food, would have been something extremely appealing to the medieval woman. It reflects the gruesomeness that comes with being a woman whether clergy or lay. Women are biologically connected with blood, it something that every woman can relate to in some aspect. Through this graphic, tangible connection,that it is an avenue for connection that only women are privy to. Fast, Feast and the Flesh serve as an introduction into what Bynum would further explore and define 2 years later in her book Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women.

Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women is arguably one of Bynum’s most influential works. It goes into intimate detail of the ways in which women interacted with food as a form of worship and power. The most powerful example of this she provides is the connection between lactation and the passion of Christ. Bynum notes that “in the act of lactation and giving birth, were analogous both to ordinary food and the body of Christ, as it died on the cross and gave birth to salvation.” The direct connection between woman and Christ is extremely radical. It takes some of the most taboo aspects of being a woman, childbirth and menstruation, aspects that men typically shy away from, and connects it to the masculine on high. It further solidifies the sanctity of the relationships that these women held with Christ. It strengthens the bond as “Bride of Christ”. It is erotic, sensual, and violent. It illuminates the humanity of Christ while simultaneously defying women. In a review of Holy Feast and Holy Fast, Rita Copeland attributes this phenomena to a kind of imitatio Christi as the illnesses that are produced from such extreme practices “in turn [are] transmuted into a metaphor for the union with Christ.” Not only were women solidifying their relationships to Christ through consummation, but they could become Christ himself. They could prove their piety, their love for God, by suffering in ways men were scared to. Through feasting or fasting women could become the Son, transcending gender, transcending mortality altogether. Most notably however, the book attempts to construct this narrative without falling into the same pitfall that Bynum believes catches other historians. The book takes an intimate look at a few case studies of Medieval nuns and saints to analyze the  unconventional ways in which they used food as a form of prayer. The way in which Bynum choses to analyze these case studies is important because frequently when readers and scholars alike look back at medieval behavior, they study it through a modern bias. Retrospective diagnosis is detrimental to our ability to comprehend the significance of these figures. This practice limits the potential of the study of these women. 

Works

• Dissimilar Similitudes: Devotional Objects in Late Medieval Europe (New York: Zone Books, 2020).
• Christian Materiality: An Essay on Religion in Late Medieval Europe (New York: Zone Books, 2011)
• Wonderful Blood: Theology and Practice in Late Medieval Northern Germany and Beyond (Philadelphia, 2006), winner of the American Academy of Religion's 2007 Award for Excellence, the 2009 Gründler Prize, and the Haskins Medal of the Medieval Academy of America in 2011.
• Metamorphosis and Identity (New York: Zone Books, 2005)
• The Resurrection of the Body in Western Christianity, 200–1336 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995; revised and expanded 2017); received the Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize from Phi Beta Kappa, and the Jacques Barzun Prize of the American Philosophical Society.
• Fragmentation and Redemption: Essays on Gender and the Human Body in Medieval Religion (New York: Zone Books, 1990), winner of the Trilling Prize for the Best Book by a Columbia Faculty Member and the Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion in the Analytical-Descriptive Category from the American Academy of Religion.
• Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), winner of the Governor's Writer's Day Award of the State of Washington and the Philip Schaff prize of the American Society of Church History.
• Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality of the High Middle Ages (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984)
• Docere verbo et exemplo: An Aspect of Twelfth-Century Spirituality. Harvard Theological Studies 31 (Missoula: Scholars Press: 1979)

Awards and prizes

• Distinguished Teacher Award from the University of Washington (1981)
• Berkshire Prize (1985)
• MacArthur Fellowship (1986–1989)
• Governor's Writers Day Award (1988)
• Philip Schaff Prize (1989)
• Trilling Prize (1992)
• Membership to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1993)
• Membership to the American Philosophical Society (1995)
• Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize (1995)
• Barzun Prize (1996)
• Columbia University, Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching (1997)
• Jefferson Lecturer (1999)
• Harvard University, Centennial Medal of the Harvard Graduate School (2001)
• Mark van Doren Teaching Award of Columbia College (2002)
• American Society of Church History, Distinguished Career Award (2005)
• Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion (2007 and 1992)
• Gründler Prize (2009)
• Haskins Medal (2011)
• Pour le Mérite (2012)
• Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2013)
• Hebrew University, Doctor Honoris Causa (2015)

In 2016 Bynum was elected a Fellow of the Ecclesiastical History Society. In July 2017, Bynum was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.