From Judgment to Passion: Devotion to Christ and the Virgin Mary,

How and why did the images of the crucified Christ and his grieving mother achieve such prominence, inspiring unparalleled religious creativity as well as such imitative extremes as celibacy and self-flagellation? To answer this question, Rachel Fulton ranges over developments in liturgical performance, private prayer, doctrine and art. She considers the fear occasioned by the disappointed hopes of medieval Christians waiting for the apocalypse, the revulsion of medieval Jews at baptism in the name of God born from woman, Church reform in a new European economy, the erotocisim of the Marian exegesis of the "Song of Songs" and more.