Quest for Mary Magdalene

<p>From Michael Haag the international bestselling author of <em>The Templars: The History & the Myth </em>and <em>The Tragedy of the Templars</em> comes a fascinating account of one of the most mysterious and controversial figures in religious history.</p><p>Mary Magdalene is a potent and enigmatic figure. In the gospels she finances Jesus' mission in Galilee and is the only person with Jesus at his crucifixion burial and resurrection--the critical moments that define his purpose and give rise to a new religion.</p><p>Yet in the sixth century Mary Magdalene fell foul of a profound argument in which the established ritualized and hierarchical Church required that God be worshipped through itself whereas everything about Mary Magdalene suggests a more immediate and personal experience of the divine. Pope Gregory reduced Mary Magdalene from an independent visionary to a sinner and a prostitute while making Jesus' mother Mary who is a nonentity in the gospels into a creature of the Church hailing her as the epitome of all things feminine and holy.</p><p>In <em>The Quest for Mary Magdalene</em> historian Michael Haag presents Mary Magdalene as the woman at the center of Jesus's life a visionary and a radically independent woman. He explores how she has been used and abused and reinterpreted in every age and he examines what she reveals about men and women Jesus and God.</p>