The resurrection of Mary Magdalene? Two new books examine the elusive biblical figure

In keeping with the canonical New Testomony gospels, Mary Magdalene was a follower of Jesus who supported his ministry from her personal means, was witness to his crucifixion and the primary witness to his resurrection, and later tasked as apostle to the apostles. Over subsequent centuries, nonetheless, her story was retold and her character reimagined. By the medieval interval, her conflation with an unnamed sexual sinner noticed her popularly reframed as a “prostitute”, and piously repurposed as a mannequin of repentance. In well-liked tradition, her persona continues to be tailored and adopted for inventive functions, as a romantic apart within the in any other case chaste biography of Jesus offered by the New Testomony.

It’s no shock, then, that the Magdalene, as she is thought, has been a supply of putting up with fascination for artists, historians and theologians—however we is perhaps forgiven for questioning what extra there’s to say. However, though it will be a stretch to counsel that curiosity ever actually died, it’s plain that the elusive biblical everywoman is as soon as extra experiencing a scholarly revival.

These latest publications by Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, the professor emerita of spiritual artwork and cultural historical past and director of the Catholic Research programme at Georgetown College, and Philip C. Almond, the professor emeritus within the historical past of spiritual thought on the College of Queensland, invite a broader viewers to trip the crest of this newest scholarly wave.

Educational however not austere

Apostolos-Cappadona brings her scholarly and pedagogical pedigree to Mary Magdalene: A Visible Historical past, producing a piece that’s completely accessible but richly rewarding for extra skilled audiences. The e-book is formed by its roots in her 2002 exhibition catalogue In Search of Mary Magdalene: Photos and Traditions (American Bible Society), with seven essays partially one which cowl written sources, Christian traditions and artistic expressions, adopted by ten quick reflections partially two. The essays are educational however not austere, providing concise précis of key materials wanted to grasp the creating Magdalene iconography.

With 65 color plates, this e-book is a feast for the eyes, however its readability is the true triumph. “Half One: Towards a Visible Historical past” covers huge floor, however the complexities of biblical sources, early theological sources and the narratives and traditions of Japanese and Western Christianity are recounted with a compelling readability. The one disappointment on this spectacular quantity is that the wonderful dialogue of feminist readings and the importance of the Magdalene’s physique is so transient, confined to a three-page coda.

The three-page format turns into the norm in “Half Two: Motifs”, a collection of impactful reflections on numerous inventive tropes: sinner/seductress, penitent, anointer, weeper, witness, preacher, contemplative, reader. The longer ultimate reflection on the motif of “Feminist Icon” resumes the dialogue from the coda of half yet one more substantively. Although all the sections partially two might be given a lengthier therapy, the format works for this quantity, whetting the urge for food of the reader and affording the artwork a big communicative function.

A Visible Historical past opens with an anecdotal preface (together with point out of The Artwork Newspaper) that equips the reader to grasp why the work that follows is a labour of affection for Apostolos-Cappadona; within the acknowledgements, she describes her curiosity within the Magdalene as “a lifelong occupation”. A private and personable narrative voice is maintained throughout the amount, privileging the reader with the impression of their very own non-public tour throughout time and place with the skilled writer as information.

Three themes upon which this mental tour is outwardly centred—“metanoia, unction and metamorphosis”, which we would in any other case recognise because the penitence, anointing and conversion that pervade the Magdalene story—are revisited variously, although by no means so explicitly as on this preamble. But the afterword, ostensibly a mirrored image on latest Magdalene exhibitions, reveals Apostolos-Cappadona to be organising others to take the baton. In her phrases, the e-book is “an initiation into [Magdalene] iconography and cultural historical past however hopefully raises for readers new questions resulting in the numerous avenues in Magdalene research but to be written ‘in reminiscence of her’”.

Almond’s Mary Magdalene: A Cultural Historical past pursues a fairly completely different method, surveying the Magdalene’s reception within the Western European custom. The flap copy, claiming that it’s “the primary main work on the Magdalene in additional than 30 years”, provides a level of publishing bluster, however the timescale inferred is very indicative of its mental heritage. Those that recognise this oblique reference to Susan Haskins’s 1993 work, Mary Magdalen: Fantasy and Metaphor (HarperCollins), can instantly attain a transparent sense of the scope and scale of Almond’s undertaking. Regardless of the acknowledging of Haskins’s work on the outset, references within the footnotes are surprisingly sparse (particularly provided that the amount concludes with an epilogue on fable), however maybe that is indicative of simply how a lot Magdalene scholarship Almond has drawn upon.

Cultural reception

Like Haskins’s Fantasy and Metaphor, A Cultural Historical past establishes a story thread by means of centuries of cultural reception of the biblical determine, and covers a powerful vary of fabric. The primary two chapters take care of biblical and different contemporaneous texts and the complexities of medieval accounts of the Magdalene’s life. An unadorned however uncynical account of the assorted relic traditions between the fifth century and the Protestant Reformation follows. The latter three chapters adhere to the chronological construction, although their broadening scope means they profit from the extra thematic method that has been utilized.

In “Mary Divided: Sacred and Profane”, the Magdalene’s embroilment in ecclesial acrimony is framed nicely in its broader Early Fashionable context. Likewise, “Many Magdalenes: Redeemed and Redeeming” provides a concise overview of the Magdalene archetype in Nineteenth-century discussions of ladies’s roles and morality. The final chapter, addressing up to date considerations from The Da Vinci Code to The Gospel of Jesus’s Spouse, is arguably the trickiest for the reader to navigate, although Almond does an admirable job of ploughing a path by means of these ever-expanding wilds.

The 29 color plates that open this quantity would possibly falsely increase expectations that A Cultural Historical past will discover inventive traditions extra absolutely, and it’s troublesome to make the case that it is a complete cultural historical past with no extra substantive engagement with the visible. Presenting this work as a kind of biography (like Almond’s different latest publications, together with The Antichrist: A New Biography, 2020, additionally for Cambridge College Press) would have prevented the distraction of a way of alternatives missed. Fortunately, the coincident publication of Apostolos-Cappadona’s A Visible Historical past signifies that readers needn’t fear.

For 2 self-described histories, A Visible Historical past and A Cultural Historical past are significantly ahead wanting. Each supply recent therapies of a long-established topic, and each illuminate the potential for a reinvigoration of the examine of Magdalene reception. Although not meant as such, these books are very best companion texts, serving as participating primers for anybody with an curiosity in how the story of the Magdalene has been instructed. Almond gives essentially the most accessible abstract to this point of the scholarly story to this point, and Apostolos-Cappadona’s participating and clever appraisal of inventive interpretation reminds the reader that the Magdalene is a topic that issues nonetheless.

• Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, Mary Magdalene: A Visible Historical past, T&T Clark/Bloomsbury, 176pp, 65 color illustrations, £17.99 (hb), printed 23 February 2023

• Philip C. Almond, Mary Magdalene: A Cultural Historical past, Cambridge College Press, 350pp, 29 color illustrations, £30 (hb), printed 1 December 2022

• Siobhán Jolley is a specialist within the portrayal of Mary Magdalene. She is a analysis fellow in artwork and faith on the Nationwide Gallery, London, a visiting lecturer in religions and theology at King’s Faculty London, and an honorary analysis fellow on the Centre for Biblical Research, College of Manchester