Chapel of Saint John the Divine hosts Elizabeth Schrader lecture

1011 South Wright Street,Champaign IL 61820

30 April, 2023

Description

Elizabeth Schrader, a lifelong Episcopalian, recently defended her dissertation in the Ph.D. program at Duke and is an incoming assistant professor at Villanova University. Schrader was a singer-songwriter who opened for many international pop stars and appeared on the TV show Gilmore Girls. While praying one day, she heard a voice directing her to "seek Mary Magdalene." That voice led to the title track of her 2011 album. When the urge toward Magdalene didn't subside, Libby enrolled at the General Theological Seminary to study Mary Magdalene, and she recently defended her Ph.D. thesis in New Testament at Duke. Schrader's research into the history of Mary and the oldest Greek manuscripts on the Gospel of John led to a surprising discovery: She could see, in the oldest manuscript of John, that the scribe amended the text to add “Martha.” She looked at 250 other ancient copies of John’s Gospel, and one out of five ancient Greek manuscripts have problems around Martha. While her research had been published and shared in many publications, including Harvard Theological Review, it wasn't until last summer, when author and historian Diana Bass Butler featured Schrader's research in a sermon, that the world turned their attention to her discovery. We are pleased to have her join us for what is sure to be a fascinating and challenging look at Mary Magdalene, what we know about the history of the Gospels, and what exterior forces could have shaped the conventional understanding of Mary. Diana Butler Bass and Elizabeth Schrader at Duke University.