da vinci code

I have just looked up Amazon to see any news on the new book in my favorite series, Harry Potter (July 15, save the date! I think I'll wear my Halloween witch costume to the store :0) While browing around, I noticed that a new book by Dan Brown, The Solomon Key, is coming out soon as well.

Dan Brown is an author of The Da Vinci Code , a best selling novel. I got The Da Vinci code on my birthday a year ago, and read it in one sitting. I have been interested in early Christianity for a while now, and the book certainly hit on some concepts that I came across before, and some I wasn’t aware of.

So it’s a fun read. However, people seem to forget that it’s just a piece of fiction!

I have quite a few Christian friends. Most of them are both intelligent and very nice. They do, however, possess a certain black and white view of reality; it’s full of contradictions that are apparent to any observer but escapes them completely.

For instance, the whole Harry Potter series is a big no-no. They genuinely fear that a volume of The Prisoner of Azkaban could jump out of its shelf and bewitch them and their kids on the spot. One of my friends (the more liberal one of all, mind you) said that she read it and kind of liked it, but was surprised that the Hogwarts celebrated Christmas. “It’s impossible, they can’t be doing that – they are witches!!” I am not making it up, honestly.

The Da Vinci Code elicits an even more extreme reaction. It is perceived as a rabid attack at the very tenets of faith, or rather, at those aspects of faith that have to do with literal interpretation of religious texts. It is the latter ones that people for some reason hold most dear. Is it perhaps because such approach does away with any questions, and thus is most comforting for the ‘true believer’ type?

So, just as there is a Christian Harry Potter, a ‘wholesome’ alternative to the JK Rowling’s bestseller, there are plenty of books that debunk the claims in The Da Vinci Code. To me, the sheer volume of those indicates that their authors are riding Dan Brown’s tail of fame. However, there is obviously high demand for those little ‘guides’ by people, who want to reaffirm their threatened view of the world. I was told of Catholic school teachers that always keep copies of those guides on their desk, so that they can address and blow to smithereens any heresy that the students may pick up from The Da Vinci code. Those teachers apparently have quite a choice, as evidenced by the following sample from Amazon:

The Truth Behind the Da Vinci Code: A Challenging Response to the Bestselling Novel, by Richard Abanes (this guy also wrote Harry Potter and the Bible … enough said)

Da Vinci Code Decoded: The Truth Behind the New York Times #1 Bestseller, by Martin Lunn

The Da Vinci Code: Fact or Fiction, by Hank Hanegraaff, Paul L. Maier

The above-mentioned are self-described ‘concise’ guides that help you ‘turn debate about the book into an evangelistic opportunity’ (that’s scary, but again, I am not making this up!).

There is another book in the mix, Truth and Fiction in the Da Vinci Code: A Historian Reveals What We Really Know about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Constantine, by Bart D. Ehrman, and it appears to be different. I have not read this book, but I have listened to Professor Ehrman’s courses on early Christianity that are available through the teaching company. He is a professor of religious studies, who started out as a believer, but in course of his studies came to realize that Christianity today bears little resemblance to its original form. Of all the tail-riders, his book is probably most accurate in dissecting what’s fiction and what’s historical fact in The Da Vinci Code.

However, it is ironic that both the original book and all the debunking are missing the point. The book has a great plot, but in the end it turns out that all the bad things were done by misguided individuals rather than directed by a powerful evil consortium (just like in Arlington road, ‘one man alone’, puh-leeze!). And as to the Grail, the conclusion is so wishy-washy, that I wanted to shout in frustration ‘so WHAT the heck is the Grail and HOW do we find it?!?’

Yet, there obviously IS the Holy Grail, and there obviously IS some kind of secret code to crack the mystery. But to get to it, one has to go beyond both Bible-beating and scholarly analysis. We have to remember that Jesus spoke in parables. Therefore some serious thinking required to decipher what the religious texts really say, or hint at, and then we have to figure out how it applies to our lives here and now. A daunting task for sure.

I found one source that deals with the subject in this way, attempting to SEE THE UNSEEN utilizing a variety of resources. If you are interested in what the real Da Vinci Code, may be about, you will appreciate The True Identity of Fulcanelli and The Da Vinci Code,
by Laura Knight-Jadczyk

It is very interesting how the subject of the code is linked to the alchemist and philosopher Fulcanelli; Le Mystere Des Cathedrales has been on my reading list ever since I visited the Cologne cathedral.

Read and see for yourself.