Gospel of Mary – Feminism and Religion

Birthright by Christine Irving

I am a priestess of the divine feminine, ordained in the Fellowship of Isis. So how did I end up becoming ordained for a second time in the Christian Gnostic tradition? It seemed to me, that there were several paradoxes inherent in the situation. My questions and conflictions made me an utter pain to both my mentor and fellow classmates. Ironically, in the end I was the only one who stayed the course.

I rejected Christianity at thirteen and never looked back. It took me a long time to say, “I am not a Christian,” aloud. The first time I made that declaration, I thought I was having a panic attack because my heart was beating so fast. The next time I felt that kind of fear I was alone in our apartment in Dubai, writing the liturgy for my Gnostic mass – the final requirement for becoming a priest. Sitting safe and sound, of no interest to anyone, in a country that wasn’t even Christian, I was suddenly swept with the temerity of what I dared to do. Women have been burned for much smaller crimes and all those ancient memories flared up at once. The memes that infect us as children stay with us, vocal and insistent at the least opportunity and it may take a long time to manufacture the antibodies our souls need to regain health. Continue reading “Birthright by Christine Irving”

Mary Magdalene – A Woman of Power and Vision by Judith Shaw

Who was Mary Magdalene? The first thought of many today is that Mary Magdalene was a repentant prostitute. But was she? Until the third century, Mary was considered an “apostle.”

Mary as an apostle posed a threat to the early Church patriarchs who denied women all authority in the Church. In addition, by early in the first century C.E., Mary Magdalene had become associated with Christian thought identified as heretical by the Church. The easiest way to eliminate Mary’s importance was to cast aspersions on her moral character.

Continue reading “Mary Magdalene – A Woman of Power and Vision by Judith Shaw”

The Case for a Woman Pope: Mary Magdalene by Frank Shapiro

There’s a lot of hullabaloo these days about belief in God, atheism, separation of religion and state. However, like it or not, Western civilization is a Christian one.

Ever since the Roman Empire officially became Christian in the 4^th century Christianity has formed an integral part of the Greco-Roman culture, forging the West’s crystallization.

And within this religious-political-cultural matrix, women have been striving for equality of power in virtually every field. Most of the time men had the upper hand.

Yet in Christianity’s early maturation period an egalitarian approach to the gender issue was the accepted norm. Following a good start in gender power sharing in the Early Christian Church, this enlightened approach gradually changed for the worse. In the early 6^th century women found themselves stigmatized and demoted from almost all the major roles in church service and liturgy.

So what went wrong? Continue reading “The Case for a Woman Pope: Mary Magdalene by Frank Shapiro”