Mary Magdalene Madness

 

01/17/2013 Mary Magdalene Madness Roxane Assaf When Goethe wrote, "The eternal feminine draws us upward," he couldn't have gues sed that a cult of personality would come to employ that phrase in the exultatio n of Christianity's misunderstood mistress: Mary Magdalene. After generations of dualistic saint/sinner, Madonna/whore treatment, the woman known by some as the favorite apostle of Jesus emerges triumphant as academics and artists sing her praises -- some literally. News from the Harvard Divinity school last year of a fourth-century Coptic gospe l papyrus fragment with Jesus referencing his "wife" has reignited the flare of fervor for Mary Magdalene that Dan Brown set ablaze with "The Da Vinci Code." Me taphorical interpretations aside, the apparent confirmation of Jesus of N. and M ary of M. as the ultimate biblical power couple has spawned a movement. Parisian pop artist The Lost Star, who devotes a cut from her latest album to th e "Goddess of the Gospels" (song title), asserts that long before the Da Vinci C ode craze and sensational text translation, "an arcane circle of people were alr eady tuned in to the possibility and probability that Mary Magdalene played a mu ch more important role in the saga of Christianity and the life of Jesus Christ than most people were led to believe." As a part of that circle herself, the U.S.-born singer-songwriter was affirmed b y the gospel quote, and her fan base has broadened since news of it came out. Fu rthermore, she credits Brown's novel with the "democratization of an unknown his tory that is richly appealing to today's woman and anyone seeking spirituality o utside of traditionally held dogma." Part of that dogma has been the presumption that Jesus was a lifetime celibate, a belief that has influenced the morality of the Western world. Collaborating wi th the lauded photographer-filmmaker Franck Glenisson, whose controversial body of work deals boldly with erotic themes, Lost Star-as-Gospel Goddess shatters th e image of a chaste Jesus with a recently released music video. But there's always a fact-finder to break up the party. In 2005 divinity scholar Gary C. Burger insisted, "There is absolutely, I repeat, absolutely no historic al record or even slightest valid inference of a marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene," in an article dedicated to debunking Da Vinci deceits (predating th e discovery of "my wife" in the Egyptian papyrus text). While Burger acknowledge d that Brown's book is a work of fiction, he stressed that the author presents a s fact statements and scenarios his audience regards as historical record. Contemporary mystic and Episcopal Ph.D.-priest Cynthia Bourgeault takes a more m easured stance toward the physical union of the Lamb of God and the girl from th e Galilee. Her book "The Meaning of Mary Magdalene" does not even attempt to set tle the matter. She told The Huffington Post, "Christianity has dishonored human love. We tend immediately to think of intimate relationships as sexual and sexu al as pornographic. So, we go for the gutter saying, 'Ha-ha Jesus had his little dalliance on the side,' putting a nasty take on it." In Bourgeault's opinion, today's femme-fatale fever is not all honorific because many in modern culture "cannot fathom a relationship between Mary Magdalene and Jesus as a holy relationship," citing furious responses from parishioners react ing to the very thought of their marriage.

 

Yet Bourgeault said this notion is nothing new. In fact, the papyrus fragment is just another scrap of mounting and almost irrefutable evidence of the intimate and exclusive partnership of Jesus to the woman who was also his choice for bear ing the lineage of the Church. Mary Magdalene had a spousal role as his spiritua l equal and foremost protégée to whom he gave the apostolic charge. Could it be the aura of taboo that is driving the madness -- both anger and ador ation? "Modern history and modern Christianity have not caught up with sacred tr aditions in which sexuality is a source of nobility, enlightenment, and spiritua l transformation for both participants," she said, remembering the teaching of J esus that two shall become one flesh. "Our country is in the grip of a sin-drome ." The Lost Star would agree. "The goddess and feminine energy were crushed and dis figured by the patriarchal regime which has been in place for 2,000 years now," she said. "If you take away a woman's sexual identity you devalue her."

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