The Good Shepherd: Image, Meaning, and Power

by Jennifer Awes Freeman

A statuette of Egyptian King Pepi formidably wielding a shepherd’s crook stands in stark contrast to a fresco of an unassuming Orpheus-like youth gently hoisting a sheep around his shoulders. Both images, however, occupy an extensive tradition of shepherding motifs. In the transition from ancient Near Eastern depictions of the keeper of flocks as one holding great power to the more "pastoral" scenes of early Christian art, it might appear that connotations of rulership were divested from the image of the shepherd. The reality, however, presents a much more complex tapestry. The Good Image, Meaning, and Power  traces the visual and textual depictions of the Good Shepherd motif from its early iterations as a potent symbol of kingship, through its reimagining in biblical figures, such as the shepherd-king David, and onward to the shepherds of Greco-Roman literature. Jennifer Awes Freeman reveals that the figure of the Good Shepherd never became humble or docile but always carried connotations of empire, divinity, and defensive violence even within varied sociopolitical contexts. The early Christian invocation of the Good Shepherd was not simply anti-imperial but relied on a complex set of associations that included king, priest, pastor, and sacrificial victim―even as it subverted those meanings in the figure of Jesus, both shepherd and sacrificial lamb. The concept of the Good Shepherd continued to prove useful for early medieval rulers, such as Charlemagne, but its imperial references waned in the later Middle Ages as it became more exclusively applied to church leaders. Drawing on a range of sources including literature, theological treatises, and political texts, as well as sculpture, mosaics, and manuscript illuminations,  The Good Shepherd offers a significant contribution as the first comprehensive study of the long history of the Good Shepherd motif. It also engages the flexible and multivalent abilities of visual and textual symbols to convey multiple meanings in religious and political contexts.

205 pages, Hardcover

Published September 15, 2021

Reviews

[Luke Wagner · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, Jennifer Awes Freeman argues that the image of the “good shepherd,” a popular image in early Christian, pre-Constantinian art, is not as “anti-imperialist” as some claim. Rather, the imagery of the shepherd was applied throughout the ancient Near East and the Greco-Roman world to kings, rulers, and emperors. While the Christian employment of the good shepherd imagery is unique in some regards (especially in that Jesus, the good shepherd, is also the lamb/sheep who is sacrificed), Awes Freeman ultimately argues that this imagery is not in and of itself anti-imperialist, nor is it in opposition to the imperial iconography of the enthroned Jesus, which was popularized in Christian art after Constantine. Awes Freeman also devotes space to the afterlife of this imagery (as well as its waning popularity) in the Byzantine period and the early Middle Ages.

I learned a lot from this book, and I really enjoyed it. I only wish that it was longer. I appreciate Awes Freeman’s concision, but moving from the fourth millennium BCE to the Middle Ages in less than 175 pages is quite a whirlwind of a ride, and I would have loved diving a bit deeper into the ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman background of the imagery.

[Sam Nesbitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very informative survey of the image and concept of the shepherd as it has informed and manifested in the Christian tradition. Beginning with the ancient near east, Freeman traces the cultural and artistic significance of the shepherd through Greco-Roman contexts, early Christian contexts, and into the medieval period. In doing so, Freeman convincingly demonstrates that “the Good Shepherd — and all its associations — was employed by the early church as a way of synthesizing earlier streams of thought only to subvert them, perhaps most effectively in the understanding of Jesus as the shepherd/lamb who sacrifices himself, that is, in the concept of power in powerlessness” (4). Although repetitive at times, Freeman overall provides an insightful case study in the history of Christian art.