Clara Poteet

Drinking Blood and Eating Flesh: An Exploration of Mystic Theology and the Naumburg West Choir Screen

This paper argues that the Naumburg west choir screen, known for its emotive sculptural depiction of the Passion Cycle, cannot be read without the lens of the embodied mystical movement sweeping Germany throughout the 12th through 14th centuries, and, specifically, that this choir screen works as a powerful visual translation of how women used this theology to exercise spiritual agency in the male-dominated Church. Stemming from a growing desire to see the Christian God as approachable and loving, this theology focused on both the importance of the Eucharist and Christ’s humanity. I combine these beliefs with Jacqueline Jung’s rich scholarship on borders and liminality to argue that this choir screen blurred the distinction between male and female, human and divine, and allowed for mystical identification with the figural statues.

On the Naumburg west choir screen, the main sculptural group over the doorway, framing the altar, features the typical trio of the Virgin Mary, Christ Crucified, and John the Evangelist. Using contemporary medieval theology and writings, I posit Mary and Jesus as mothers, Mary and John as Brides of Christ, and all three as portals into intimate interaction with the Body of Christ, thus allowing women to metaphysically bypass the physical choir screen and the intercession of the male priest. As such, women could eat, bear, and map their own bodies onto the Body of Christ. Here I argue that the Naumburg west choir screen, rather than an exclusionary piece of masonry, functioned as an invitation for medieval women to place themselves within the Passion story and redemptive work of God on earth, engaging in the contemporary feminine, mystical world of marriages and motherhood, blood and milk.