Leonardo da Vinci April 15, 1452 - May 2, 1519 was an Italian Renaissance architect, musician, anatomist, inventor, engineer, sculptor, geometer, and painter. He has been described as the archetype of the "Renaissance man" and as a universal genius. Leonardo is famous for his masterly paintings, such as The Last Supper and Mona Lisa. He is also known for designing many inventions that anticipated modern technology, although few of these designs were constructed in his lifetime. In addition, he helped advance the study of anatomy, astronomy, and civil engineering. Renaissance humanism saw no mutually exclusive polarities between sciences and arts.
A prankster and genius, Leonardo is widely believed to have hidden secret messages within much of his artwork.Most scholars agree that even his most famous pieces works like The Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and Madonna of the Rocks contain startling anomalies that all seem to be whispering the same cryptic message,a message that hints at a shocking historical secret which allegedly has been guarded since 1099 by a European secret society known as the Priory of Sion.In 1975, Paris's Bibliotheeque Nationale discovered parchments known as Les Dossiers Secrets, identifying numerous members of the Priory of Sion, including Sir Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo, Botticelli, and Leonardo da Vinci. French President, Francois Mitterrand, is rumored to have been a member, although there exists no proof of this.
The Da Vinci Code. Dan Brown's mystery/thriller. It's accepted that Brown's book is a Novel, however, is it a novel based on accurate fact or a novel based on factual in-accuracies. Below is a variety of comments by people who have read Dan Brown's Novel.
[and what a storm Dan Brown's book has caused]
It has become a commonplace to say that anti Catholicism is the last acceptable prejudice. Our popular culture is awash with it, and there is no better example than The Da Vinci Code. The best seller stirs a little fact into much fiction, and the result is a skewed presentation of the origins of Christianity, a grotesque portrayal of its Founder, and a caricature of the Church he established. Countless readers finish the book thinking it has brought to light long hidden truths, but the real truth is that they have been hoodwinked.
It certainly contains some truth.
He accurately describes a real painting, the Last Supper by Da Vinci...but it is much, much more debatable whether the figure next to Jesus is a woman. Brown wrote a work of fiction using lots and lots of elements of truth, he puts true elements together and leaves others out to give misleading impressions, puts true elements with utterly fictional ones,etc., etc.
It's not TRUE it's not FALSE, it's a work of fiction with a lot of historically accurate elements.
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown is a writhing nest of neo-Gnostic myths, blatant falsehoods, half-truths and absurd suppositions presented as facts, indeed, it is one of the most odious cases of revisionist history that have appeared during the past two centuries. Brown has distorted history and the underlying malice in his fictional attack on Christianity that is growing in contemporary writing is abominable.
Dan Brown's book is more than just the story of a quest for the Grail, he wholly reinterprets the Grail legend. In doing so, Brown inverts the insight that a woman's body is symbolically a container and makes a container symbolically a woman's body. And that container has a name every Christian will recognize, for Brown claims that the Holy Grail was actually Mary Magdalene. She was the vessel that held the blood of Jesus Christ in her womb while bearing his children.
Dan brown's theory that Jesus may have been married to Mary Magdalene and had his child has a long history. It was made particularly public by Holy Blood, Holy Grail and followed by Bishop Spong and others. Luther seems to have thought that she had a sexual relationship with Christ as far back as the 16th century. As there is no evidence of either a marriage or child, give no credence to this hypothesis.
This is pure genius. Thriller writing doesn't get any better than this. Dan Brown has to be one of the best, smartest, and most accomplished writers in the country.
Brown knows that the majority of readers will accept his conspiracy theories and distortions of history, because he knows most people don't know, for example, what the Gnostic gospels even are. Most people wouldn't pick up on the fact that Brown can't even get the date of the Dead Sea Scrolls discovery right.
This masterpiece should be mandatory reading. Exceedingly clever, both fascinating and fun...a considerable achievement. Brown solidifies his reputation as one of the most skilled thriller writers on the planet with his best book yet, a compelling blend of history and page-turning suspense. Highly recommended.
One of the more laughable claims of Brown's novel is that the early Christians literally stole Jesus and shrouded his human message, in an impenetrable cloak of divinity, and using it to expand their own power. The novel claims that the gnostic Jesus is far more human than the divinized Jesus of the four canonical Gospels contained in the Christian Bible.
Brown's story has so many twists, all satisfying and unexpected. It's a thundering, tantalizing, extremely smart fun ride and Brown doesn't slow down his tremendously powerful narrative engine despite transmitting several doctorates' worth of fascinating history and learned speculation, "The Da Vinci Code" is brain candy of the highest quality.
But remember.......it's only fiction.
