29. The Gospel According to Male Dominance?

Nearly Beloved,

I was stimulated by a recent clergyman's letter on the subject of the suppression by protestant reformers of books written by women. The Reverend specifically mentioned the exclusion from the canon, in an earlier era, of The Gospel of Mary, assumed to refer to Mary Magdalene.

He described The Gospel of Mary** as rubbish, that may be true, but it may also be viewed as an interesting work from the early Christian era (circa 90-150 AD), an example of the diversity of views held by people who regarded themselves as Christian at that time before the New Testament Cannon had been agreed upon. There is no evidence that the Gospel of Mary was written by a woman. The gospel is about Mary Magdalene and she is referred to throughout in the third person. This is manifestly not making autobiographical claims on the part of Mary. 

It is quite probable that the text was written by a man as a misogynistic episode is central to the piece. The claim is that Mary has obtained special teaching from Christ himself not accessible to others (although most of that key teaching has been lost as the text is incomplete). Mary is then criticised by Peter who asks “Did He really speak privately with a woman and not openly to us? Are we to turn about and all listen to her? Did He prefer her to us?”

A brief perusal of the text shows that it has Gnostic elements including an excessively complex cosmology. It emphasises the progress of the soul to full enlightenment and the privilege of access of an elite to esoteric knowledge, which are probably the real reason that The Gospel of Mary was excluded from the Canon eg: “When the soul had overcome the third power, it went upwards and saw the fourth power, which took seven forms etc. etc..” Ch.8. 18). Those who compiled the canon of works for the New Testament were surely right to exclude Gnostic works such as this, if only because they effectively deny the universality of the message of Christ and allow and encourage access to only a privileged few.

Unfortunately the protestant reformers were not the only ones to suppress books by women, one thinks of Marguerete Porete whose book, A Mirror for Simple Souls was banned and she was burnt at the stake for the rather obscure Heresy of the Free Spirit.

My clergyman expressed his view of the Gospels that: 

"The varied, albeit male, perspectives seem complete."  

Thus implying that the Gospels do not need a female element. I took the initiative and sent his text to my philosopher daughter who goes to Quakers and she made a number of perceptive comments, most notably:

“In general we tend to think of the exclusion of women from positions of leadership and authority in the church as their loss but that misunderstands it. What would we communally, understand or have achieved if the Church had a more egalitarian history that allowed the gifts of all its members to flourish fully?

I like the way the Jewish museum in Berlin has a big central space /hollow hole/ through the middle of it to represent everything Europe has lost / is currently missing as a result of its treatment of Jewish people.”

So what has The Church lost over its two millennia of existence?

Peace and Love to you all.

Paul.

Completed: 7 August 2022.



Mary Magdalene by The Master of 1518 circa 1526.

The National Gallery London, NG719.

*A translation of the Gospel of Mary may be found at: http://gnosis.org/library/marygosp.htm

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