Jesus touched the lives of many women with compassion, love, and forgiveness. However, the story of the women who followed Jesus goes almost unnoticed in the gospels. The Magdalene Gospel shatters the centuries of silence imposed on these women. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Jesus, and others devoted their lives to Jesus; they gave up everything for him, because he had given them everything. As Jesus gave his life for them, these women shared his pain at the foot of the cross, and risked their lives by caring for his crucified body. In the dark nights and gloomy days between Jesus' death and his resurrection, Mary Magdalene and the other women tried to make sense of their Lord's tragic end. This is their story. The Magdalene Gospel tells the very personal, moving stories of how Jesus changed people's lives. Stricken with the unspeakable pain of losing Jesus, Mary Magdalene and her friends grieve, cry, and care for one another. They emerge from this dark hour by caring for others, as Jesus had cared for them. Weakly, but then with increasing strength, they give voice to the depth of their love of Jesus and their reasons for following him. In sharing their stories, Mary Magdalene and her sister mourners begin to shed the burden of grief. No other book allows women disciples to tell their own stories. This fresh perspective, presented in a captivatingly personal, yet very accessible style, enlivens the well-known story of Jesus. The Magdalene Gospel is good news for everyone.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
From the title and from the subtitle?"What if women had written the Gospels?"?one might expect this book to resemble other, politicized, feminist retellings of the biblical gospels. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Ashcroft's Magdalene is a graceful theological reflection presented through a series of imaginative memoirs. Jesus has been crucified, and 10 of his female disciples gather on Holy Saturday to talk about his impact on their lives. In a male-dominated society, Jesus has given them?women at the margins, every one of them?hope and self-respect. If the retrospective theology seems advanced for a pre-Resurrection gathering, the stories themselves are simple, sweet and often moving. Ashcroft's comments in the endnotes, however, are harder hitting: there her sources include both scripture and feminist scholarship. As a result, this is that rare book, the one that will appeal equally to traditionalists and progressives.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Although Mary Magdalene and other women were faithful followers of Jesus, the stories of their discipleship have seldom been told. In the canonical Gospels, at least, the stories of the women's discovery of Jesus' empty tomb are met with silence and disbelief. Ashcroft (English, Bethel Coll.) recovers the voices of these women in an imaginative retelling of their lives and faith. Hear the story of Lydia, suffering from a hemorrhage, and the ways that the touch of Jesus' garment healed her. Or listen to the story of Martha, Mary, Jesus, and the raising of Lazarus. From these voices emerge the power of story as a means of remembrance and the power of community to heal grief and sorrow. A nice addition for most libraries.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Gospel according to Women,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Magdalene Gospel (Hardcover)
Outrageous. Unthinkable. The Gospel as experienced through the lives of the women who followed Jesus, that is The Magdalene Gospel. As a woman feeling out of sink with the rest of the world, no matter where she turns, how refreshing to realize we each in relation to Jesus have our own stories to tell. The Gospel accounts are filled with Jesus' friendships, encounters, even dependence upon women and yet most of my own focus has often been on the men who surrounded Jesus. Why is that? This book touched something deep inside me as a disciple of Jesus Christ, a story crying out to be heard, my own story aching to be told, how I see things, how I express my own relationship with Jesus, different from men and yet just as important and precious in Jesus' eyes. Truly an affirming book. I found myself identifying with Mary, Martha, Mary the Mother of Jesus and others as they each stood at the cross watching their dreams come crashing in around them, sharing their stories as they wait for the break of day, only to be first at the tomb to care one last time for his body in gratitude for all that He had meant to them and all that He did for them. They were no lesser disciples. They were His and they sought to follow their Master no matter what. Well researched. Well written. Readable and affirming for not only women but also men. We can be who we are as we follow the one who came to make us all we are meant to be.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Jesus' ministry, from the perspective of the females,
By Billie Rae Bates "BRBTV.com, BillieRae.com" (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: The Magdalene Gospel (Hardcover)
The Bible tells us that females were there, also, when Jesus walked the Earth and proclaimed the Kingdom of God. Though men wrote the Gospels and have received most of the attention among Jesus' disciples, there were the women, also, and it's their perspective that Mary Ellen Ashcroft takes in this slim hardcover.
In a quick, easy-to-follow read, Ashcroft adopts the first person for each character who speaks in this novel: Mary Magdalene, Salome, Martha, Joanna, Rhoda and others. Each tells the effect Jesus had on her life. The tone is dark, dramatic and loving, and the women show emotions that reflect not just a student attitude toward their Teacher, but also motherly and sisterly feelings. The most captivating story to me was the telling of the Biblical woman (Ashcroft names her Lydia) with a longtime discharge of blood, who pushes through a crowd to touch Jesus' robe and be healed. Like novelist Margaret George, Ashcroft sees a Mary Magdalene who is a smarter-than-average female of her time, and is tormented by various nightmares and demons before Jesus calls her to follow Him. Ashcroft address the age-old assumption of Mary Magdalene as prostitute: "Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute," she writes, "but a young woman straining at the confines of her culture's restrictions on women, and God alone knows how many women like her have been driven to madness over the centuries. Her reputation as a prostitute has been propagated by men who wanted to believe that anything might be possible of a woman who won a place so near the Christ." From a female perspective ... nice. This book is fiction, a glimpse at what the women who followed Jesus MIGHT have felt and said to each other. I found it respectable, plausible and enjoyable.
7 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
an interesting and easy read but lacking in depth,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Magdalene Gospel (Hardcover)
If you are looking for an interesting and emotional account of what Jesus meant to some of the women who followed him, you will enjoy this. If you are looking for true scholarship, this is not for you. It's a quick, easy read. You can probably finish it in a single sitting if you are an avid reader.
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