Ann Graham Brock (Ph.D. Harvard University) is a professor, author and lecturer whose special interests include New Testament and Early Christian Traditions, archaeology, and gender issues in religion. Her most recent publication is entitled Mary Magdalene, The First Apostle: The Struggle for Authority. She has also coedited five other books and had numerous encyclopedia and journal articles published in German, French, and English. She has taught New Testament and World Religion courses at Iliff Theological Seminary in Denver, University of Colorado at Boulder, Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, and Harvard. She has also appeared on the History Channel in its presentation of The Twelve Apostles, on the Discovery Channel in The Real Da Vinci Code, as well as several BBC television documentaries. She has also been to and lectured at biblical archaeological sites throughout Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and Israel.  Her most recent conference was in Jerusalem, attending the Third Princeton Symposium on Judaism and Christian Origins.

Ann has lectured on a variety of topics at numerous conferences and churches throughout the world, to include "Mary Magdalene of the Da Vinci Code versus Mary Magdalene of Scripture" at the Call To Action National Conference; "Just Who is Mary Magdalene?" for Mary Magdalene's Saint Day celebrations in Brigid's Place in Houston and Future Church in Cleveland; "Peter. Paul, and Mary, The Early Years" as Keynote speaker at the Southeast ELCA Synodical Conference; "Digging through the New Testament: Archaeological and Geographical Insights into the Gospels and Epistles" at Iliff Week of Lectures, "Mary Magdalene: Venerated Sinner or Denigrated Saint?" at Biblical Symposium of Mary Magdalene in Contemporary Research at Florida Southern College, and regularly presents at the Society of Biblical Literature National and International Conferences and other international professional conferences. Ann was  the Keynote Speaker at the Feast of Mary Magdalene celebration, July 22, 2007, at Wisdom Ways Center for Spirituality in St. Paul, Minnesota. She is also available for book signings, such as the one pictured above at Borders in Hawaii. She currently lives with her family in Centennial, Colorado. Contact her at AnnBrock@aol.com for possible speaking engagements or book signings.

About  Mary Magdalene, The First Apostle: Why did some early Christians consider Mary Magdalene to be an apostle while others did not? Some Chistian texts, underlining her role as one of the very first witnesses to the resurrection, portray Mary Magdalene as the "apostle to the apostles," while other sources exclude or replace her in their resurrection accounts. This book examines how the conferral, or withholding, of apostolic status operated as a tool of persuasion in the politics of early Christian literature. Drawing on both canonical and noncanonical literature in her comprehensive study, the author reveals some intriguing correlations between the prominence of Peter in a text and a corresponding diminishment of women's leadership and apostolicity. This historical study of early Christian tensions has serious implications for current denominational discourse because authority, apostolic status, and the ordination of women continue to be highly disputed topics within many Christian circles today. Buy the Book