Piers Plowman and the Gospel and First Epistle of John

These Johannine texts exert a formative influence on the style and theological conceptualization of PPl. The poem adopts John’s unique conflation of Christ’s suffering and death with glorification, as well as the association of light and life with divinity. Other intertextual relationships include emphasis on the physicality of Christ, especially with regard to the salvific power of Christ’s blood and blood relationship with man, and a sometimes contradictory mingling of anti-Judaic sentiment with reverence for Jews. Spatial terminology regarding interiority is used to express a mutual indwelling of God and believers, as well as to describe the Trinity and the incarnation. Both authors share a theology of Revelation, in which Truth is identified not only with God but also with the revelation of God as Love.