The Resurrection of Mary Magdalene: Legends, Apocrypha, and the Christian Testament

Description

The controversy surrounding Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code has intensified interest in Mary Magdalene and Jane Schaberg provides an authoritative source for a deeper understanding and re-assessment of this popular figure. Within a progressive feminist framework, The Resurrection of Mary Magdalene approaches Christian Testament sources through analysis of legend, archaeology, and gnostic/apocryphal traditions. This is the story of the suppression and distortion of a powerful woman leader - Schaberg presents Mary Magdalene as successor to Jesus in a challenging alternative to the Petrine primacy.

Jane Schaberg is Professor of Religious Studies and Women's Studies at the University of Detroit Mercy. She is the author of The Illegitimacy of Jesus, and an editor of On the Cutting Edge: The Study of Women in the Biblical World. As an acknowledged expert on Mary Magdalene, she has appeared in the Washington Times, on CNN and in Newsweek. Jane Schaberg is also a contributor to Secrets of Mary Magdalene Edited by Dan Burstein and Arne J. de Keijzer, with an introduction by Elaine H. Pagels.

"Mary Magdalene is 'hot' these days. Of all the many books coming off the press about her, this is one of the most solid, at the same time creative and scholarly. An excellent summery of the most important medieval legends about Mary Magdalene; a superb analysis of the empty tomb traditions. The structure of the book is well conceived. Schaberg has prepared the foundations for her argument with impeccable academic analysis. Her bold new interpretation will need to be tried and seasoned. Even for those who will eventually not accept it, there is much harvest to be gleaned in these pages. Who needs the DaVinci Code?" -Carolyn Osiek, Brite Divinity School, Biblical Theology Bulletin, 2004 -- Carolyn Osiek * Biblical Theology Bulletin * "In her groundbreaking work on Mary Magdalene, Jane Schaberg offers scholars of Bible and church history a view of Mary Magdalene that flows from careful, critical, and provocative research aimed at uncovering the nobility of a woman whose legendary history has all too often marred the truth of her beauty... Schaberg has given students, scholars, and an educated public a gem that will define Christianity and change the course of legend for years to come."- The Journal of Religion, Vol. 85, 2005 * Journal of Religion * "Read this worthy sequel to The Illegitimacy of Jesus for an exhilarating look at what imaginative reconstructions do to challenge theological givens. Written in partnership with Virginia Woolf, Jane Schaberg trains her scholarly eye on the woman who gave voice to Jesus' resurrection." -WATERwheel, 2005 * WATERwheel *