The Magdalene in the Reformation
by Margaret Arnold, OUP, 312pp, £25
Who is Mary Magdalene? Is she Apostola Apostolorum, the first to proclaim the risen Christ? Is she the penitent sinner, a former prostitute whose encounter with Jesus led to a transformation of her life that makes her a paradigm of repentance? Is she the one who sat at the feet of her Lord while Mary did the serving, offering a feminine model for contemplators of divine mysteries? Or is she the hidden wife of Jesus who bore him descendants who would go on to rule France and hide the Holy Grail?
