The Magdalene Review

New titles

I just received these two items yesterday, but haven’t yet had a chance to review them:

Invoking Mary Magdalene: Accessing the Wisdom of the Divine Feminine
by Siobhan Houston

Magdalene Unveiled: The Ancient and Modern Sacred Prostitute
Directed by Sarah Sher and Kenneth Ray Stubbs

Feminism, Sacred Prostitution, and Fish

At the moment I’m reading The Women Around Jesus, by Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel (translated from German by John Bowden). It’s a 25 year old feminist look at Jesus’ female followers, and how reading the Gospels from the women’s points of view could change the thrust of their stories. In some ways it feels a little tired, probably because much of the rhetoric has been overused during the last couple of decades, but there are some refreshing ideas and new references for me to explore. I’ll post more about it, particularly the section about Mary Magdalene, when I’m finished.

Next up is “Cult Prostitution in New Testament Ephesus: A Reappraisal,” by S. M. Baugh (published in Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 42/3, September 1999). In the introduction Baugh states his purpose as proving that sacred prostitution didn’t take place during the 1st century as commonly believed. He narrows down his focus to:

1. “union with a prostitute…for exchange of money or goods, which was sanctioned by the wardens of a deity whether in temple precincts or elsewhere as a sacred act of worship”

2. “acts of prostitution where the money or goods received went to a temple and to its administrators”

He’s very clear about not including cultic acts of sexuality within mystery religions or fertility cults.

Sacred prostitution is an area of inquiry that my husband, Chris, has spent much time reading on for his own reasons, but it assists me a great deal in addressing questions I regularly encounter about Mary Magdalene’s identity. Could Mary Magdalene have been considered a sacred prostitute herself, leading to her sinful reputation? Could her (presumed) role as anointer have been some sort of veiled reference to a hieros gamos (“sacred marriage”) ritual? Both of these things, and more, have been suggested of Mary Magdalene in relation to sacred prostitution, so I too find this a topic rich for exploration.

My other project-in-progress is transcribing sections of Christian symbolism and art books so I can return them to the library. In the wake of the Megiddo discovery, claims have been made online that the two fish in the mosaic represent Jesus and Mary Magdalene, the two fishes of the Age of Pisces, the Lord and Lady of Christianity. Entering debunk mode, I felt it necessary to read everything I could get my hands on about fish symbolism in early Christianity, which has been rewarding in itself. Chris dug up a dissertation called The interpretation of religious symbols in the Graeco-Roman world: A case study of Early Christian fish symbolism, by Laurence Harold Kant (Yale, 1993). I haven’t read the entire 933 pages yet, but I’m assured it’s worth the $30 we spent for the .pdf. Needless to say, I think, is that so far, not an academic word has been written about Mary Magdalene and fish symbolism.