At the beginning of this fascinating study, Le Goff and Truong suggest that the Middle Ages introduced one of the principal dichotomies of western civilization: the divide between the body and the soul. The continued development of Christiany, combined with the persistent influence of Paganism, resulted in a body torn between repression and freedom, abstinence and pleasure. Evidence of this can be found in all aspects of medieval life: its fashions, eating habits, sports, sexual mores, and the invention of courtly love. The authors reexamine the notion of original sin, once seen as human arrogance in defiance of God, revealing how it became a sexual sin to prevailing minds within the medieval church. The authors then reflect upon the medieval glorification of the human body, detailing at the same time the complicated and often contradictory derision held towards it. Finally, the authors explain how between the 5th and 15th centuries, the human body became a metaphor for society and its institutions, leading readers towards a better understanding of the codes, symbols and meanings the medieval west has conferred upon modernity.