The Da Vinci Code opened on the silver screen this summer, and you haven’t read the book yet, and you wonder what all the fuss is about. We here at Seek will answer your most common questions about the book. (Warning: Important plot elements will be revealed!)

Q: What is it about?

A: The Da Vinci Code is a fictional account of an American symbologist who is inadvertently teamed up with a French forensic codebreaker to solve a bizarre murder in the Louvre. The remaining plot revolves around uncovering the hidden proof that Jesus was actually married to Mary Magdalene and that they produced a lineage that still exists today.

Q: Why are people so captivated by this book?

A: The Da Vinci Code attracts readers first by its readability. It reads very quickly, the ticking clock almost sounding in your ears. The book also has an engaging mix of ancient and modern elements. It speaks about connecting, deciphering, discovering the world around us. Much of the book is actual old-fashioned clue-solving, which any true mystery reader will enjoy. The book also triggers our underlying belief in secrets—that secrets exist and that there is more to this life and this world than we now see. In other words, The Da Vinci Code asks the questions that all people who seek God ask.

Q: What kind of religious issues does it raise?

A: The novel has two main underlying issues. The first deals with how we know what we know (a topic called epistemology for you theologians). The entire plot asks if we can truly believe what we have been taught to believe. What if it was all false? The Da Vinci Code asserts that much of the basis of Christianity is “fabricated,” however, the book gives no proof for why we should believe its proposed counter-truth. It essentially calls Christian history a myth and then offers unfounded alternatives.

The second issue centers on who Jesus really was, particularly regarding his divine/human natures (a topic called Christology for you theologians). The entire premise of the book is built on the implicit assumption that if Jesus was capable of having a child, then he was incapable of also being divine. The book says that the early Church had to work at getting people to think of Christ as divine, but in truth his divine nature was hard to conceal, what with all the miracles and walking on water and, oh, raising from the dead. Early Christians had more trouble believing he was human, often thinking that he was actually totally divine and only appeared to be human (a heresy now called Arianism).

Q: What’s the big deal? (Why is it controversial?)

A: The reason The Da Vinci Code has raised so much controversy (mostly in Christian circles) is that few people (especially Christians) have stopped to ask the question we should always ask when encountering a novel: “Does the author believe what they are writing?” Dan Brown does not. He mixes art history and theology (such as it is) in much the same way that Michael Crichton combines cloning and paleontology to yield Jurassic Park, but we are more sensitive to Brown’s topics than to Crichton’s.

When Daniel Dafoe wrote the first novel in 1719, he included countless details to make his readers believe that title character Robinson Crusoe could actually survive on a deserted island. These details seem pointless to the modern reader because the novel is now an accepted genre. We know to put our pure ration under our seats until the novel or movie is over. Even so, as readers we still instinctively think that fiction dressed in fact is fact.

Q: Is the book heretical or anti-Christian?

A: It’s hard for a book to be heretical when it’s this misinformed. Writing issues aside, The Da Vinci Code is so full of errors in theology, history, and art history that it can barely be taken seriously even with suspension of disbelief. The book’s single biggest fault is its anachronicity (yes, that is a word). It interprets history and theology totally out of sequence. The book is overall simply a case of theology awfully done. That said, why should we expect decent theology from a secular novel?

Q: What can Christians learn from the book?

A: The discerning reader of The Da Vinci Code will gain little besides a semi-decent story and a smattering of art history and architecture. For a positive reading experience, a Christian would do well to treat The Da Vinci Code as a Rorschach test, an inkblot. The book presents certain claims in order to for us to interpret them. Even bad theology can help us refine our faith by helping us to articulate what we do believe and why we believe it. Maybe in addition to trying to solve the clues that the characters face, Christian readers get the added puzzle of unraveling all the mixed-up theology.

Brian McCann currently serves as pastor in residence at the Grantham (PA) Church.

Reading the Book of Daniel

by Brian Ross

On an episode of the NBC comedy, The Office, a fire in the office kitchen forced the entire staff of the Scranton-based paper company to spend the day outside. In trying to pass the time, the co-workers launched into a game of “desert island,” part of which required them to share what books they would want with them if trapped alone for days on end.