There is no room in Christianity for hidden fundamentals. Hidden depths, certainly, but God has made the fundamentals clear to us in writing so that we are without excuse if we do not heed His Word. According to Jesus, the standard of judgment is the Word He has already spoken to us (John 12:48). It logically follows that God will have provided a reliable record of that word for us, and true history testifies that it is so. But beware of gifted novelists able to use their God-given talents in an attempt to undermine and deny His Word.
Dan Brown's conspiracy-theory thriller is an ingenious mixture of paranoid thriller, art history lesson, chase story, religious symbology lecture and anti-clerical screed, and it's the most fun you can have between the sort of covers that aren't 300 count Egyptian cotton. An international chase...a quest...codes within codes. Brown's novel is a pager-turner... and you'll never view "The Last Supper" the same way again.
The immense success of The Da Vinci Code and its strong language about the Catholic Church has resulted in substantial controversy over many of the "facts" within its pages. Not only is the novel influencing the views of non-Catholic readers, it is raising difficult questions in the minds of many Catholics, some of whom are being asked about Brown's interpretation of Church history and theology.
The Da Vinci Code sets the hook-of-all-hooks. Dan Brown's novel takes off down a road that is as eye-opening as it is page-turning. You simply cannot put it down. He has assembled a whopper of a plot that will please conspiracy buffs and thriller addicts alike. Brown delivers a crackling, intricate mystery, complete with breathtaking escapes and several stunning surprises. It's challenging, exciting, and a whole lot more. The race across France and the United Kingdom leads us on a fascinating journey through a covert, enigmatic world revealed through a seemingly endless collection of codes, puzzles, anagrams, cryptograms, and messages hidden not only in Da Vinci's art but in things we think we know well. "The Da Vinci Code" is fascinating and absorbing, perfect for history buffs,
The book takes great pains to create the appearance of factuality, including placing the infamous "fact" page at the beginning of the novel. Brown has stressed the ostensible accuracy of the book on his web site and in interviews. This is not a case where an author and a publisher have produced an ordinary novel. They have gone to great lengths to mislead people into thinking that the novel has a historical basis. They deserve especially sharp criticism for this, and when criticism is made they cannot hypocritically hide behind the "It's just fiction" allegation after having made such extensive efforts to convince the reader that it is not "just fiction."
Dan Brown's extensive research on secret societies and symbology adds intellectual depth to this page-turning thriller.His surprising revelations on Da Vinci's penchant for hiding codes in his paintings will lead the reader to search out renowned artistic icons as The Mona Lisa, The Madonna of the Rocks and The Last Supper. The Last Supper holds the most astonishing coded secrets of all and, after reading The Da Vinci Code, you will never see this famous painting in quite the same way again.
Brown actually cites his principal sources within the text of his novel. One is a specimen of academic feminist scholarship: The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels. The others are popular esoteric histories: The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ by Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince; Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln; The Goddess in the Gospels: Reclaiming the Sacred Feminine and The Woman with the Alabaster Jar: Mary Magdalen and the Holy Grail, both by Margaret Starbird. (Starbird, is a self-identified Catholic) Another influence, at least at second remove, is The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets by Barbara G. Walker.
Some readers spurn genre fiction, often due to a misguided belief that mass entertainment is always mindless dribble. The Da Vinci Code makes you feel justifiably smug. It's that rare book that manages to both "entertain and educate" simultaneously. There is enough medieval history to please any historian, secret fanatical religious sects...codes hidden in Da Vinci's works...intelligent writing...one fabulous read with Crichtonesque discursions on medieval iconography, the formation of the early Christian church, and history's suppression of the "sacred feminine."
The most important word in this entire book is the noun in the subtitle; this is a "novel" a work of fiction. That is important to remember, especially after the statements on page 1, which move the work slightly into the arena of historical fiction, but only slightly. It is true that there are such organizations as the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei. It is true that the author has worked hard to describe accurately the contemporary European locations, including city layouts, buildings, and artwork, in which the plot is set. The statement that "all descriptions of . . . documents. . .in this novel are accurate" is, however, highly inaccurate!
Dan Brown masterfully concocts an intelligent and lucid thriller that marries the gusto of an international murder mystery with a collection of fascinating esoteria culled from 2,000 years of Western history. Brown's hero and heroine embark on a lofty and intriguing exploration of some of culture's greatest mysteries, from the nature of the Mona Lisa's smile to the secret of the Holy Grail, rich food for thought. From the explosive start to the explosive finish, The Da Vinci Code is one satisfying "thriller/novel".
Look carefully, and you'll see that Brown employs some rather dexterous sleight-of-pen in that preface. At first glance, it seems very bold and compelling. Re-read it, though, and you'll see that Brown is quite specific about the elements of the book he claims to be historically accurate. His descriptions of the artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals in Da Vinci are, indeed, accurate. The story that surrounds them, however, is conjecture; a puzzle assembled from historical jigsaw pieces that have been rearranged to present another picture.
