Ethics questions

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What is the Heroine’s Journey? (part III)

I will make one personal caveat before I start: despite much screeching and near-hysterical insistence that “man” automatically equates to (or conflates with) “human,” the delightfully fascinating Language Log and Grammarphobia have conclusively proven (through both common sense and examination of historical literary precedence) this is not actually the case. That being so, it amuses…

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What is the Heroine’s Journey? (part II)

In the end, however, I found myself as turned off by Murdock’s supposed “heroine’s journey” as I was by Campbell’s vision of women. This is due to the shock of my biggest disappointment with the book, and the reason I cannot recommend it: the author’s explication of the “breakthrough” moment where the heroine realizes the…

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What is the Heroine’s Journey? (part I)

When I was a child we spent several years in Spain. I remember being stuck one summer in an old country house with family and friends, and at one point finding the small library of children’s books. There were a few in English, which I suppose were imported from England so the former children of…

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The “Magic” series (I of V)

Magic Bites (Kate Daniels, Book 1) Magic Burns (Kate Daniels, Book 2) Magic Strikes (Kate Daniels, Book 3) I’ve always had a fondness, even well before it was popular, for the genre of urban fantasy. I adored the The Chronicles of Narnia stories as a child, but I still daydreamed with excited bemusement of what…

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Were Jesus & Mary Magdalene really married? (VII of VII)

or “Is the premise of The DaVinci Code really true?” Summation I speculate Jesus’ marital state matters only because some people pursue a sort of Platonic, unshakeable “Truth-with-a-capital-T” that can be invariably and absolutely depended on. People want stability and order in their lives, and having a deity that’s straightforward, un-mysterious, unchallenging, completely external, and…

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Were Jesus & Mary Magdalene really married? (VI of VII)

or “Is the premise of The DaVinci Code really true?” There is one other influence on the New Testament which we should keep in mind. As happens with all myths and legends, the stories are refined and retold repeatedly. This will often cause unwanted details to be dropped (as we’ve already seen), and extra details…

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Were Jesus & Mary Magdalene really married? (V of VII)

or “Is the premise of The DaVinci Code really true?” The New Testament (revised version) We’ve already covered Peter’s blatant hostility to Mary Magdalene in the Gospel of Thomas. His lack of status compared to Mary Magdalene is indirectly referred to in the bible as well. For example, Mary’s fidelity to Jesus is indisputable —…

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Were Jesus & Mary Magdalene really married? (IV of VII)

or “Is the premise of The DaVinci Code really true?” Gospel of Mary (again) At the beginning of Chapter 9, Mary has just finished sharing Jesus’ special teachings — most of which are lost to us, since the texts are unfortunately missing, darnit! [1] When Mary had said this, she fell silent, since it was…

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Were Jesus & Mary Magdalene really married? (III of VII)

or “Is the premise of The DaVinci Code really true?” Gospel of Thomas This book purports to give the “secret teachings” of Jesus, rather than the story of his life and death. Admittedly, many of the sayings are as confusingly strange as Zen koans, but I still find them fascinating. Like the other two books,…

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Were Jesus & Mary Magdalene really married? (II of VII)

or “Is the premise of The DaVinci Code really true?” Gospel of Mary Again, I recommend you read several translations of the original, as this also is a much-debated text. For now, this is the beginning of Chapter 5 of the Gospel of Mary, and Jesus has just “departed”: [1] But they [the disciples] were…