Learn More About Mary Magdalene

Art, Drama, and Music

Art

• Art from Youth Study Book
  http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/jesusandwomen/youth/adulterypics.stm#anoint

• Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, Saint and Sinner: Mary Magdalene in Art History, U.S. Catholic, April 2000
  http://www.uscatholic.org/2000/04/0004cova.htm
  That images of Mary Magdalene are identifiable from the beginnings of Christian art into the present is a sign of her critical importance in Christianity.... The transformations of her image are important for assessing the interpretations of this particular woman and of women in general in Christianity.

• Art and Images Related to John's Gospel: John 20-21
  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/faculty/fjust/John/Art20.html compiled by Prof. Felix Just, S.J. - Loyola Marymount University

• Art Depicting Mary Magdalene, Artcyclopedia
  http://www.artcyclopedia.com/scripts/tsearch.pl?t=mary+magdalene&type=2
  Wait for the database to load and then click on the links

• Mary Magdalene Announces the Resurrection Printery House
  http://www.printeryhouse.org/mall/Icons/Passion_Res/icc11.htm
  A modern icon by Sr. Mary Charles McGough, O.S.B., of the Monastery of St. Scholastica

• Jesus and Mary
  http://www.faithcentral.net.nz/inclass/art/sperstar.htm
  Film clip from the movie, Jesus Christ Superstar

• Mary Magdaleine and Sophia with her daughters Faith, Love and Hope Imago: A Gallery of the Sacral and Spiritual
  http://www.celtoslavica.de/imago/_Cividale.html
  Fresco, 11th c. Museo Civico, Cividale di Friouli

• Mary Magdalene Gallery
  http://www.magdalene.org/gallery.htm
  Mary Magdalene has been depicted in the most popular art of the day for centuries. It is through this artistic representation that we can gather information about how she was perceived, and how that perception gradually shifted in one direction after another.

• Mary Magdalene: Links to Art The Text This Week
  http://www.textweek.com/art/mary_magdalen.htm
  

• Mary Magdalene: Noli Me Tangere The Text This Week
  http://www.textweek.com/art/noli_me_tangere.htm

• Portraits of Mary Magdalene
  http://www.skidmore.edu/~ndenzey/re330_marys/mgallery1.htm

• Noli Me Tangere by Maurice Denis (French, 1870-1943)
  http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/jesusandwomen/noli.stm

• Noli Me Tangere by Titian (Tiziano Vecellio, Italian, 1495-1576)
  http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/jesusandwomen/nolititian.stm

• Risen Lord with Mary, Stained glass window in St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Augusta, GA
  http://saintpauls.org/page-14.htm
  

Drama

• Choral Reading of Gospels, Marys at the cross and resurrection
  http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/jesusandwomen/choralreading.stm

• Mary P. Freier, Woman as Termagant in The Towneley Cycle, Essays in Medieval Studies.
  http://www.luc.edu/publications/medieval/vol2/2ch9.html
  The woman characters in the cycle plays are usually interpreted as termagants or saints.... However, a close and dispassionate reading of the Towneley Cycle shows that women are neither more nor less negatively presented than are men, and that the critics, in their zeal to convict others of misogyny, have in fact been reading with double standards. [scholarly article]

Music

• In the Garden by Charles Austin Miles (with midi music)
  http://gbgm-umc.org/umwtest/jesusandwomen/itgarden.stm
     I come to the garden alone
     While the dew is still on the roses
  

Background

• Annotated Bibliography: Mary Magdalene, Jesus and Courageous Women
  http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/magbib.stm
  
  
• Esther A. de Boer, "Mary Magdalene and the Disciple Jesus Loved", Lectior Difficilior 1 (2000)
  http://www.lectio.unibe.ch/00_1/m-forum.htm
  One of the mysteries of the Gospel of John is the identity of the disciple Jesus loved. This controversial article written in an academic style, suggests Mary Magdalene might have been the beloved disciple and even the author of the Gospel of John. Note: The first paragraph in the box is in German. Scroll down for the English text.
  
