Mary Magdalene ― The Image of a Woman Through the Centuries

Ingrid Maisch leads her readers through the centuries, developing the images of Mary Magdalene current in each era and shows that she is always a bellwether for the image of women at a particular time. From ancient times through the Middle Ages, the baroque era, the early modern period, and the new, postmodern age a fascinating spectrum unfolds: while the biblical Mary Magdalene still had a leading role in the Jesus movement, in the Middle Ages she gradually became a saint held up to console sin-conscious Christians. In the Reformation and the baroque era she was seen primarily as a penitent, then as an image of melancholy and resignation. Bourgeois modernity adopted the secularized figure of the Magdalene as a tool for social criticism, especially regarding the treatment of women. Finally, in recent decades critical exegesis of the biblical texts and feminist theology have revealed another image of Mary Magdalene as the first witness of the Resurrection - even though the other imagery is still cultivated here and there, sometimes for ideological reasons.
Ingrid Maisch's work can be compared to the restoration of old paintings: layer by layer a valuable image that has been obscured by layers of paint is brought to light. At last the original colors glow again in their full lustre, allowing new access to the painting itself.

Ingrid Maisch, Th.D. was formerly a professor in the Fachhochschule in Freiburg, Germany.