Mary Magdalene was so important to the Ministry of Jesus Christ that the church called her Saint Mary Magdalene, equal to the Apostles. Seven demons possessed her, so she had a pretty rough life. Jesus then exercised those demons from her, and her repentance was great. She devoted her life to Jesus Christ and his ministry and followed him as the other disciples did. So some of the other things that Mary Magdalene did in her discipleship was that she was the one who anointed Jesus with the costly oils and murders.
Mary Magdalene was the first to discover the risen Jesus after being laid in the tomb. Mary Magdalene went to the grave, and she didn’t see anybody in there, and she was sitting down and wondering what’s happened. She heard a voice and thought the man approaching her was a gardener, but he was Jesus Christ. So she was the first one to see it.
Books about Mary Magdalene explore her potential as a disciple, leader, and spiritual figure, providing a fresh perspective on her significance within Christianity. They also feature divine feminine, women’s spiritual leadership, and reclaiming the voices and stories of women in religious history.
10 Books About Mary Magdalene (Religious History)
Mary Magdalene was one of those saints of the church who did what Jesus Christ was told to do. She dared to be there to witness the crucifixion. To know more, I will discuss ten books about Mary Magdalene. They will allow you to explore her story’s historical, spiritual, and cultural dimensions. It can broaden your perspectives, stimulate intellectual curiosity, and deepen your understanding of faith, history, and the human experience. Let’s get into Christian history.
1. Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene: The Followers of Jesus in History and Legend
Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene is a three-part profile biography where Bart Ehrman tries to reach back into history to tell us who these people were and what they would have done. It is a real challenge for someone like Herman because there’s very little to go on in reconstructing these people’s lives. The author uses a variety of sources here, including the New Testament, the Old Testament, and other books that didn’t make it into the Bible and other ancient writings, to get a minimal idea of who these people were and what we can know about them.
We talk about the life of Peter in this one and how he was so influential in starting those first churches that got the Christian faith going. We talk about Paul. Paul believes it. They’re disputed amongst scholars, but at least we have something assumed from his hand to understand his role in starting the ancient churches he started.
Peter and Paul were the fathers of Christianity. It’s believed it was the one who went out and converted the Jews. Then Paul was the one who went out and converted the non-Jews. So that was a lot of fun to learn about Paul and Peter and their influential role in traveling.
Mary Magdalene is mentioned 13 times in the New Testament. So author dug deep into other writings to understand what later Christians thought about Mary and what they believed about her to get an idea of who she may have been. He asserts in this book that she may be of the three most critical original Christians because it’s believed that she was the one that first announced the resurrection. In that way, she may have started Christianity.
Author: Bart D. Ehrman
Average Rating: 4.5/5
Category: Christian Ministry & Evangelism
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle
2. Mary Magdalene Revealed
Mary Magdalene Revealed explores the life and teachings of Mary Magdalene within a spiritual and feminist context. The writing is set up slightly differently, unlike a typical chapter book with points A, B, and C. It meanders through the story and talks about Mary Magdalene’s gospel that was written. So this was one of many gospels that were part of the Bible and then lost, burned, destroyed, whatever. The author goes through Mary’s seven traits and relationships with her people. It’s a book about reclaiming your spiritual power in your life.
This writing is for people who want to feel connected to their religion, and as women, those born as female feel female and persecuted. Going through this book helps you. Whether you’re Christian and you want to explore your faith deeper, if you wish to explore meditation and spiritual concepts, this is a great book. Also, It is the best book on Mary Magdalene I have ever read.
Author: Meggan Watterson
Average Rating: 4.6/5
Category: Gnosticism, Religious Unexplained Mysteries
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle
3. Mary Called Magdalene
Mary Called Magdalene shows the story of Mary Magdalene through her interpretation, blending historical research with imaginative storytelling. Margaret George is a historical fiction novelist. She has written five books, and each of these novels focuses on a person overlooked by history. Mary Magdalene, as it happens, falls into both categories. We know precious little about Mary Magdalene. The Bible gives us very little to go on, so Margaret George has given us a very intimate portrait of her life. The book is divided into three parts.
Margaret George gives Mary a fairly ordinary life for a Jewish girl growing up in those times. She’s a part of a very strict religious family. She grows up with them in this little fishing town of Magdala, gets married, has a daughter, and tries to live as ordinary a life as possible. So this chapter gives us a historical background for the rest of the story. In addition, we get to see relatable traits in Mary’s character, so we get more than Mary Magdalene’s name in the text.
We get to see Mary as someone we can relate to, and the section also begins to illustrate a theme throughout the novel. It shows how narrow-minded and exclusive many Jewish people were during this time. Her family’s chief concern is not being an embarrassment to their strictly religious way of life, unlike many Christians today. That’s the parallel being drawn here.
In part two of the novel, we learn about Mary’s time as a disciple of Jesus. We see the story of Jesus from his baptism to his death and resurrection from the point of view of one of his disciples. So we get the Christian story without becoming preachy, a trap many inspirational novels fall into. This book does not do that partially because it looks at the story of Jesus from a historical context rather than a religious context. Mary and the disciples did not agree with every word that came out of Jesus’s mouth.
The last part is the book of Acts from Mary’s point of view. From the time when she saw Jesus resurrected onward. We see the beginnings of many of the modern-day traditions and rules of the church. We’re asked to think about how right it was that there came to be a church hierarchy in all of these rules to follow.
