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Summary: This work is essential reading.
Review: Margaret Starbird is a preeminent Theologian and scholar of the New Testament and related literature and a leader of American and international culture. Her interest is spiritual rather than selfish and we benefit warmly from her insistence, from Scripture, that the Inseparable Other, the Feminine Principle, is an aspect of Divinity's play with humanity and the world. This Theologian has set a standard for discourse of all natures during the Third Christian Millennium. We owe her "Thanks" and "Well Done."
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Summary: Searching For, and Finding, The Grail
Review: I first read this wonderful book two years ago, at the same time that my S/O was reading "The Secret Life of Jesus"... the dovetailing of the information, the beauty and the resonance of that which has been supressed, even considered heretical, for so many years, made for some wonderful conversation, and a renewal in my faith that I did not expect, but appreciate deeply. By some magic, instead of the tale disillusioning me with the Christ and his mission, instead it made me appreciate the need for his message all the more. What we need more of, are books like this one; what we need less of, is dogma!
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Summary: A Beautiful (and Disappointing) House of Cards
Review: The ideas presented in this book are so intriguing, so "I WISH they were true," that it kills me to have to say that Starbird has built a beautiful, glittering house of cards that will fall to pieces at the first breath of wind. Starbird's typical chain of reasoning tends to go, "Scholars think that some Mediterranean people MAY have believed X 1,000 years before Jesus was born. Therefore Jesus DEFINITELY believed X." And for the rest of the book, Starbird takes X as accepted fact. For example, *some* scholars believe that the Songs of Songs, which was probably written during the intertestamental period, two to five hundred years before Jesus was born, *may* contain elements that date from a much older Sacred Marriage cult (probably Syrio-Babylonian) between a Great Goddess and a Shepherd King. Therefore a minimum of several hundred years later Jesus *definitely* knew about *and believed in* this pagan cultic practice, and deliberately set about re-creating it. Therefore the royal/priestly/messianic anointing of Jesus described in Mark 14 and Matthew 26 was actually a royal wedding anointing between Jesus and the unnamed woman (who was Mary Magdalene in disguise). . . . On the other hand, what if Jesus, who was probably reared as a good Pharisee, never heard of the legend of Inana and Dumuzi? What happens to the beautiful chain of reasoning then? -- killed at its source! Starbird constructs these flimsy chains of reasoning not once but any number of times. The result is a structure that I, as a feminist theologian, WISH could be taken seriously -- but alas, her reasoning is just too rickety to support any weight at all.
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Summary: We need more like this!
Review: As I read The Woman With the Alabaster Jar my head doubted, but my heart didn't. This book opened up so many doors for me, made me remember the days as a child when I questioned all we've been taught. At last a woman brave and intelligent enough to help put the pieces together has come forward and made a real contribution to humanity. I hope she will be only the first of many, many more.
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Summary: Interesting but misleading
Review: I find speculative history as interesting as the next person, but the problems with Starbird's work are fatal. For one, she presents a "straw man" church against which to rail. Obviously, the church has had flaws, but Starbird ignores its complexity. Also, she presents a picture of the Cathars that they would not recognize. As a gnostic movement, they rejected the physical and the bodily completely. How such an idea is transformed into liberation for women is mystifying. Ironically, the strongest women of the age were those who embraced the body and affective piety--Margery Kempe, Julian of Norwich. Her "evidence" that Jesus married Magdalen is, to say the least, highly creative but hardly comvincing. Most bothersome is the way she has posited herself as an orthodox Catholic who finally saw the light for half a dozen books now. How many times can you lose your virginity? Once seems plenty. Finally, as interesting as I find these kinds of speculations, I am always somewhat troubled by the elitism. There is always, in any brand of gnosticism, the suggestion that a select few get to know and understand the "real" history, the "real" message, the "real" Jesus. If Starbird is right, billions of Christians have been wrong, and only an impossibly small clique in only a few brief moments have had access to the truth. Of course, she is one of them. As are you, the reader. Does that make you feel special? For all of orthodoz Christianity's problems--and they are legion--at least it insists that the gospel is open to all people, everywhere, and in all ages.
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Summary: I really wanted to like this book
Review: First, let me say I very rarely write a negative review of anything unless I feel it's subject matter is not what it is purported to be. I'd just gotten done with "The Da Vinci Code" and this book seemed so highly recommended in reviews here on its factual, historical content. Or maybe I misunderstood. Because halfway through I had to stop reading it. I thought it was going to be about Mary Magdalen-from her birth to her death, including her time with Jesus. Maybe eventually it ends up being about her, but it's not written that way in the half I read. It was more of a Holy Grail history lesson. While the subject is her relationship to the Grail, I did not buy this book for a Holy Grail history lesson, there's a ton of information on that subject already. I bought it for the biographical information about Mary Magdalen. The author repeats herself quite often, and constantly refers to Bible passages. If you aren't Christian, or haven't opened a Bible in a long time, these constant referrals get quite frustrating and exclusionary because you have no idea what is being referrenced. I have no other recommendations for information on Mary Magdelan. And I'm not saying people could not enjoy this book. All I am saying it was disappointing and not what I expected in a biographical story.
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Summary: Yet more proof...
Review: Amazingly, Starbird uses many biblical sources to prove Magdalen was the wife and mother of Jesus' child. It's staggering the amount of information packed into this book. There is a whole world of heritical / Gnostic sources that she could have relied on, but instead she used mostly uncontroversial sources. She is a master at pointing out the hidden, but obvious, meaning of religious symbols and art. It's easy to see the influence this book had on Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code. Many of Brown's plot points are taken directly from this book. A more Gnostic, possibly pagan, perspective on the Magdalen story can be seen in Jesus and the Lost Goddess.
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Summary: virginia woolf ophelia needs to accept clarity
Review: and yes, notice how many peole thought your review was hlepful? the tide is turning...back to where it belonged...
please see (here at amazon) the book, Black Market Pneuma for true gnostic anti-litany!
and the statue here at Amazon of mary magdalene is BEAUTIFUL.
otherwise, read the detailed reviews above and below. this book is needed in every Parish and all baptist et seminaries/semen-aries.................hail the unveiled bloodline of mortal yeshua and mary magdalene!
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Summary: The Woman With the Alabaster Jar
Review: After a rather dull 'history-based-on-fact' short story, Starbird bursts into her quest: to convince the reader that Jesus had heirs. This is where the meat of this book is*!* Easy to read and understand, it provides the reader with a quick synopsis of why Starbird believes Jesus had heirs. Unlike HOLY BLOOD, HOLY GRAIL, where memorization and reading comprehension are vital, this book is easily understood by the average reader. But, I was disappointed with the last few chapters wherein Starbird gives a disseration on feminist ideas, myths, and symbols. If you are researching feminine myths and symbols, read Marija Gimbutas books [an associate of Joseph Campbell]. If you eliminated the first and last chapters, you have a great book.
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Summary: Weak feminist theory
Review: The book is an exponent of Starbird's feminist theory. The reason the book has been well received is because the subject is taboo although not new. It is also a great source of revenues.
Many other authors have presented the same idea in more eloquent terms. Her writing is one of fragmented thoughts put together and repetition of ideas.
Despite the fact that the book begins very nicely it goes downhill after the first chapter. Those of us that have closely studied the makings of the Catholic Church find the book a weak proponent of a theory without actual support. Hence, the proof provided is weak, vague, and has no merit.
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