If only The Da Vinci Code had been just a "rattling good yarn", with no claim to truth, maybe no harm would have been done. But by taking it seriously, it becomes a dagger aimed at the heart of Christianity. He affirms that, while the artwork, architecture, documents and rituals mentioned are all accurate, it is nevertheless a work of fiction, and it is not guaranteed that the use made out them portrays historical accuracy. He is well aware of the controversy about his work, but insists that this is a good thing because it will draw attention to issues surrounding the Church, religion and Christian religion and, in the course of research, produce a better informed public.
It's clear that Christians believed in the deity of Christ prior to the Council of Nicaea. It's also clear that most of The Da Vinci Code's theories about Jesus and the early church are false.
The Da Vinci Code shines brilliantly in its exploration of cryptology, particularly the encoding methods developed by Leonardo Da Vinci, whose art and manuscripts are packed with mystifying symbolism and quirky codes. The novel is a thrill aminute adventure as well as an educational tour of France and England, symbology 101, riddle breaking for dummies, the magical powers of anagrams, numerical codes to die for and navigational factoids.
Brown questions the inspiration, preservation, and canonicity of the Scriptures. The Bible he says, is a product of man, Not of God. The Bible did not fall magically from the clouds. Man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times, and it has evolved through countless translations, additions, and revisions. History has never had a definitive version of the book. Thousands of documents already existed chronicling His life as a mortal man. To rewrite the history books, Constantine commissioned and financed a new Bible, which omitted those gospels that spoke of Christ's human traits and embellished those gospels that made him godlike. The earlier gospels were outlawed, gathered up, and burned. As far as Brown is concerned, the historical and factual gospels have been destroyed in the 4th century. What remains today are the spurious and fictitious Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that promote a mythical, godlike Jesus. So, all this while, Christians have been reading the wrong Gospels and believing in a false Jesus!
From both Holy Blood, Holy Grail and The Templar Revelation, Brown takes a negative view of the Bible and a grossly distorted image of Jesus. He's neither the Messiah nor a humble carpenter but a wealthy, trained religious teacher bent on regaining the throne of David. His credentials are amplified by his relationship with the rich Magdalen who carries the royal blood of Benjamin: Almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false, laments one of Brown's characters.
Readers with advanced degrees in comparative religion, European history, symbology, art and cryptology, will have a grand old time with Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. The rest will just stumble through, grasping at this clue and that, gasping in surprise at one or another shadow around the next corner, and likewise have a grand old time. The novel is maddening, scary, complicated and almost impossible to put down once you're hooked.
The Da Vinci Code introduces many people to the fact that there were many exotic flowers in the early garden of Christianity. There are many reasons that they didn’p’t become the dominant form of Christianity. In some cases they couldn't compete in the marketplace of ideas and in others they were eradicated by the political power of the state allied with the church. The church has not always covered itself in glory by mercy and justice.
Incorporating massive amounts of historical and academic information is no easy task, but Brown does it in such a seamless fashion that it is almost invisible within the story's natural narrative. Definitely the mark of a master craftsman.
So error laden is The Da Vinci Code that the educated reader actually applauds those rare occasions where Brown stumbles (despite himself) into the truth. A few examples of his impeccable research: He claims that the motions of the planet Venus trace a pentacle (the so-called Ishtar pentagram) symbolizing the goddess. But it isn't a perfect figure and has nothing o do with the length of the Olympiad. The ancient Olympic games were celebrated in honor of Zeus Olympias, not Aphrodite, and occurred every four years.
In the novel Harvard professor, Robert Langdon, is the source of much of the supposedly accurate historical information and an unsuspecting person could easily be fooled into thinking that this eminently reasonable man is speaking the truth. The other source of information is Sir Leigh Teabing who turns out to be a villain, but nevertheless the information he presents on the Holy Grail is done in an authoritative way which appears to be historical and accurate.
Calling Dan Brown's novel, The Da Vinci Code, simply a "smart suspense novel" is like referring to Harvard as simply a pretty good university. It's a skillfully written book, complete with secret codes, anagrams, elaborate technology, pagan sex orgies, sudden reversals of fortune, age old conspiracies, pre-Christian fertility cults, the Knights Templar, Gnostic Gospels, corrupt cops, brutal murders, feminist theory, and frantic midnight rides through Paris.
There are numerous pieces of false information in Dan Brown's novel "The Da Vinci Code". For example it's claimed that at the Council of Nicea, the Emperor Constantine led the bishops to declare Jesus as Son of God by a vote a relatively close vote at that (page 315). This was a new idea because Until that moment in history Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet, a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless, a mortal.
