His Reception in Literature and Art from the Second to
the Ninth Century
In this ground-breaking examination of responses to Joseph the
Carpenter, Dr. Jacobs offers fresh insight into the historic
understanding and perception of this often forgotten figure.
Challenging assumptions about the ways Joseph was understood and
perceived in the first several centuries of Christianity, Jacobs begins
his study with a thorough review of the earliest narrative portrayals of
Joseph in the New Testament. Subsequently, he carefully traces
the diverse responses to Joseph through the analysis of numerous works
of art and narratives. In the process, he documents the presence of two
trajectories: one, the most dominant, which affirms the roles of Joseph
presented in the nativity accounts and highlights his significance and,
another, which diminishes these roles and, consequently, Joseph’s
significance.
While Jacobs’ study documents the presence of tensions with respect to
understanding and perception of Joseph within this period of
Christianity, it also reveals that Joseph had much more importance than
has previously been acknowledged.
Philip Walker Jacobs,
Ph.D., 2014, University of Wales, Bangor, is an Instructor in Humanities
and Fine Arts at Cape Fear Community College and an Adjunct Instructor
at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. He is the author of
A Guide to the Study
of Greco-Roman and Jewish and Christian History and Literature
(University Press of America).
ISBN 9781905679348 (HBIS, 5)
272pp. Pbk. UK £28.95/ Europe £29.95/
ROW £31.95 201