Based on the canonical New Testomony gospels, Mary Magdalene was a follower of Jesus who supported his ministry from her personal means, was witness to his crucifixion and the primary witness to his resurrection, and later tasked as apostle to the apostles. Over subsequent centuries, nonetheless, her story was retold and her character reimagined. By the medieval interval, her conflation with an unnamed sexual sinner noticed her popularly reframed as a “prostitute”, and piously repurposed as a mannequin of repentance. In widespread tradition, her persona continues to be tailored and adopted for inventive functions, as a romantic apart within the in any other case chaste biography of Jesus offered by the New Testomony.
It’s no shock, then, that the Magdalene, as she is thought, has been a supply of tolerating fascination for artists, historians and theologians—however we could be forgiven for questioning what extra there may be to say. Nonetheless, though it will be a stretch to recommend that curiosity ever really died, it’s simple that the elusive biblical everywoman is as soon as extra experiencing a scholarly revival.
These current publications by Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, the professor emerita of non secular artwork and cultural historical past and director of the Catholic Research programme at Georgetown College, and Philip C. Almond, the professor emeritus within the historical past of non secular thought on the College of Queensland, invite a broader viewers to experience the crest of this newest scholarly wave.
Educational however not austere
Apostolos-Cappadona brings her scholarly and pedagogical pedigree to Mary Magdalene: A Visible Historical past, producing a piece that’s completely accessible but richly rewarding for extra skilled audiences. The guide is formed by its roots in her 2002 exhibition catalogue In Search of Mary Magdalene: Photographs and Traditions (American Bible Society), with seven essays partially one which cowl written sources, Christian traditions and artistic expressions, adopted by ten brief reflections partially two. The essays are educational however not austere, providing concise précis of key materials wanted to grasp the growing Magdalene iconography.
With 65 color plates, this guide is a feast for the eyes, however its readability is the actual triumph. “Half One: Towards a Visible Historical past” covers huge floor, however the complexities of biblical sources, early theological sources and the narratives and traditions of Japanese and Western Christianity are recounted with a compelling readability. The one disappointment on this spectacular quantity is that the superb dialogue of feminist readings and the importance of the Magdalene’s physique is so transient, confined to a three-page coda.
The three-page format turns into the norm in “Half Two: Motifs”, a collection of impactful reflections on various inventive tropes: sinner/seductress, penitent, anointer, weeper, witness, preacher, contemplative, reader. The longer ultimate reflection on the motif of “Feminist Icon” resumes the dialogue from the coda of half yet one more substantively. Although the entire sections partially two could possibly be given a lengthier therapy, the format works for this quantity, whetting the urge for food of the reader and affording the artwork a big communicative function.
A Visible Historical past opens with an anecdotal preface (together with point out of The Artwork Newspaper) that equips the reader to grasp why the work that follows is a labour of affection for Apostolos-Cappadona; within the acknowledgements, she describes her curiosity within the Magdalene as “a lifelong occupation”. A private and personable narrative voice is maintained throughout the amount, privileging the reader with the impression of their very own non-public tour throughout time and place with the knowledgeable creator as information.
Three themes upon which this mental tour is outwardly centred—“metanoia, unction and metamorphosis”, which we would in any other case recognise because the penitence, anointing and conversion that pervade the Magdalene story—are revisited variously, although by no means so explicitly as on this preamble. But the afterword, ostensibly a mirrored image on current Magdalene exhibitions, reveals Apostolos-Cappadona to be establishing others to take the baton. In her phrases, the guide is “an initiation into [Magdalene] iconography and cultural historical past however hopefully raises for readers new questions resulting in the various avenues in Magdalene research but to be written ‘in reminiscence of her’”.
Almond’s Mary Magdalene: A Cultural Historical past pursues a fairly totally different method, surveying the Magdalene’s reception within the Western European custom. The flap copy, claiming that it’s “the primary main work on the Magdalene in additional than 30 years”, affords a level of publishing bluster, however the timescale inferred is extremely indicative of its mental heritage. Those that recognise this oblique reference to Susan Haskins’s 1993 work, Mary Magdalen: Delusion and Metaphor (HarperCollins), can instantly attain a transparent sense of the scope and scale of Almond’s venture. Regardless of the acknowledging of Haskins’s work on the outset, references within the footnotes are surprisingly sparse (particularly provided that the amount concludes with an epilogue on fable), however maybe that is indicative of simply how a lot Magdalene scholarship Almond has drawn upon.
A mannequin of repentance: Donatello’s Penitent Magdalene (round 1453-55) reveals her remoted within the wilderness
Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Florence © George M. Groutas
Cultural reception
Like Haskins’s Delusion and Metaphor, A Cultural Historical past establishes a story thread by way of centuries of cultural reception of the biblical determine, and covers a powerful vary of fabric. The primary two chapters cope with biblical and different contemporaneous texts and the complexities of medieval accounts of the Magdalene’s life. An unadorned however uncynical account of the assorted relic traditions between the fifth century and the Protestant Reformation follows. The latter three chapters adhere to the chronological construction, although their broadening scope means they profit from the extra thematic method that has been utilized.
In “Mary Divided: Sacred and Profane”, the Magdalene’s embroilment in ecclesial acrimony is framed nicely in its broader Early Trendy context. Likewise, “Many Magdalenes: Redeemed and Redeeming” affords a concise overview of the Magdalene archetype in Nineteenth-century discussions of ladies’s roles and morality. The final chapter, addressing up to date issues from The Da Vinci Code to The Gospel of Jesus’s Spouse, is arguably the trickiest for the reader to navigate, although Almond does an admirable job of ploughing a path by way of these ever-expanding wilds.
The 29 color plates that open this quantity would possibly falsely elevate expectations that A Cultural Historical past will discover inventive traditions extra absolutely, and it’s troublesome to make the case that it is a complete cultural historical past with out a extra substantive engagement with the visible. Presenting this work as a kind of biography (like Almond’s different current publications, together with The Antichrist: A New Biography, 2020, additionally for Cambridge College Press) would have averted the distraction of a way of alternatives missed. Fortunately, the coincident publication of Apostolos-Cappadona’s A Visible Historical past signifies that readers needn’t fear.
For 2 self-described histories, A Visible Historical past and A Cultural Historical past are significantly ahead wanting. Each supply recent remedies of a long-established topic, and each illuminate the potential for a reinvigoration of the examine of Magdalene reception. Although not meant as such, these books are ideally suited companion texts, serving as participating primers for anybody with an curiosity in how the story of the Magdalene has been advised. Almond offers probably the most accessible abstract thus far of the scholarly story to date, and Apostolos-Cappadona’s participating and clever appraisal of inventive interpretation reminds the reader that the Magdalene is a topic that issues nonetheless.
• Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, Mary Magdalene: A Visible Historical past, T&T Clark/Bloomsbury, 176pp, 65 color illustrations, £17.99 (hb), printed 23 February 2023
• Philip C. Almond, Mary Magdalene: A Cultural Historical past, Cambridge College Press, 350pp, 29 color illustrations, £30 (hb), printed 1 December 2022
• Siobhán Jolley is a specialist within the portrayal of Mary Magdalene. She is a analysis fellow in artwork and faith on the Nationwide Gallery, London, a visiting lecturer in religions and theology at King’s School London, and an honorary analysis fellow on the Centre for Biblical Research, College of Manchester
