The Magdalene Review

A Mary Magdalene time warp

It seems I’ve had no success in reviving this blog, in spite of my best intentions. Given that I’ve channeled the energy formerly devoted to my Mary Magdalene work into my day job, I’m left with little time or energy to pour back into this blog or Magdalene.org.

That problem aside, it occured to me today that *should* I begin any project for this blog in the near future, it would be interesting to survey and compare the state of Mary Magdalene culture and studies today versus when this blog was most active, as the Da Vinci Code craze was winding down.

Just as a parent who sees a child every day doesn’t appreciate his/her growth as much as an aunt or uncle who only sees the same child every two (three?) years, perhaps examining Mary Magdalene opinions after an interval of two years would be useful in some way.

How have things changed? What Magdalene discussions are occuring in academic circles today? Are they occuring at all? What about popular culture? How about Mary Magdalene “movement” devotees? What related web searches are being performed? What art has proliferated? What books have been written?

I, for one, would be interested in seeing the results of this sort of survey.

Collecting personal stories about MM

I am working on a project that involves compiling personal stories about Mary Magdalene. In order to put together a piece that is representative of the many different views of Mary Magdalene in circulation, I’d like to interview as many people as possible. Here are some details:

• The interview will be via email, and could involve the exchange of a few messages in order to really understand personal experiences of Mary Magdalene.
• I’d like to get a real diversity of perspectives, including (but not limited to!) the following:
  • women AND men who are interested in MM
  • traditional Christian approach to MM
  • Da Vinci Code inspired interest in MM
  • non-Christians who belong to another major religion (Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, etc.)
  • non-Christians who adhere to any other spiritual system
  • non-religious interest in MM
  • Gnostic, Holy Grail/bloodline, Holy Grail/sacred union, temple priestess, Beloved Disciple, etc. are all views that are welcome

Right now I am collecting email addresses from people who would like to participate. I’m going to sort through the responses and then get back to folks with my questions, but it should be relatively quick as I’m working on a short deadline.

If you would like to help out with this project by being interviewed, please write to interview@magdalene.org. Please include your email address and a brief message about your personal interest in Mary Magdalene.

Please feel free to pass this invitation around to anyone who might be interested, mailing lists, etc.

Comparative table of MM and others

Rather than doing all of the things I should be doing, I decided to copy a table out of Raymond Brown’s book, The Death of the Messiah, that compares all of the people present for the crucifixion, entombment and emtpy tomb narratives across the four canonical gospels. It’s quite handy.

You can find the table here.

I am considering adding to this table as I have time, to include the lists of those present in these three scenes in non-canonical texts. It would add another dimension to the discussion, I think, particularly where pre-4th century texts are concerned. The Gospel of Peter and Epistula Apostolorum are two that come immediately to mind, and a variant present in one MS of the Diatessaron. Maybe it should include Gospel textual variants as well.

If I’m feeling really ambitious, I’ll make a table with this kind of comparison that includes the works of patristic writers, Gnostic texts, and non-canonical “orthodox” texts through the end of the 6th century. There were some odd variations floating around, and it might make for an interesting study.