Customer Reviews

The Making of the Magdalen: Preaching and Popular Devotion in the Later Middle Ages.

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The Making of the Magdalen is a great book, one of the best from my Christian History class. Well written and very interesting, sheds a lot of light on the spiritual lives of the laity during the Middle Ages and the rise of the mendicant orders (Dominicans and Franciscans). I learned a lot about the social history of the middle ages and the psychology of the mendicant preachers...

I also enjoyed it for its joyful, open brush with feminism: it was not at all angry, bitter or revisionist, which sometimes feminist religious writings can be, but was pleasantly honest about the great things going on with women in the church, and a few of the problems as well. But feminism is not a focus of this book- I just wanted to mention that I found it refreshing.

All in all, a fantastic book. Highly recommended.

This book is not only well written, it is full of great primary sources. I am doing doctoral work on Mary Magdalen and it has been very helpful in my research.