Born again bodies : flesh and spirit in American Christianity

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1. Gluttons for regimen: Anglo-Protestant culture and the reorientation of appetite

The diet of angels: fasting in early modern Anglo-American Protestanism

Gospels of physick: sexual regulation, bodily pleasure and perfection

Phrenology and somatic authenticity

2. Sculptors of our own exterior: new thought physiques

"Nothing but a dense shadow": the body as delusion?

Corresponding bodies

Femal sexual pleasure and mystical communion: reproducing a civilized race

Regimens shaping bodies to come

3. Minding the body: divergent paths of new thought perfectionism

Living on air: gospels of fasting, conquest, and purgation

William Sheldon's metaphysical somatotypes

God in a body: gastronomy and black power

4. Pray the weight away: shaping devotional fitness culture

Shedd-ing pounds: scripture and devotional practice in service to weight loss

The burgeoning Christian diet culture

From empathy to authority: shifting models of expertise

Religious devotion to thinness outside mainstream Protestanism

5. "Don't eat that": denial, indulgence, and exclusion in Christian diet culture

Poisoned bodies, blemished souls: food as taint and transgression

Loved on a smaller scale: women, weight, and the divine lover above

The power of perfection: purified bodies and racialized worlds

Epilogue: bodies in crisis?