Margaret Starbird's theological beliefs were profoundly shaken when she read Holy Blood, Holy Grail, a book that dared to suggest that Jesus Christ was married to Mary Magdalen and that their descendants carried on his holy bloodline in Western Europe. Shocked by such heresy, this Roman Catholic scholar set out to refute it, but instead found new and compelling evidence for the existence of the bride of Jesus -- the same enigmatic woman who anointed him with precious unguent from her "alabaster jar." In this provocative book, Starbird draws her conclusions from an extensive study of history, heraldry, symbolism, medieval art, mythology, psychology, and the Bible itself. The Woman with the Alabaster Jar is a quest for the forgotten feminine -- in the hope that its return will help restore a healthy balance to planet Earth. Margaret Starbird is a seeker after truth, not a defender of doctrine. She recognizes that orthodoxy is orthodox because it won and not necessarily because it is true. She seeks to recover the long-suppressed, and not infrequently emotionally opposed, feminine side of the Christian story. Hers is an exciting narrative probing regions of thought long neglected. Magdalen, the Great Mary, emerges with new power." -- John Shelby Spong, Episcopal bishop and author of Born of a Woman This is a powerful and provocative examination of the story of Mary Magdalen and Jesus that restores the 'lost feminine principle' to impoverished Christian theology." -- Meinrad Craighead, author of The Mother's Songs'. Images of God the Mother Margaret Starbird holds a master's degree in comparative literature from the University of Maryland and has studied at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany, and at Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville.