The Theophany of The Bloodied Christ: The Christology of Eriugena's Carmina

The central concern of this essay is to investigate how Eriugena’s Carmina—his collected works of poetry—may contribute to scholarship on his Christology by focusing on how it recounts Christ suffering and shedding his blood on the cross. To begin, the first part of this essay reviews recent scholarship of Eriugena’s Christology and how he understands the nature of the Incarnation in his magnum opus the Periphyseon. Then, the second part explains how scholars consistently overlook and undervalue the theological themes of Eriugena’s Carmina. Against such readings of Eriugena’s poems, this essay defends their theological merit. Finally, the third part closely examines several of the major poems in Eriugena’s Carmina that detail Christ’s passion and his bloodshed. Ultimately, this essay argues that Eriugena’s Carmina contributes in a unique way to his understanding of the Incarnation by offering a visceral account of how Jesus Christ suffered on the cross and shed his blood for the sake of human redemption.