What Women Want: The Sacred Feminine and the Forgiveness of Sins

by Melissa Schubert

Last summer, my neighbor's women's book group was reading The Da Vinci Code. She and I were on a morning walk when she began to ask me questions about the reliability of Brown's account of church history. (My college professor "credentials" often make me the target of all sorts of questions outside of my field. Thankfully, I was prepped for this one.)

So, I started answering her with some historical data that, to my mind, makes Brown's account dubious. The apostles died martyrs' deaths without gaining earthly power or prestige. Why would they want to do so for teachings which they knew to be false? She listened, but I could tell my response wasn't getting to the heart of her question.
 
I paused in my attempt to establish the historical implausibility of Brown's major claims, and she zeroed in on what was to her the real question. "But what about Mary Magdalene? Was she really Jesus' wife? The book said that Jesus really wanted her to have power, but the male disciples kept it from her, and the church made it a point to keep the truth from women throughout history. I really like how the book showed how important women are."

Hearing her real question emerge, I realized — of course! — that she was interested in much more than logical or historical debate. She was personally invested in the ideas at stake. She wanted to know whether or not Christians believe that women are truly significant, that they are not less valuable to the universe or to God on account of being female. My friend wanted to believe that "fact" of the Magdalene-Christ marriage, not because she thought it was historical, but because she believed that it would be dignifying to women.

The novel maintains that Christianity has vilified the feminine by making Mary Magdalene into a prostitute. Now, it's true the gospel writer never identifies Magdalene with the prostitute who bathes and anoints Jesus' feet.  But this is beside the point. The question I think the novel raises is whether or not it was empowering for a former prostitute to enter into a relationship with a man that was not based on sexual exchanges. I think that, far from demeaning her, the forgiveness of sins offered to Mary Magdalene in the gospel accounts of her encounters with Christ are the only way for her to be truly dignified.

Twenty-first century thinkers seem to think that they are the first to have discovered the power of feminine sexuality. This is simply not the case. Roman history bears out the fact that women in the first-century Roman Empire knew full well how to gain power by wielding their sexuality. Their unfortunate situation was that it was their primary means to social influence or status. It seems, in light of this fact, that the marriage of Magdalene and Christ does not so much elevate her to a new dignity as it does reduce her to the common role of sexual partner.

In the novel, Sophie has been traumatized through witnessing her grandfather engaged in a "religious" rite with ritualistic sex acts. Langdon, her knowing male counterpart, serves to "enlighten" her to its deep meaning. The "sophistication" to which Sophie is raised forces her to disdain her own feelings of pain as naïve. (It's worth noting that Brown's own characters fall into traditional gender stereotypes here, which might be characterized as condescending to women.) In order to affirm the secret teachings, Sophie must reject her basic moral intuition that there is something wrong with what she saw.

In promoting a cult of the sacred feminine, I think the novel attempts to answer (for its female readers, especially) our deep desire to think ourselves good in light of our suspicion that we are otherwise. The women to whom these ideas will appeal are likely to experience something of Sophie's mixed intuitions: That when we look within, we find that there is both something great and something terrible.

I think that our faith speaks well to what we know to be true of ourselves. The doctrine of creation maintains the wonderful truth that God created us, both male and female, in His image. But that image is obscured by our sinfulness. Instead of ignoring that fact and adopting the self-congratulatory notion that femininity is sacred, we must remember that neither masculinity nor femininity is holy. Only God is holy. And only the work of Christ restores us to the image of God.

Mary Magdalene was most blessed in that she bore witness to the great news of the resurrection. She was dignified in that he gave her new life, made her his follower and entrusted to her the good news of new life. May we proclaim nothing less to those who thirst for dignity and significance.

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