The Magdalene in the Reformation by Margaret Arnold

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Magdalene in the Reformation by Margaret Arnold Beth Kreitzer The Magdalene in the Reformation. By Margaret Arnold. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2018. 300 pp. An object of seemingly endless fascination and opinion, Mary Magdalene is the focus of this book. While Mary—the “apostle to the apostles” for her role in first witnessing and then announcing the risen Jesus—has been more thoroughly studied by historians of the medieval period, less is known of her image in the early modern era, despite the fact that the increasing skepticism toward saintly legend and veneration of the period is well known. In her wide-ranging study, Arnold portrays the transformation of the dramatic image of the medieval Magdalene—a composite figure of three women in the gospels, Mary of Bethany (who had famously chosen the “better portion” than her sister Martha), the “sinful” woman of Luke 7, usually assumed to be a repentant prostitute, and the Mary from Magdala most known for being the first to encounter Jesus after his resurrection (the medieval Magdalene also incorporated a number of legendary accretions that appear to have been less significant in early modern texts). Arnold notes that the discovery or thesis that the medieval figure of Mary of Magdala was in fact a composite of three separate women, first proposed by the humanist and biblical scholar Lefèvre d’Étaples in 1517, had less impact than one might have thought. Most interpreters continued to accept the traditional image of the composite Mary. Arnold helpfully surveys a large amount of material by a wide variety of authors, and organizes her text by religious community, with chapters on Lutheran, Reformed, Radical, and Evangelical perspectives on the Magdalene, as well as two chapters (one focusing particularly on female authors) on Roman Catholic perspectives. She tackles the assumption that Mary Magdalene would have [End Page 440] been dismissed from Protestant attention in its general critique and discontinuation of the cult of the saints. Arnold discovers that not only does Mary survive among Protestants, she even thrives as an important role model. Interestingly her image is also transformed among Catholic audiences, reflecting broader changes in the transition from medieval to modern European culture. The Magdalene figured frequently in debates surrounding issues central to reform: justification by faith, the priesthood of all believers, preaching by lay people, and questions surrounding appropriate roles and vocations for women. Her image, one that Arnold notes has less “flexibility [than] it had in medieval piety” (240), is still flexible enough that Christians on all sides of the confessional divides could continue to embrace and use it. For Protestants, Mary Magdalene was a model of the redeemed sinner saved by grace alone, while for Catholics she participated in her own redemption through serving Christ. As witness of the resurrection and apostola apostolorum, Protestants could champion Mary’s role as a pious and faithful lay Christian witnessing publicly to her own faith. While Catholics (even female religious such as Teresa of Ávila) avoided references to female preaching, which was already closely associated with certain Protestant—and heretical— communities, they stressed Mary’s intimate relationship with Christ, one available particularly to religious women in convents. But although Mary of Bethany, as opposed to her sister Martha, was once seen as the foremost exemplar for nuns, in the writings of Teresa and later female Catholic authors the religious life was now seen as one combining aspects of both Mary and Martha—the active and the contemplative. Arnold brings a sensitive analysis to the many texts and contexts that she investigates, presenting a thorough and complex image of a transformed Mary Magdalene. The book will be useful to scholars of this period, but also accessible to a general audience interested in how people of the past read and interpreted the Bible. [End Page 441] Beth Kreitzer Marymount California University Rancho Palos Verdes, California Copyright © 2019 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc