Author: Dan Burstein ' Arne de Keijzer, eds.
Publisher: Weidenfeld ' Nicholson
Price: £10.99
Isbn: 0297851683

	Mary of Magdala seems to be the intellectual and spiritual equal of the male disciples

Burstein, a venture capitalist, and de Keijzer (a travel writer and China ‘expert’) have already published three ‘guides’ to Dan Brown’s best-sellers. I wondered if this fourth in the series would be yet another parasitic rehash of familiar Da Vinci Code material, but I was pleasantly surprised.

The editors inevitably begin with the premise that Mary Magdalene was a key member of Jesus’s group, that she became his wife and that their children established the “Holy bloodline”. Veering from the contentious subject of Jesus’s descendents, the authors analyse the figure of Mary Magdalene, attempting to answer such questions as who she was; what was her relationship to Jesus and his disciples; was she at the Last Supper; and, most importantly, why did the leaders of the formative Christian church set out to marginalise her in the ‘official’ doctrine and literature?

The book is an anthology of contributions – including interviews, essays, extracts from sacred texts and classical studies, analyses of art and poetry and even a round robin – from more than 35 writers in a variety of faiths and disciplines – writers, New Agers, historians, antiquarians and teachers. Some (such as Elaine Pagels, Bruce Chilton and singer Tori Amos) are well known, and others are less familiar outside the US New Age market. The authors also provide an annotated survey of Magdalene literature and other additional material.

Despite the wide range of scholarship represented here, this is essentially inspirational, interpreting Marian lore in ways meaningful to our time.

It is not theology: rather, it spins into the psychological, symbolic and mythical regions of personal spirituality. Nor is it a historical examination, though several essays gather the documentary traces of her life and character. The identity of this Mary of Magdala has been fragmented over time. There is the woman out of whom Jesus cast ‘demons’; the “harlot”; the woman “of substance” who seems to be the intellectual and spirit­ual equal of the male disciples; the woman Jesus seemed to be grooming to succeed him; and the woman who was His wife and companion. She is also a cand­idate for the author of the Gospel according to John. Under­standing these is essential, the editors maintain, to understanding Christ­ianity’s “Goddess problem”.

Given the paucity of bio­­graph­ical data, it is unsur­pris­ing that many contributors use (and in some cases rely heavily on) sources such as the Golden Legends, a collection of medi­æval tales and ballads that mainly concern that other key Mary, Jesus’s mother. The Gnostic gospels are given a good scouring, part­icul­arly the Gospel of Mary Magdalene (the prime source for the Magdal­ene’s spiritual importance in the theological legacy of Jesus), which implies that she held the disciples together in their grief and despair after the Crucifixion. It also tells how Peter calls Mary “Sister”, saying: “We know that the Saviour loved you more than the rest of woman.” He asks Mary to tell them any teaching that was given to her privately, which she does in symbolic (or alchemical, if you will) terms quite different from the phrase­ology of the fam­il­iar gospels. Andrew reacted hotly, calling the words “strange”. Peter backed him up, in effect accusing Mary of making them up. A few spoke up for Mary, arguing that as Jesus trusted her, the men should be ashamed of “contending against the woman like the adversaries.”

This was the first great schism and a critical moment in the form­ation of Christianity as we have known it.

Several contributors pick up on this point and seem to agree that its long-term effect was to ensure that Christianity would suppress the feminine aspect of spirit­ual­ity. They venture to explain the puzzle of why Mary was marginalised by later patriarchs and ecumenical scholars. Was she a reformed prostitute or is that calumny, too, part of the propaganda? She was an independent woman in a tribal, misogynistic society; to be unmarried and independent was tantamount to harlotry.

It’s clear from the Gnostic text that many disciples felt shut out of Jesus’s special relationship with Mary, and hurt that he had spoken to her of things he did not tell them.

Although Mary Magdalene was largely ‘written out’ of Christ­ian­ity, the feminine remained in the ethereal form of the Virgin Mary. Several essays here contrast the two: one the essence of spiritual purity and motherhood, the other a “penitent sinner” and a physical companion. Extending the idea of the Magdalene as a “sacred harlot” are a couple of interesting meditations on temple prostitution and the sacred union of opposites.

It is tempting to wonder how Christianity – and indeed, the world – would have evolved if that post-Crucifixion meeting had gone differently. Christianity might never have neglected its feminine aspect and so its misogynistic history – which reached its low point in the centuries of witch pogroms – might have been less bloody and cruel. The cult of the Magdalene might even have rivalled or eclipsed that of the Nazarene. It’s plain that the figure of Mary Magdalene is gaining in attraction as an embodiment of feminine spirituality and wisdom – the Sophia who was with God before the Creation.