ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that pace Woolf, the medieval English Crucifixion lyrics do not use the satisfaction theory to account for God's motivation in the Atonement. Rather, they combine the heroic and exemplarist theories, using the heroic theory to account for God's motivation in the Atonement, and the exemplarist theory to stress the need for human response. The Crucifixion lyrics represent Redemption as a present reality, valid for the meditating Everyman who represents humanity. As love lyrics addressed to Christ, they seem more certain of Redemption than do any other poems discussed in the chapter. In the chapter, the poet uses repeated conditional clauses to convey the speaker's frustration at not being able to respond as he should to Christ's love: in this poem, the Redemption is a present reality, human response only a future possibility. The lyrics discussed so far follow the exemplarist theory, stressing the importance of human response to the Atonement.
