I am taking an online course "Mary Magdalene, and Apostle for our Times". Part of the class is to answer personal reflections on questions after each week. Here is this week's questions that I want to write about from this online course.
Question 1
Scholar Elaine Pagels claims that early Christianity was not unified by a singular belief system but held a great diversity of interpretations and practises in the first two centuries of Christian history. How does recognizing the messier roots of Christianity—with the many letters and differing Gospel accounts—impact your view of the New Testament? Of Christian history?
The messier roots of Christianity help me look at the teachings with more authenticity. The gnostic gospels reveal a diversity in the early church about the teachings of Jesus. Institutional Christianity largely lacks diversity in basic theological and metaphysical views of the relationship of human beings and reality. The messier roots allows me to relook at the new testament for messages more relevant today. I am glad to learn that Christianity has room for other interpretations of theology. The active suppression of the gnostic texts means that original messages are not complete today. I am happy that new interpretations offered by Cynthia Bourgeault gives us new insight.
Question 2
Church historians have often used the term Gnostic to describe all rival, “heretical” teachings and texts that differed from what became the leading unified institutional orthodoxy. The Greek word gnosis, as Cynthia points out, simply means knowledge. Pagels clarifies that it specifically speaks of knowledge in more intuitive, experiential terms. Some judge Gnosticism for being a school of special or secret knowledge. In what ways does seeking after “hidden knowledge” resonate with the canonical accounts of Jesus’ teachings?
I think seeking after hidden knowledge means evaluating sacred text, rather than follow it like a rulebook. An inner journey is about discovering the depths of your consciousness and identity. Every person has a unique presence and circumstance that will never be repeated again. Embodiment for me means Reality is alive in me, and co-creates as me, and through me. In this way, I can realize the Reality intended me, and knows my name. Reality like a beloved embracing my creative perspective. Reality holds my thoughts and deep desires. I am not alone, and I am connected to 13.8 billion years of creative evolution expressed as Jamie.
Question 3
Scholarship demonstrates the prominence and leadership of women in early Christian communities. Consider how the origins of Christianity—following the very example of Jesus—would have been radically counter cultural. According to Karen King, “Women’s prominence did not, however, go unchallenged. Every variety of ancient Christianity that advocated the legitimacy of women’s leadership was eventually declared heretical, and evidence of women’s early leadership roles was erased or suppressed.” How has this erasure shaped your assumptions about what it means to be a Christian female, male, or non binary gender? In what ways does this omission support the dominant culture of patriarchy?
The institutional church intentionally suppressed teachings that opposed the patriarchal "control" mindset of the Roman Empire. Christian Church largely served the privileged elite in the Middle Ages, which Theologian John Cobb calls the era of Christendom. Today, in this era where economic elites wield large influence on the political system, the institutional church is slow to change to a more inclusive, radical accepting message.
Question 4
In the Gospel of Mary Magdalene (Links to an external site.), Mary courageously stands firm in the midst of uncertainty after Jesus’ ascension. Take some time to reflect on that scene and her statement to the disciples: “His grace will be with all of you, sustaining and protecting you, rather let us give praise to his greatness, which has prepared us so that we might become fully human.” As she said this, the disciples’ hearts turned toward the good. In the presence of embodied wisdom, we may feel our hearts turn from our usual consciousness of anxiety and survival, shifting our state of being toward the “good.” How does this moment mirror your own shift to “the good” in the presence of embodied wisdom?
A lot comes up for me to consider embodied wisdom, rather than the path of "redemptive perfection" which Western culture aspires to. From this story in the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, words and thoughts alone do not turn hearts of the disciples to the good. Mary's embodiment, her weeping and conscious presence, opened the other disciples to feel connected to the good. The male disciples stopped to listen to her. I think embodied empathy is a path of relationship, which the author Cynthia Bourgeault says is the path to becoming fully human. The Greek word to become fully human in the gnostic text is "anthropos". It is a completely different path to enlightenment than the institutional church path of redemption in the next world. For me, embodied wisdom is connected to all life. Re-connecting our spirituality to an evolving conscious world honors and invigorates our inner journey to claim love, beauty, and creativity. The embodied path leads us to create healthy relationships within the earth community; the redemptive path leads us to individual perfection outside this universe. I now connect Mary Magdalene to the central project of healing the earth. Climate change and mass species extinction are symptoms of a spiritual problem. The problem is that a disembodied spirituality of redemption and perfection discards the earth for individual purposes. An embodied spirituality to be fully human leads us to be fully participating in this world. The embodied spirituality leads us toward healthy ecological purposes. When the church discarded Mary Magdalene, it discarded the embodied path to become fully human. Reclaiming this embodied wisdom, honoring the divine feminine in our culture, is a step to heal the spiritual problem that causes ecological destruction.
Question 5
How does the Gospel of Mary Magdalene (Links to an external site.) demonstrate the difficulty many of us face in sustaining the radical, counter-cultural worldviews that Jesus and Mary Magdalene demonstrated through embodied non dual consciousness? How can community either support or detract from that way of life
I find enormous inspiration and energy from the radical counter-cultural worldviews that Jesus and Mary Magdalene demonstrate through embodied non dual consciousness. The mainstream culture of industrial consumerism drives us toward climate change and ecological disaster. The mainstream culture views nature as a machine which can be exploited by human beings. To me, wisdom is counter cultural and what I seek in a community. Here, I think I have found a community striving to the ideals of a counterculture of embodied wisdom. That community is Church for our Common Home. We espouse 12 steps of ecological civilization to deal with the ecological crisis and transform our destructive ways of thinking.
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