The Quest for Mary Magdalene

From Michael Haag, the international bestselling author of The Templars: The History & the Myth and The Tragedy of the Templars, comes a fascinating account of one of the most mysterious and controversial figures in religious history.

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.

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.

In The Quest for Mary Magdalene, 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.

From the international bestselling author of The Templars and The Tragedy of the Templars comes a fascinating account of one of the most mysterious and controversial figures in religious history.

Mary Magdalene is a larger figure than any text, larger than the Bible or the Church; she has taken on a life of her own. She has been portrayed as a penitent whore, a wealthy woman, Christ’s wife, an adulteress, a symbol of the frailty of women, and an object of veneration. And, to this day, she remains a potent and mysterious figure.

In the manner of a quest, this book follows Mary Magdalene through the centuries, explores how she has been reinterpreted for every age, and examines what she herself reveals about woman and man and the divine. It seeks the real Mary Magdalene in the New Testament and in the gnostic gospels, where she is extolled as the chief disciple of Christ. It investigates how and why the Church recast her as a fallen woman, traces her story through the Renaissance when she became a goddess of beauty and love, and looks at Mary Magdalene as the feminist icon she has become today.

“Mirroring the title and scope of Albert Schweitzer’s The Quest of the Historical Jesus, Haag pushes back legend and myth to uncover the real Mary Magdalene…an exceptional overview of how she has been viewed by various cultures through the ages…A thought-provoking re-examination of a misunderstood heroine of the Bible.” - Kirkus

“[A] well-researched and page-turning history…Perhaps Mary Magdalene speaks to us most clearly on a human rather than a spiritual level. Whoever she was, anyone can relate to the heart-broke woman staggering round a garden looking for the body of the man she loves.” - Sunday Times (London)

“Deliciously seductive and thoroughly readable… Haag is a natural storyteller, a delirious wrangler of old facts into new and fascinating forms…a heady combination of pure zest, great imagination and refreshing irreverence…Mary, in his cunning and capable hands, becomes an all-powerful, all-singing and all-dancing Goddess of Light, a second Isis.” - The Spectator

“Haag’s lively book asks questions that continue to excite our curiosity. Who was the historical Mary Magdalene? What do we really know about her and why has she had such an influence in high and popular culture?…Haag achieves an admirable clarity of thought and cohesion in his account…a great read - Paula Byrne, The Times (London)

“Fascinating...Haag teases out the literary and historical evidence to suggest an interpretation of Mary’s role and character that is radically at odds with the received wisdom.” - Mail on Sunday

“A well-researched and well-argued case for looking at the Magdalene with fresh eyes.” - Catholic Herald