The Da Vinci Code - fact, fiction, or heresy?

self | 1 September, '03 | J, King

[Sam Cree]

Here's another review, not quite as harsh, but still makes a couple good hits.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/ae/books/news/2040694

[chuckles]

The real underlying purpose of the stories of Jesus getting married and running off to France is to explain how Jesus was SEEN ALIVE after His crucifiction. Many people saw Him out of the tomb and it must be explained somehow other than supernaturally. The Muslims also say Jesus' followers gave Him poison on the sponge lifterd to His mouth that made Him appear to die. Then confederates robbed the tomb and gave Him the antidote. I find it reassuring that so many must try to explain why He was seen and not whether He was seen.

The problem is, some of this bilge is working it's way into the theologic academia and they are the ones teaching future priests and preachers. In many denominations today, they don't believe in the virgin birth, healings, resurections of the dead, especially Jesus'. If Jesus wasn't able to rise from the tomb, then why would anyone trust Him with their own resurection? Kinda takes the whole purpose of Christanity away. Why would someone want to be a priest for an impotent god?

[tortoise]

Suprisingly, Dr Robert Schoch in his book, Voyages Of The Pyramid Builders, thinks the Sumerians were the refugees from the Sunda Shelf (around Indonesia) and travelled all over the world spreading their pyramid building culture everywhere. The Sunda Shelf went underwater at the end of the Ice Age.

I've never heard of this before, but it sounds vaguely plausible offhand. Interesting. One thing that has become clear as archaeology has improved, is that the ancient peoples traveled around the globe FAR more than we have historically given them credit for.

[Swordmaker]

There is a tradition in Europe that the royal blood of the European houses can trace their lineage back to the children of Chirst and Mary Magdalen through the Carolingian (Charlemagne) line.

This was outlined in a scholarly book "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" by Michael Baigent, Henry Lincoln, and Richard Leigh. The Priory of Sion does exist... but whether it was established to protect the "royal blood line of Jesus Christ" or is an ancient secret society for the protection of ancient secret kooks is unknown: members do not talk.

[Swordmaker]

Also the main theme of the book about the co-equal divinity of the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Jesus and the "conspiracy" to hide the "sacred feminine" also exists:

[Shryke]

Why would someone want to be a priest for an impotent god?

What? God is impotent without a virgin-born, resurected Jesus? Like in the entire old testament?

[yhwhsman]

I think the story of Atlantis is another version of the Flood story.

[Woahhs]

Personally, I found the book highly over-rated. The writer plays pretty fast and loose with the scholarship angle, though if you respect the opinion of theological "scholars" that believe a homosexual bishop is just dandy, I guess it's up to you.

Trite and banal is all I could think of the book. It reads like a teleplay, and not a particularly good one either. I got about three quarters of the way through on its reputation, and figured is wasn't going to get any better, so I didn't even care enough to finish it. I'd already had a belly full of that cheap literary device of telling the reader the protagonist found something significant, then waiting five pages to tell what it was.

Also, it almost seemed like plagerism for the writer to flood the landscape of his story with historically great works of art. Kind of a literary equivalent to the nut-case that has a collection of pictures of himself with notable celebrities.

The "sacred feminine" the protagonist explains as an ostensibly neutral observer just showed a lack of guts on the part of the writer in that while our hero takes no position, he speaks rather reverentially of the ancient gnosis.

All in all, I thought the book was the offering of a very gifted person with a tainted taste for the tawdry.

[gonzo]

Hi, Jenn. Long time............FRegards

[dixie sass]

After reading the review, I came to the conclusion that she didn't like the book! The review reminded me of two books by Umberto Eco, "THE NAME OF THE ROSE" and Foucault's Pendulum.

[Snowy]

I just finished the book and liked it very much. I found this (http://www.lulu.com/content/11494)[download the .pdf file], which is 'a reader's guide' to the book and apparently it explains a lot of the premises found in the book. Also, on the www.danbrown.com website, there is a FAQ which addresses his sources.

[CaptRon]

I thought the book made the point that the the lineage was throught the Merovingian line and that Charles Martel, founder of the Carolingians, was a usurper.

[Aquinasfan]

#15/#19 bump.

[Snowy]

#15/#19 bump.

Have you read the book?

[Swordmaker]

I thought the book made the point that the the lineage was throught the Merovingian line and that Charles Martel, founder of the Carolingians, was a usurper.

You may be right... It has been many, many years since I read the book.

[Aquinasfan]

Have you read the book?

No. But I know and trust Crisis Magazine.

[Snowy]

No. But I know and trust Crisis Magazine.

You should not comment on a book you haven't read. Never be afraid to do your own research and thinking.

[Cincinatus]

I've read it. Not bad, but basically a cheap potboiler. Brown got most of his conspiracy theory from Baigent et al.'s Holy Blood, Holy Grail, which came out in the early 1980's a created quite a little cottage industry in the paranoia literature, linking the Knights Templar, Rosicrucians, Freemasonry, renaissance Hermetic magic, the Crusades, and a variety of other esoteric arcana into one giant conspiracy theory.

Great fun stuff for people who like The X-Files. I would neither take it too seriously nor be offended.

[Aquinasfan]

You should not comment on a book you haven't read.

Is it OK to comment on a review of a book by a magazine that I respect?

[Snowy]

Is it OK to comment on a review of a book by a magazine that I respect?

Sure, as long as you keep in mind that there is no way that your magazine could say anything possitive about the book. It would be like PETA serving ribs at one of their functions.