After two thousand years of being sidelined as a minor character in Christian tradition, Mary Magdalene has emerged as a mainstream mystery everyone wants to solve. The inspiration for the runaway bestseller and soon to be released film The Da Vinci Code (19 May), Magdalene was named the new it girl for 2005 by Newsweek Magazine. US News and World Reports recently declared Mary is beginning to regain her place as a catalyst of Christianity. The New Yorker's 13/02/06 double issue headlines her in Joan Acocella's The Saintly Sinner (devoting ten pages to her role in modern and ancient religion.) Even with all this speculation about her life and relationship to Jesus, will we ever know who the true Magdalene was? For over three years, Jane Lahr, anthologist, artist and author, has delved deeply into her own research. Searching for Mary Magdalene takes you on a visual and literary journey through the history, lore, fact, and myth surrounding this elusive Christian icon. Mary Magdalene is most commonly portrayed as the reformed prostitute, an inferior to the other twelve disciples. Now, Lahr has amassed vibrant imagery and historical, biblical, and literary excerpts revealing Magdalene to be one of the most vital figures in the early Christian movement-second only in importance to the Galilean himself. In this rigorously researched synthesis, Lahr traces the shift from Mary, the penitent sinner, to the first woman Apostle: the woman who knew the All. Each chapter is preceded by detailed and ambitious introductions exploring the history of the Magdalene's evolution. Searching for Mary Magdalene is the first publication to celebrate the extraordinary works of art connected with the Magdalene.