Angela, an unhappy looking, uptight blonde (who is supposed to be a Christian) remarks she would want to have the Bible. When asked her second choice she quickly blurts out, “The Purpose Driven Life.” The next player begins by stating her desire to have The Da Vinci Code. Immediately the usually quiet yet always disapproving Angela interrupts, saying, “Oh yeah, I would want The Da Vinci Code too.” And before her co-worker can respond, Angela nastily confesses, “So I could burn it!”

I agree with Angela that the Bible would be a good choice. However, at least for her, maybe Rick Warren’s book could be fodder for heat and cooking and Brown’s conspiracy/ mystery would be good reading for her soul. Yes, I’m sure of it.

No doubt there are some good articles in this version of Seek helping Jesus followers to understand the pseudo-theology of Dan Brown and the clear wrong turns it makes interpreting God, history, and spirituality. (And if these are not to your liking, there is probably by now an entire book shelf at the local Christian bookstore on the evils of “the code.” It might right be next to the Purpose Driven section.) Yet this “Book of Daniel” might contain some unexpected insights for sincere followers of Jesus.

Rick Warren confidently shared part of the amazing success of his book on The Today Show is that it struck a chord with people. In today’s fast-paced, materialistic world, people are looking for purpose and meaning—especially spiritual purpose. There is little reason to doubt him. For a book to sell as many copies as it has, it is obviously hitting home with people’s longings. But don’t forget the same is true about The Da Vinci Code. It does ring true with the experience many have had with organized religion and seems to satisfy what they are longing for. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

First of all, though the book is a very interesting piece of fiction, to many people, the premise is fairly believable. From clergy sex scandals and the embezzlement of donated funds, to the general Christian aura of disgust with popular culture—readers do not find it hard to believe that Christianity is little more than a political system bent on keeping power and control over the masses.

Though most would not believe that there are albino monks with assassination contracts from Opus Dei, good fiction is good because it tends to be halfway believable. It is not that far of a stretch for readers at Borders bookstores to believe that the entire history of Christianity is based on the values of a powerful elite and its religious lies, rather than on the truth of Jesus Christ. It is something to keep in mind.

Second, people are hungry for spirituality and craving for meaning (as Rick Warren has wisely perceived), yet many do not believe they would find it in the Church. For increasing amounts of people, the Church is a boring, (if not backward) institution that offers little in the way of excitement or in satisfying the zest for life like a good mystery or international adventure would. They know there is a real “something” out there that is spiritual and transcendent, but they find it real hard to believe that the “real thing” has anything to do with the “church thing.”

Finally, truth is not proved through rational argument and appeals to historical validity (as if we could get down to that anyway.) I have personally talked to several bright, professional, graduate school alumni who base their understanding of “God and Goddess” on Brown’s novel.

In a postmodern, post-rational world appealing to “authoritative historical proofs” does not have the power it once did. There are just as many on the other side. (Besides, Brown masterfully exposed a lot of the true errors of the Church while working in his own thoughts- that makes sorting fact from fiction a tedious process.)

Hearts and lives are not awakened through rational arguments, but from compelling narratives and images that offer life and it more abundantly. Jesus did not create airtight outlines; he lived and envisioned life that somehow just seemed true to people.

Maybe we need to rediscover His compelling story. Not the narrative of Christianity and the Church, but the life-giving story of the ultimate unmasker of conspiracies, the adventure of the Jesus life! Telling beautiful, compelling stories (think Tolkien and Lewis, and Jesus for that matter) offers the way forward—not simply trying to get at the “facts.” Read the New York Times, the Onion, Foxnews.com, or the Limbaugh letter. Does anyone really know the facts?

Christians would do well to read and think deeply about Dan Brown’s novel and the sure to be hit movie based on it. Not because it is “true” as in the way we should live, but because it is “true” as a description of the philosophy and assumptions of many outside of faith. To be faithful witnesses of the true Jesus we need to understand the people and the context and beliefs of those He loves. We need to be as wise as serpents, as we seek to be innocent as doves.

