Nov. 3rd, 2006

bunnyjadwiga: (Tapestry Rabbit)
I went to an amazing presentation tonight. Three professors from the Theological School discussed Mary Magdalene in the authorized & apocryphal gospels, in the historical myth, and how the idea of her re-visioning, through Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, might tell us something about modern spiritual longings.

Melanie Johnson-Debaufre, Assistant Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, pointed out that since the Da Vinci code, New Testament scholars hardly ever get to sleep on airplane journeys anymore; everyone wants to ask/talk about this stuff. She gave us a great overview of the confusions surrounding Mary Magdalene in the gospels, since there are a lot of references that have been associated with Mary but really don't appear to be about her before. (It shows I'm still something of a name wonk when I am tempted to point out that, due to the nature of naming practices, Mary Magdalene could still be Mary of Bethany, depending on the context-- but that would depend on the by-naming practices in that time period in Judea.)

Her handout included material from a sermon of Pope Gregory the Great that appears to be the first officialization of the "constructed" Magdalene:
She whom Luke calls the sinful woman, whom John calls Mary, we believe to be the Mary from whom seven devils were ejected according to Mark. And what did these seven devils signify, if not all the vices?. . . It is clear, brothers, that the woman previously used the unguent to perfume her flesh in forbidden acts. What she therefore displayed more scandalously, she was now offering to God in a more praiseworthy manner. She had coveted with earthly eyes, but now through penitence these are consumed with tears. She displayed her hair to set off her face, but now her hair dries her tears. She had spoken proud things with her mouth, but in kissing the Lord's feet, she now planted her mouth on the Redeemer's feet.


Dr. Johnson-Debaufre went on to talk about the jealousy/exalting of Magdalene in the Gospel of Philip, some parts of which Brown uses to claim that Mary Magdalene and Jesus were *involved* (to which my thought is, if you think he's boffing her, why on earth would you need to ask, jealously, "Why do you love her more than us?" You'd think that'd be obvious, right?) Apparently, Mary's high status as a close companion and intellectual understanding of Jesus, her bold speaking, and her conflict with one or more companions of Jesus shows up repeatedly in the extra-canonical texts.

The next to speak was an Associate Dean of the Theological School, Anne Yardley, whose area of interest and expertise is music in medieval nunneries. She spoke about the unusual convergence of mythic-Magdalene related chant items in the services for the footwashing of the poor on Maundy Thursday at Barking Abbey near London. She had a lot of detail about those footwashing services, both of the poor and of members of the order. She also commented that each Saturdays throughout the year, the cooks for the upcoming and previous week washed the feet of the other nuns. There was apparently a good deal of symbolism that nuns were directed to associtate with the equipment for footwashing (basin, ewer, towel). Dr. Yardley also mentioned to me, afterward, a custom of strewing flower petals at Pentecost that showed up in the records she looked at.

(Dr. Yardley's talk was preceded by a singing of one of the Magdalene-related chants by herself and two students. Lovely.)

The last speaker, Catherine Keller, Professor of Constructive Theology, focused on Mary Magdalene in the gnostic texts and the possiblity of a "Magdalene Christianity" as opposed to Pauline and Petrine Christianity. Her main text was the Pistus Sophia (chapters 17,19 34, 36), especially 36: 'Peter leapt forward, he said to Jesus : "My Lord, we are not able to suffer this woman who takes the opportunity from us, and does not allow anyone of us to speak, but she speaks many times." Jesus answered, he said to his disciples : "Let him in whom the power of his Spirit has welled up so that he understands what I say, come forward and speak."' http://www.pseudepigrapha.com/PistisSophia/pistisSophia_Book1.html
She also used as her text the beginning of this section of the Nag Hammadi, http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/thunder.html, which does not specifically connect to Mary Magdalene but does invite us to unify the contradictions that are often associated with her.

Background reading:
The Golden Legend, or Lives of the Saints, 1275. Volume 4: The life of Mary Magdalen: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/goldenlegend/GoldenLegend-Volume4.htm#Mary%20Magdalene

Performing piety : musical culture in medieval English nunneries. Anne Bagnall Yardley. New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

Mary Magdalene understood. Jane Schaberg with Melanie Johnson-DeBaufre. New York : Continuum, 2006.

"Who was Mary Magdalene?" James Carroll. Smithsonian. June 2006. http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2006/june/magdalene.php

"There's Something About Mary Magdalene." Jane Schaberg and Melanie Johnson-DeBaufre. Ms. Magazine. Spring 2006. http://www.msmagazine.com/spring2006/mary.asp

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