Mary Magdalene and the Foundations of Early Christianity

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$400.00
$400.00
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A foundational eight part course on the treasury of sacred texts, history, art and legends that present many different stories about Jesus, Mary Magdalene and Early Christianity. Beginning with the Greco-Roman and Jewish roots of Christianity, we explore the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John with an ear tuned to nuances of the Aramaic language and the contextual culture in which Jesus lived. We then turn our attention to the Gospels that did not make it into the Canonical Bible where Mary Magdalene is portrayed as having a significant role in leadership within the early Christian community: The Gospel of Mary and The Gospel of Thomas. We explore the mytho-poetic Valentinian tradition, which traces its roots to Magdalene's teachings and read several key early Christian texts discovered in Nag Hammadi, Egypt in which feminine wisdom is deeply valued: the Odes of Solomon, Thunder Perfect Mind and the Hymn of the Pearl.  The course concludes with an introduction to the contemplative traditions of the Desert Mothers and Fathers of Egypt of the fifth and sixth centuries which formed the foundations of Western Monasticism.