HISTORY AND THE DAMNING EFFECT OF INCOMPLETE INFORMATION: THE CASE OF MARY MAGDALENE

Back to Page Authors: Frank Shapiro

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Keywords: history, Christianity, Magdalene, revisionism

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Abstract: National and political agendas, partial information, historical forgeries and the absence of balanced historical sources have led to a historical revisionism resulting in a distorting presentation of historical analysis. And this applies to religion too. This paper presents a case whereby deliberate political-theological manoeuvring of early apostolic Christianity forged a different variation of the religion than has come down to us today. The discovery of scrolls at Naj Hamadi in Egypt presents a radically new depiction of early Christianity and highlights its gnostic roots, as well as the prominence of Mary Magdalene who empowered Christianity with the tools to survive. However, Mary was removed from the Western Christian matrix by Pope Gregory the Great who highlighted her alleged vices. To date, the assumption for her rejection has been that her feminine legacy became a growing threat to patriarchal society. Yet this paper shows that Pope Gregory’s actions were rather motivated by Mary Magdalene’s heretical Gnosticism. Realpolitik lies behind her reacceptence into the Christian mainstream five hundred years later, and here it will be shown how political necessity brushed her gnostic beliefs under the carpet of the history.

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