Jennifer Awes Freeman: Gleaning the Message of the Arts

“My research explores the ways that images create meaning, elicit viewer responses, and change over time. I am interested in the transition between Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages–including the way that the Carolingians reinterpreted the Roman past. I have a background in technical theatre, experience as an illustrator, and continue to maintain an arts practice.” So reads the fine self-description of our guest today. Professor Freeman teaches at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, where she is also Program Director for Theology and the Arts. She brings a deep learning to her comments on the role of the arts in teaching us. An artist herself, she insures that her scholarly background only enrich, rather than overanalyze what the arts are about.

Her two books are The Good Shepherd: Image, Meaning, and Power (Baylor, 2021), and The Ashburnham Pentateuch and its Contexts: The Trinity in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages (D.S. Brewer, 2022).