The first mention of Mary in the Canonical Gospels says that seven demons possessed her. So, in the first part of the novel, Margaret George shows us how she came to be possessed by those demons before Jesus drove them out. That section would have been more interesting if they had been more metaphorical demons like representation of faults or if there had been some other explanation for her possession.
Author: Margaret George
Average Rating: 4.5/5
Category: Religious Historical Fiction, Christian Fiction
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle
4. Saint Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene is a perfect saint. The reason she’s the perfect saint companion for Lent is that she had a significant conversion in life. Jesus freed her from seven demons. She became a disciple and follower of Christ. She was a companion to the blessed mother.
In this book, you will find that Mary is following Jesus on the way to the cross. She stood on Calvary. She was there at the empty tomb. Do you know what that is? That’s the entire trajectory of Lent right there in one person. So she would be the perfect Lenten companion.
The priest that wrote Saint Mary Magdalene was the rector or at least one of the priests over at her basilica in Marseilles. He would tell the English-speaking pilgrims all about Saint Mary Magdalene, and they wanted a book naturally to take with them.
Author: Fr. Sean Davidson
Average Rating: 4.5/5
Category: Christian Spiritual Growth, Catholicism
Available: Paperback | Kindle
5. The Da Vinci Code
In this book, we open up with a murder, bizarre murder, at the Louvre Museum in Paris, besides the murder victim’s body, who happens to be the museum’s caretaker. There is a strange puzzle, a mathematical message. The caretaker carved a pentagram in their chest or painted with their blood, and it’s a bizarre crime scene.
So the police call in Robert Langdon, our main character here, the symbologist, the scholar. He comes to try to help them make sense of this crime scene, and he happens to get a partner in this novel named Sophie. She’s also police cryptology and has a father with some strange pagan background, which sets this up.
Our characters are looking for the Keystone, a central piece on the hunt for the holy grail. Different people are pursuing them. It’s this vast suspense story that plays out here. There’s a controversial theme here in the plot that the Kings of France were descended from the bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Also, it brought a lot of interesting perspectives to this novel. It turns out that da Vinci may or may not have put some hidden messages in his paintings concerning this bloodline and the mystery in The Da Vinci Code.
Author: Dan Brown
Average Rating: 4.3/5
Category: Religious Mysteries, Religious Historical Fiction
Available: Paperback | Hardcover
6. The Meaning of Mary Magdalene by Cynthia Bourgeault
In this book, Bourgeault explores the historical and mystical aspects of Mary Magdalene’s life and her significance as a spiritual figure. She focuses on Mary’s role as a disciple, her relationship with Jesus, and her place within early Christianity.
7. Mary Magdalene: A Biography by Bruce Chilton
Chilton offers a comprehensive biography of Mary Magdalene, drawing from historical and biblical sources. He explores her origins, relationship with Jesus, and prominence among the disciples.
8. The Gospel of Mary Magdalene by Jean-Yves Leloup
Leloup presents a translation and analysis of the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, an ancient text discovered in the 19th century. The book offers insights into Mary’s teachings, spiritual journey, and role in early Christian communities.
9. The Secrets of Mary Magdalene by Dan Burstein and Arne de Keijzer
This book focuses on the enigmatic figure of Mary Magdalene and examines the various theories and controversies surrounding her life. It explores her potential relationship with Jesus and her portrayal in historical and religious contexts.
10. The Magdalene Mystique: Living the Spirituality of Mary Today by Betty Conrad Adam
This book offers a spiritual perspective on Mary Magdalene, focusing on her transformation and healing journey. It guides incorporating Mary’s wisdom and teachings into daily life.
Catholic Books on Mary Magdalene
Saint Mary Magdalene – Prophetess of Eucharistic Love by Fr. Sean Davidson: This book explores the life and spirituality of Mary Magdalene, emphasizing her profound love for the Eucharist. It highlights her as a model of deep devotion and provides insights into the Eucharistic theology within the Catholic Church.
Mary Magdalene – Insights from Ancient Magdala by Jennifer Ristine, FSP: This book presents a Catholic perspective on Mary Magdalene, focusing on her encounter with Jesus and her transformation. It also provides insights into her presence in ancient Magdala, a town associated with her in the Holy Land.
The Resurrection of Mary Magdalene – Legends, Apocrypha, and the Christian Testament by Jane Schaberg: This book examines various traditions and legends surrounding Mary Magdalene, including her alleged resurrection. It shows her role in early Christian texts and discusses her significance in the Catholic tradition.
These Catholic books offer theological reflections, historical insights, and spiritual perspectives on Mary Magdalene from within the Catholic tradition.
These books offer diverse perspectives on Mary Magdalene, showing her historical significance, spiritual teachings, and cultural symbolism. They provide opportunities to explore her role within early Christianity and her enduring fascination with her figure.
No direct evidence or historical record suggests that Mary Magdalene wrote a book. The New Testament does not attribute any writings to Mary Magdalene, and the Gospels do not contain any texts explicitly authored by her. The primary sources regarding Mary Magdalene’s life and interactions with Jesus come from the canonical Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which disciples and followers of Jesus wrote.
The “Gospel of Mary,” also known as the “Gospel of Mary Magdalene,” is an apocryphal text not included in the canonical New Testament. The reasons for its exclusion are not entirely clear-cut, and determining which texts were included in the Bible was complex and multifaceted. In the New Testament, Mary Magdalene is first mentioned in Luke 8:2.
More Religion Reference & History Books:
Books Like The Untethered Soul
Theology Books About The Holy Spirit
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