In their study of Christian visions of the afterlife and of apocalypse, religious historians have concentrated almost exclusively on the fate of the soul. But for medieval people, the fate of the body in resurrection posed the most troubling questions: if my body is resurrected, which of the many possible bodies will return - the child, the young adult, or the old woman?; or, if my body is dissolved in the grave, in what form will it come back? This study redresses the balance of historical inquiry by examining the idea of bodily resurrection in the ancient and medieval West with respect to persecution and conversion, social hierarchy, and cultural burial practices. Examining several periods between the 3rd and 14th centuries in which discussions of the body were central to Western eschatology, it suggests that Western attitudes toward the body that arose from these discussions still underlie our modern notions of the individual. Of particular interest is Bynum's investigation of the medieval use of metaphor in the debates surrounding material resurrection.By insisting that such debates must be understood in the context of burial practices and of gender and social status, she challenges views on hierarchy and difference.