The Rethinking of Mary Magdalene Gets Wider Acceptance

I have been listening to a fascinating interview between Diana Butler Bass and Elizabeth Schrader-Polczer. Several years ago, Bass preached a sermon using Schrader-Polczer's work, which Bass points out is one of 3 of the most watched sermons of all time; the other two were Bishop Budde's sermon at the interfaith worship service after the second inauguration of Donald Trump and the sermon preached at the wedding of Prince Harry and Mary Markle.In that sermon, Bass presented the work of Elizabeth Schrader-Polczer, who was then a PhD student at Duke. She did research on the Lazarus text and noticed that the word Mary had been changed to Martha. Why would someone do this? And how can we be sure? Bass published her sermon here. It's worth the read, and it's got a link to hear the sermon. Bass makes the case that it was likely a 4th century change, a change to disempower Mary Magdalene.In the interview I'm listening to today, Bass and Schrader-Polzer review those ideas. It's an interesting…