An international team of twenty scholars under Edmondo F. Lupieri’s direction produced Mary Magdalene from the New Testament to the New Age and Beyond. While the historical figure of the Magdalene may be lost forever, the construction of her literary images and their transformations and adaptations over the centuries are a lively testimony to human creativity and faith. Different pictures of Mary travelled through time and space, from history to legend and mythology, crossed religious boundaries, going beyond the various Christianities, to become a “sign of contradiction” for many. This book describes a special case of biblical reception history, that of the New Testament figure of a woman whose presence at the side of Jesus has been disturbing for some, but proves to be inspiring for others.
Edmondo F. Lupieri, Lic., 1973, Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa, Italy, has taught at the universities of Rome, Turin, and Udine and currently is the John Cardinal Cody Chair in Theology at Loyola University, Chicago. He has published extensively on New Testament, Early Christianity, Christian and non-Christian Gnosticism, and on various phenomena of religious Syncretism.
List of Figures Abbreviations Notes on Contributors
Introduction Edmondo Lupieri
Part 1: New Testament through Late Antiquity
1 The Earliest Magdalene: Varied Portrayals in Early Gospel Narratives Edmondo Lupieri
2 The Apocryphal Magdalene: Expanding and Limiting Her Importance Trent A. Rogers
3 The Gnostic Magdalene: Mary as Disciple and Revealer Cambry G. Pardee
4 The Vine and the Net-Caster: Mandaean and Manichaean Transformations of Mary Magdalene Emiliano Fiori
5 The Patristic Magdalene: Symbol for the Church and Witness to the Resurrection Amanda Kunder
6 A Whore from Bethany? A Note on Mary Magdalene in Early Non-Christian Sources Bas van Os
7 The Magdalene Yesterday and Today in the Gospel of Jesus’s Wife David A. Creech
Part 2: The Middle Ages through the Modern Age
8 The Cult of Mary Magdalene in the Medieval West Theresa Gross-Diaz
9 The Magdalene of Medieval Hagiography Seth J.A. Alexander
10 Suspended between Sacred and Profane: the Iconography of Mary Magdalene from Its Origins to the Fifteenth Century Marcello Mignozzi
11 The Divided Magdalene: the Three Magdalenes Debate (1517–1519): between Humanism and Enlightenment Jeffrey M. Tripp
12 The Uncontainable Sexuality of a Penitent Woman: the Magdalene between Baroque and Contemporary Art Jayna Hoffacker
Part 3: Contemporary Period
13 The Magdalene of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship Teresa J. Calpino
14 From Disciple to Deviant: the Magdalene in Contemporary Popular Film Erica-Lyn Saccucci
15 The Magdalene of Internet: New Age, Goddess, and Nature Spiritualities James S. Mastaler
16 Wife, Queen, Goddess: Mary Magdalene and the New Religious-Spiritual Movements (19th–21st Centuries) Carla Ricci
17 From Galilee to India: There Is Something about Mary (Magdalene) Pierluigi Piovanelli
18 Why the Church Needs a Prostitutes’ Saint Mary Setterholm
19 The Marys in the Contemporary Liturgical Practice of the Mary Magdalene (the) Apostle Catholic Community Jane Via
20 The Legionaries of Mary Magdalene? Regarding Recent News Ludovica Eugenio
Index
All interested in NT history and figures, hagiography, history of the Church, contemporary Christianities, post Christian religious experiences, feminist studies. Libraries, institutes, individuals; specialists and educated laypersons, students, theologians, practitioners.