  
• Kimberly Burge, Revisioning Mary Magdalene: An Opportunity for More Inclusive Expressions in the Church, Sojourners Magazine, March-April 1997
  http://www.sojourners.com/soj9703/970332a.html
  I’ve just recently turned to Mary Magdalene—disciple of Christ, the woman of the scriptures, not the representation promulgated by the church—as a source of inspiration for my own Christian journey.
  
  
• The Gospel of Mary, Jesus and Courageous Women
  http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/jesusandwomen/gospmary.stm
  The Gospel of Mary is a noncanonical book of Gnostic origins. Material in brackets are editorial additions and comments.
  
  
• The Gnostic View of Mary Magdalene
  http://www.magdalene.org/gnostic.htm
  Mary Magdalene is the subject of much reverence in Gnostic tradition. It is probably inaccurate to say THE Gnostic view, since there are so many different brands of Gnosticism
  
  
• Introduction to Gnosticism and the Nag Hammadi Library, Gnostic Society Library
  http://home.online.no/~noetic/nagham/nhlintro.html
  In the first century the term, Gnostic, began to be used to denote a prominent heterodox segment of the diverse new Christian community. The Gospel of Mary is a Gnostic document.
  
  
• Victor Greto, Scholars Taking a New Look at Mary Magdalene, The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
  http://www.reporternews.com/1999/religion/mary0904.html
  Mary Magdalene is becoming a role model for women who expect more important roles for themselves in their respective churches. And scholars use Mary Magdalene as a symbol of the important role of women in early Christianity, as they work out the implications of recently-discovered ancient literature.
  
  
• Ramon K. Jusino, Mary Magdalene: Author of the Fourth Gospel?, 1998
  http://www.beloveddisciple.org
  It is posited here that, in an earlier tradition of the Fourth Gospel's community, the now "anonymous" Beloved Disciple was known to be Mary Magdalene. It is further posited that Mary Magdalene is the true founder and hero of what has come to be known as the Johannine Community (i.e., Mary Magdalene was one of the original apostolic founders and leaders of the early Christian church).
  
  
• Karen L. King, Women in Ancient Christianity: The New Discoveries, From Jesus to Christ
  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/first/women.html
  Discoveries of new texts from the dry sands of Egypt, along with sharpened critical insight, have now proven that this portrait of Mary [Magdalene as repentant prostitute or adulteress] is entirely inaccurate. She was indeed an influential figure, but as a prominent disciple and leader of one wing of the early Christian movement that promoted women's leadership.
  
  
• Dorothy A. Lee, Turning from Death to Life: a Biblical Reflection on Mary Magdalene (John 20:1-18), Ecumenical Review, April, 1998
  http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m2065/n2_v50/20881079/print.jhtml
  Imagery of "turning" is integral to the story of Mary Magdalene in John 20:1-18. In this, the first of the Johannine resurrection narratives, the verb "turn" literally occurs twice (Greek strephein), as Mary turns to face the one she seeks, without at first recognizing him (20:14,16). On a theological level, Magdalene's physical motion represents the turning from grief and sorrow to joy and hope in the discovery of Easter faith.
  
  
• Rosemary Radford Ruether, No Church Conspiracy Against Mary Magdalene, National Catholic Reporter, February 9, 2001
  http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1141/15_37/70926901/print.jhtml
  Some contemporary Christian women have assumed that the defaming of Mary Magdalene came about as an Orthodox effort to counteract the high role played by Mary Magdalene in the Gnostic communities. But there is no evidence that the Orthodox church leaders knew these gospels. Although several church fathers have some notion that Gnostics claimed Mary Magdalene as a leader, that does not cause them to disregard her. Rather they, too, share a view of Mary Magdalene as a leading disciple.
  
  
• Heidi Schlumpf, Who Framed Mary Magdalene?, U.S. Catholic, April 2000
  http://www.uscatholic.org/2000/04/0004cov.htm
  ... Word is trickling down that Mary Magdalene's penitent prostitute label was a misnomer. Instead, her true biblical portrait is being resurrected, and this "apostle to the apostles" is finally taking her rightful place in history as a beloved disciple of Jesus and a prominent early church leader. Saturday, September 4, 1999
  
  
• See also: The Sinful Woman
  http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/links.stm#sinful