Maybe it would be good for Angela to be alone on a desert island being reminded of what the real historical Jesus is like. Then she would see that it would be good for her to also read from the “Book of Daniel” and burn something else. Maybe then she would find a real purpose while she works in the office.

Brian Ross is the pastor of Koinos Community Church in Reading, PA.

Everything Old Is New Again!

by Pat Oldham

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. —Ecc.1:9

For many, The Da Vinci Code is a stunning revelation of the true nature of who Christ is, what his life on earth was actually like, and how the evil hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church went to great lengths to eradicate that truth.

According to Brown, Jesus Christ was a mortal man, just another prophet who happened to marry Mary Magdalene, chose her to lead His church, and fathered a daughter with her. Apparently after the death of Christ, Mary and her daughter escaped to Gaul where a secret group called the Priory of Sion kept them, and their descendants, along with their secret, safe from the Catholic Church. Opus Dei, another secret group with in the Catholic Church, sought and still seeks to keep the truth from believers because the truth would destroy the male dominated power base of the church.

TheDa Vinci Code is not the first book to espouse these theories (see Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent and The TemplarRevelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ by Lynn Pickett and Clive Prince). If one takes a close look at Brown’s scholarship, it doesn’t take long to find that not only does he disregard Scripture, he says that it has been adulterated and he bases this claim on very poor historical research.

One wonders, if Brown’s work is so poorly researched, why should we pay any attention to it at all? Unlike the two examples of similar material mentioned above, the Da VinciCode is a mega bestseller and as a result, it has had an affect on many believers. Since there is very little truth contained within the pages of the novel we must look elsewhere for what, if anything of value, can be gleaned from it.

What we can gain from this book is the knowledge of just how poorly the Church is doing in educating believers in the faith and in its documented history, both in Scripture and in extra-biblical material.

The Da Vinci Code provides us with a better understanding of the state of secular culture, as well. People read this book and are caught up in it because they still seek someone or something to fill the hollowness within themselves, a hollowness, or so it seems, that Christianity as we have defined and practiced it hasn’t been able to fill, either. As a result, we also gain the opportunity for dialogue with those who have read it and are confused by it.

The popularity of the book and the movie is also a heads-up that if we want our words to mean something in a postmodern culture, we need to let God transform us and to live lives that are a visible testimony to that Godly transformation. Our postmodern culture is much like that of the first century: we need to assume that most people haven’t met God and know little or nothing about Jesus Christ. And we need to be sold out to Christ, whatever the cost, just as the first Christians were.

Responding to The Da Vinci Code

by Matt Blowers

“The greatest evangelism opportunity in the last 2,000 years. Will your church be ready?” This was how the movie The Passion of the Christ was marketed. The movie failed to live up to that huge billing, but this summer another opportunity has presented itself to the Church. That opportunity is the film adaptation of The Da Vinci Code.

This New York Times bestseller is a captivating book with a heart-stopping plot and some dramatic claims. Though a novel, this book tears at the very roots of historical Christianity. It denies the uniqueness and redemptive nature of the life and death of Jesus Christ.

So what should the Church’s response be? A unique opportunity is presenting itself. People in the world are asking, “Who was this man called Jesus?” The Apostle Paul went into cities looking for opportunities to engage the people. Look at his ministry in Athens (Acts 17). He went to where they discussed religion and boldly proclaimed Jesus as Lord. This summer, we have the opportunity to engage with the world in a way that is unprecedented in recent memory.

There are some strings attached:

First, we must look for opportunities to engage with the world. They will not flood our churches after seeing this film; we will have to go to their territory.
Second, it will require us to really know our faith. This film raises some great questions that most Christians have never thought about and are ill-equipped to answer. That means that we will have to study the roots of our faith; this takes a commitment from both pastors and congregations. (Don’t be worried, even The History Channel has debunked the historical premises of the book.)
Third, it will require that we renew and refresh our relationship with Jesus Christ. We will be going outside the sheltered walls we have so carefully constructed.

But no matter how well we prepare, we cannot be ready for everything we will encounter. We will need to be much in prayer, fasting, and the Word.

Matt Blowers pastors City On A Hill BIC in Chambersburg, PA.

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