I just finished reading Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code." I had heard two seminars on it, and finally got around to reading it. From a literary standpoint, the characters are thinly developed and the action improbable. However, it is definitely a page turner, and what it lacks in character development it makes up for in plot.
Now to the historical/biblical standpoint. Dan Brown's work is riddled with obvious historical errors. For good documentation of these errors, see
http://www.crisismagazine.com/september2003/feature1.htm. A few of his more outrageous claims:
- Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had a child. (The Gospel of Mary and Gospel of Peter, which Brown draws from to support his claim, were written hundreds of years after the accepted gospels. It would be like someone today claiming to know intimate details of George Washington's life, conversations that he had, etc.--and that, by the way, he was not really our first president. Who would believe such a "gospel" of George Washington?)
- Jesus was not divine, and the church covered up this fact and created the myth of his divinity. (In fact, the church readily accepted Christ's divinity; the earliest questions were whether or not Christ was also fully human). He also claims that the Council of Nicea had an extremely close vote on whether or not Jesus was divine. No such thing happened. See http://www.beliefnet.com/story/168/story_16806_1.html.
- Ancient Judaism worshiped both a male and a female deity with sex rites in the temple, and all worship of the "sacred feminine" was suppressed by the church and eliminated fom history (there is no evidence of this, and immorality in the temple was condemned in 2 Kings).
- The Catholic Church murdered 5 million women in the Spanish inquisition (actual estimates are 50,000--a gross exaggeration).
This is just the tip of the iceberg. His supposed exegesis of biblical and non-biblical texts is simply horrendous, and he rewrites history at every turn.
On the other hand, as one author put it, Who knew that church history could be so hot? Christ is being talked about, and this is a good thing. Many who never would even think about Christ are now reading about him, hearing about him. Christians are being called to reexamine their faith, and they will soon discover that while it is based on faith, there is overwhelming evidence that supports the claims of Christianity.
The Da Vinci Code is a #1 bestseller, and it will be a huge movie with Tom Hanks. We can't just bury our heads in the sand and pretend that it doesn't exist. So, how can we use this to talk with others about Christ? How should we address this with our members? What did you think of the book? Do you plan to see the movie? On the whole, do you think that the result of the book will be positive or negative for reaching people with the gospel?
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