The Purpose of Life is Soul Growth
Resurrecting Mary Magdalene
Mother/Goddess of Christianity
Magdalene Cradling Jesus
by Botticelli, 1490
Mary Magdalene
by El Greco, 1585-1590
Assumption of the Magdalene
by Ribera, 1636
The denigration of the female has been a persistent theme of all patriarchal religions. In Christianity this begins from its very beginnings with Peter who was envious of Mary Magdalene’s special relationship with Jesus. Peter did not believe women were worthy of leadership. Jesus rebuked Peter many times for his antiquated patriarchal beliefs for they were in direct conflict with Jesus’ radically egalitarian and inclusive teachings.
After Jesus’ death Mary Magdalene became the leader of the Jesus movement while it was still inside Judaism. She was known as the “apostle to the apostles” and the disciple that Jesus loved most. She was the disciple that the other disciples came to for counsel as to what Jesus would have said on any given issue. She continued Jesus’ egalitarian ministry - teaching in homes, mostly in rural communities. At the same time, Peter and James, brother of Jesus, went off to Jerusalem to establish an institutional church and their own patriarchal version of Jesus’ teachings, both of which were counter to what Jesus actually taught and lived.
Mary Magdalen Arriving in Marseille and Preaching, late 1300s
Mary Magdalen's Exalted Life
circa 1300s
It took almost two hundred years before the Magdalene tradition and female leadership became silenced as Peter and James’ patriarchal Christianity became the dominant voice. By the time of the Council of Nicea in 325 CE, which hammered out a unified Christian creed, virtually nothing of the original message of Jesus remained. In 591 CE Mary Magdalene was erroneously pronounced a prostitute by Pope Gregory The Great. The greatest of all disciples had now been demoted and negated. Patriarchy won while Christianity as well as both men and women have paid a terrible price ever since.
Mary Magdalen's Sainthood is Acknowledged in Jerusalem
& by the Russian Orthodox Church.
Why not in Western Christianity?
How would Christianity and the Western World been different had Jesus and Magdalene’s egalitarian message and teachings continued instead of the patriarchal ones Peter & James’ Jerusalem Church?
In short, Mary Magdalene is the most important person in the Jesus movement after Jesus dies.
She is the Mother/Goddess of Christianity!
Russian Orthodox Church of
Saint Mary Magdalen, Jeusalem
Saint Mary Magdalen Street in front of Garden of Gethsemane, Jeusalem
Using the canonical gospels along with many other early Christian texts such as the Gnostic gospels we explore in this seminar:
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Jesus’ radical egalitarian message,
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Magdalene’s exalted disciple status,
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Peter’s lowest status of Jesus’ disciples, the last person to which Jesus would have entrusted his ministry,
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How Paul inherits the Jesus/Magdalene tradition and where he changes it,
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How Peter and James’ Jerusalem Church became the supreme voice of Christianity silencing female leadership,
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How Rome politicized Christianity, which contributed to Rome’s downfall,
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How Magdalene became a prostitute 500 years after her death, and
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Why recovering the real Mary Magdalene is so important for us today.