This afternoon I was blessed with half an hour with which I was able to scoot on into Gleebooks and sneak some time with 'The Existential Jesus' by John Carroll. The Existential Jesus explores Jesus' life through the Gospel of Mark, based on reading groups that the secular author had run over ten years at the University.
Hamartia means 'missing the mark' - 'a loss of direction'- John Carroll, a sociology professor at La Trobe University, who's virtues I have espoused previously in my entry on 'Ego & Soul' - takes this Greek word for sin and measures it against different characters of the Bible as they turn up in Mark. Perhaps most importantly, he characterises Mark's Jesus as representing the 'I am' - the confluence of different traits in the simplicity of being, that is completely free of ethics and morals (and teachings on ethics and morals, a position which would no doubt rankle with orthodoxy).
In regards to the Magdalene, Carroll portrays the woman with the alabaster jar who anoints Jesus as Mary Magdalene - a scene that is replayed across the four synoptic Gospels.
If I presume for a minute that Mary does occupy this role (the identity of the woman is left uncertain in Mark) the idea that the giving nature of Mary's love, now, in the present, makes reparation for the 'loss of direction' that was evident in her life before, has a lot of appeal as far as I'm concerned.
It points not only to the blessing that can be found in forgiveness, for whatever context that may apply to, it points further, to an inward direction found via the focus of intent that comes with being completely, overwhelmingly besotted in a particular directional gaze. For Mary, that focus was on her Saviour, the Christ. She's one of two people who recognise the transformed Christ at resurrection - regardless of whether she was or wasn't 'The First Disciple', she reads as a character of insight, and depth.
The transcript of Carroll's interview with the ABC (sans any Magdalene content) is here:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/religionreport/stories/2007/1864844.htm
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