The Magdalene Gospel [Paperback]

Mary Ellen Ashcroft (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1995

Mary Ellen Ashcroft paints a portrait of the Saturday after the crucifixion and before the resurrection of Jesus. Mary Magdalene and the other women followers of Jesus have gathered together to comfort one another in this time of unspeakable loss and sadness. As each woman shares her story, it becomes clear that her experience as a follower of Jesus has changed her life forever.

Editorial Reviews

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From the Preface--- "The Magdalene Gospel" and "Spirited Women" (together or separately) invite women to find their place in that first, inner circle of those who followed Christ. These books have given me the joy of seeing and hearing from women who have felt brought into that circle for the first time.

When a book is first published, the author often feels as if she’s given birth: one phase is over and a new one begins in which the author’s main task is partly feeding and guiding, but mainly watching. Since The Magdalene Gospel’s first appearance in 1995, it has gained a wonderful life of its own, and I’ve enjoyed hearing from believers and skeptics who’ve been touched, provoked, and intrigued by its message. From its first publicist, who said to me, “Mary Ellen, I don’t call myself a religious person at all, but the other night at a party I heard myself saying, ‘You know, you’re wrong about Jesus—let me tell you about how he treated women...’” to many other women who realized that they could find themselves as followers of Christ.

I’ve especially loved the many creative responses to The Magdalene Gospel (and now to Spirited Women). Parts of The Magdalene Gospel have been produced in dramatic form in places in the United States, Canada, and England. The productions have been as diverse as a student group in Ohio using parts of the book on stage to an ecumenical version done at a number of churches in Texas to a costumed version, interspersed with original music performed by students and choir at Clare College in Cambridge, England. In the few productions I’ve been privileged to see live or on video, different characters are used and different themes of the book emphasized. Some are set within the time of Christ and some in a much more contemporary setting; some feature a large cast, some one woman. Several have included original musical compositions sung by an individual or a choir.

One of the most creative responses to The Magdalene Gospel comes out of Berkeley, California, where a program called The Magdalene Journey began with a group of women who wanted to read the stories aloud and bring them to life for a larger congregation during Holy Week. They found, as I have when working with groups of women, that inevitably their own stories of healing and encounters with Christ became a part of the first women’s stories; in the end their production included both. After the first performance, a number of women asked to be involved, and so the original group formed new groups to move through The Magdalene Journey, which is now in its fifth year.

I have used parts of The Magdalene Gospel as the basis for retreats and conferences. Often I use a theme arising from one of the women’s stories followed by a dramatic reading of the story, and then questions for participants to take into times of silence and then perhaps into group discussion. I have also used parts for sermons and interspersed readings with a performance of Mozart’s Requiem. I have used some stories as guided meditations in hospital visiting.

The Magdalene Gospel has also been used for study and book groups. One Graduate Christian Fellowship staff person told me she’d tried to get a women’s graduate student Bible study going and found no takers; she started a study using The Magdalene Gospel and found a whole group who read, discussed, and responded to the gospel.

The notes are important to this book because many readers will want to read it with a Bible in hand. I have also included in this new edition questions for individual and group study. These questions may also be adapted for use at conferences and retreats.

In Spirited Women, I have continued with my stories about women in the very early church, following some of the women in The Magdalene Gospel and including other stories such as that of the Samaritan woman. It is my conviction that women have felt as if they were on the outside of the story of Jesus and the early church for too long; my hope and prayer is that these books will help women claim their place as followers of Jesus.

Product Details

• Paperback: 148 pages
• Publisher: Augsburg Fortress Publishers; 1st Augsburg books ed edition (January 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806643587
• ISBN-13: 978-0806643588
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #657,034 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling, July 7, 2002

By 

The Rev. Dr. Daniel J. G. G. Block - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Magdalene Gospel (Paperback)

Sometimes the truth smacks us hard between the eyes. It hurts, but we are better for the encounter. That's the way it is with Dr. Ashcroft's work.

Drawing extensively upon Biblical, archeological and sociological resources, Professor Ashcroft draws a vivid picture for us of the women who followed Jesus. Her end-notes are generous and irrefutable.

Dr. Ashcroft helps us to understand how Jesus' message and ministry liberated these women from unjust cultural and religious bonds. His presence led to freedom for them just as surely as it did for the poor, the sick, the demon possessed, the Gentiles, and all the others oppressed by the religious and secular authorities of his day.

Many Biblical scholars have argued that Jesus' angry exchange with the money changers in the Temple led to his crucifixion. Dr. Ashcroft, subtlely, demonstrates that the incident in the Temple courtyard was part of a larger constellation of his empowering the oppressed and standing against the oppressors, which ultimately led to his execution. In the end, the powerful men of first century, Pallestinian, Jewish society simply could not afford to allow this trouble-maker to hang around. He was just too threatening to their interests to be allowed to live.

Dr. Ashcroft, implicitly, argues that we have not often heard this liberating Gospel, because in a Church controlled by men it is both inconvenient and embarrassing. If that is so, then we have forgotten why Jesus came. If that is so, then we are as wrong, and as subject to judgement, as were the scribes and the Pharisees.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spiritual and Moving, June 25, 2003

By 

L. Owen "Book reader" (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Magdalene Gospel (Paperback)

Reading this book was a profound faith experience. Through her fictional narrative, Mary Ellen Ashcroft takes the reader beyond the stark simplicity of the Gospel accounts and explains the depth of meaning of the lives of the women in the Gospels. The "woman with a hemorrhage," for example, is given life through Ashcroft's moving descriptions of what it MEANT to a first-century Jewish woman to live with a "hemorrhage" - how it made her ritually unclean, shunned by all society, and how her unauthorized touch of Jesus' robe made HIM ritually unclean as well. For readers unfamiliar with the intricacies with the ancient Jewish faith, this book breathes life into Jesus' story, making him a real, true friend of women and a radical thinker with regard to "women's rights" - a concept which didn't even exist at the time.

5.0 out of 5 stars Women Disciples, October 3, 2008

By 

Auntie P "Penny" (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Magdalene Gospel (Paperback)

This wonderful book has served as inspiration for women in my parish who value the positive examples of the discipleship of women and used them to enhance their role as modern women disciples despite the sexism of the institutional Roman Catholic Church.