The Mary We Forgot: What the Apostle to the Apostles Teaches the Church Today

By Jennifer Powell McNutt. Brazos Press, 2024. 272 pages. $47.99/hardcover; $19.99/paperback; $11.99/eBook.

The “forgotten Mary” of this book is Mary Magdalene, which at first seems a puzzling description for a biblical character known in the gospels (mentioned almost as much as Jesus’s mother, Mary), in art (such as the stained glass of Sainte-Baume), and in popular culture (Jesus Christ Superstar, of course). Yet Jennifer Powell McNutt’s argument is that our amnesia is more insidious, for by misunderstanding Mary Magdalene’s story in the gospels, we miss crucial aspects of Jesus’s ministry to both men and women, and how this should inform the church today.

McNutt is the Franklin S. Dyrness Chair of Biblical and Theological Studies at Wheaton College, where she also serves as a professor of theology and history of Christianity. She is an ordained teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church (along with her husband, David McNutt).

In the gospels, Mary Magdalene is described as one who was healed from seven demons by Jesus and had financially supported Jesus’s ministry (Luke 8:2–3). She was at the crucifixion of Jesus (Mark 15:40–41) and his burial (Matthew 27:61). On Easter morning, she witnessed the empty tomb, met the risen Jesus, and was commissioned to go tell the other disciples this news (John 20:17–18).

The crux of McNutt’s argument is that preachers and interpreters have, over time, fused Mary Magdalene’s identity with Mary of Bethany (sister of Martha and Lazarus), who washes Jesus’s feet with her hair and perfume (Jn 12:1–11). More consequentially, the unnamed “sinner” who washes Jesus’s feet with her hair in the Lucan version (Lk 7:36–50) was interpreted as a repentant prostitute. In 591, Gregory I preached what McNutt calls the “gloss heard round the world,” conflating all three identities into one. As a result, according to McNutt, much of Christendom has forgotten the real Mary Magdalene, as she is consistently preached and portrayed as a woman of loose morals and low character.

To understand how this happened and why it persisted, one follows McNutt’s historical and interpretive survey, throughout which she sprinkles in thoughtful anecdotes and personal experiences. She closes the book with a call for the church to take “the calling and sending of Mary Magdalene seriously,” and in doing so, “the gifts of women for faith and ministry are cultivated for growth.” I strongly agree with this call: the implications of Mary Magdalene’s apostleship (commissioned by God, outside of any formal office and despite cultural barriers) can and should challenge the church.

Some Quakers reading The Mary We Forgot might put McNutt in the position of preaching to the choir. As Friends agree implicitly with the book’s conclusions, they are likely more interested in advice for their own meetings. This is a topic McNutt considers in the epilogue, which is unfortunately the shortest section. Imagining the church as a garden, she urges congregations to “sow” (read and hear) the stories of women in Scripture, “cultivate” the gifts of women, and encourage women to “blossom for the glory of the Gardener,” but she does not offer much in the way of practical considerations for those who wish to purposely do those things—calling, gifting, and ministry—among all members.

Can Mary Magdalene herself be an example for Quakers? I am uncertain if there is significant consideration of Mary Magdalene in early Friends writings. To look at one example: Margaret Fell does mention Mary Magdalene in her tract Women’s Speaking Justified, where she distinguishes her from Mary of Bethany and uses her as an example of God spreading truth “without respect of persons.” However, a perusal of Elsa F. Gline’s compilation of Fell’s letters did not reveal another mention. Even if she was not discussed greatly among early Friends, she can most definitely be an example to contemporary Quakers.

In a larger Christian tradition where the hard-working hospitality of Martha has become a pejorative, it is nice to have a patron saint for the faithful, diligent, and industrious who serve mightily and vitally (and happily) away from the spotlight. I think of my mother, who passed unexpectedly this past Easter morning. While at times in her life, she battled her own demons, and she never felt comfortable on the church stage, her light burned brightest in the grant writing, fundraising, and the administering of the church’s afterschool and summer meal programs for children. She would have liked the real Mary Magdalene.

McNutt’s book is well-researched, easy-to-read, and has helped wipe away from the lens of Scripture and tradition the grime of thousands of years of misinterpretation, misinformation, and misunderstanding regarding “the Apostle to the Apostles.” May Friends learn much from this newfound clarity.

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Derek Brown is president of Barclay College in Haviland, Kans. A recorded Friends minister, he lives with his wife, two daughters, two dogs, a duck, and a goose in Haviland, where they are members of Haviland Friends Church. His latest book, American Christian Programmed Quaker Ecclesiology (Brill), was published in early 2024.