In fact the Council of Nicea did not invent the divinity of Jesus. This was the claim of Jesus Himself (I and My Father are one; John 10.30), not only taught by the Apostles in the New Testament but also affirmed by a huge number of writings of early Christians which predate the Council of Nicea (AD 325) by up to two hundred years. It is true that the Council of Nicea fixed the doctrine of the divinity of Jesus in its creed. This was in response to the heretical teachings of Arius who taught a similar doctrine to today's Jehovah's Witnesses, that Jesus is not of 'the same substance as the Father' (i.e. that he is a kind of lesser god who takes second place to the Father). When it came to voting on this issue was it a 'relatively close vote'? Not quite. Only two out of more than 300 bishops failed to sign the creed!
Word of mouth has pushed this top-notch thriller onto best-seller lists throughout the country, and the word is right. The intelligent, deftly plotted story is the best that the thriller genre can offer. "The Da Vinci Code" is chockablock with fascinating historical detail (the true meaning of the pentagram, for example) that doesn't slow the action but draws the reader into the story. The "code" and all the clues are a true joy, giving this thriller the extra stuff that raises it above being just another spy and chase story.
The novel purports to be more than fiction: it claims to be based on fact and scholarly research. Brown wants his readers to believe that he is revealing the long-concealed truth about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and early Christianity, a truth that he says has been suppressed by the malevolent and conspiratorial forces of the Catholic Church. The novel alleges that there has been throughout history a secret group of true followers of a Gnostic Jesus and his wife, Mary Magdalene, the true "Holy Grail". Almost everything most Christians and non-Christians think they know about Jesus, according to Dan Brown, is completely wrong, the result of Catholic propaganda designed to hide the truth from the world.
In order to create the wrong idea of Jesus, Brown claims that the Bible as we know it today was collated by the pagan Roman emperor Constantine the Great. More than eighty gospels were considered for the New Testament, and yet only a relative few were chosen for inclusion - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John among them. (page 313). Again this took place at the Council of Nicea, according to the book.
Da Vinci is a fiction novel, and what's more, it's a thriller, a page turner designed to provide a hook on every page, and a cliffhanger in every chapter. The book's preface serves the same basic function as title cards in movie that read, "Based on a true story," or even more vaguely, "Inspired by a true story." It's all for effect.
The book claims that the Roman Catholic Church has been involved in a conspiracy to cover up the true story of Jesus. Because the novel claims to contain elements of historical truth within its fictional framework, it has attracted a large amount of criticism for its historical claims, as well as for its clichééd style and improbable storyline. At least ten books debunking its claims have been written.
Even though it is A historical fiction, this is A very good book to read. True that some of the points he wrote about were true. But we should know that this is open to interpretation. What is also important is that as readers, we should be able to discern where historical truths end and where fiction begins. I have read A great deal of historical fictions, and know how misleading historical fictions can be. Nothing that is written IN this novel is exact. The father of this theme that Dan Brown took IN this book is Michael Baigent, the author of HOLY BLOOD, HOLY GRAIL. He said it succinctly that he did not believe about the grail story because he did not know. What he wrote was what people said, many of whom were hazy about it. So, he wrote using 'it is said that'. That is what makes writings glaringly historical fictions.
The stunning amount of damage wrought by this novel on the Christian faith, and especially the Catholic Church, outdoes even its incredible popularity. Brown's novel, supposedly based on sound historical fact and academic research,makes the following outrageous claims:1:
Jesus and Mary Magdalene were secretly married and produced a sacred bloodline.2:
Mary Magdalene was actually the head apostle and the one to whom Jesus gave the authority of the early church.3:
The Catholic Church is aware of the truth of the Magdalene and has conspired for over fourteen centuries to cover the facts.4:
Constantine was a pagan who altered the Bible to meet his own needs. He is responsible for transforming Jesus Christ from the mortal man he actually was to the immortal Son of God.5:
Every aspect of Christianity has been derived from ancient pagan roots.
Leonardo Da Vinci painted hidden, decidedly non-Christian symbols into his Christian paintings as "a subtle thumbing of his nose at the Church" in order to expose the Church's scheming cover-ups. These are just a few of Brown's contentions, all of them tied to the Catholic Church and its continuing quest to keep the "truth" of Christianity from being revealed. In an attempt to uncover the real truth, which is obviously elusive to Brown, Carl E. Olson and Sandra Miesel has written The Da Vinci Hoax, in which they examine each of the book's assertions. As it turns out, Brown's "solid historical fact" is anything but solid, or even historical for that matter.
One historical observation in Brown's book remains quite true: that there are two basic forces in the world, good and evil, truth and falseness. From the Sermon on the Mount to the Last Supper, Our Lord himself emphasized the eternal, irreconcilable conflict between the spirit of the world and the spirit of God which would result in a fierce persecution of His Holy Church. Indeed the Church suffered several centuries of persecution, heresies and two waves of barbarian invasions. During the Middle Ages, mankind reached the apex of Christian Civilization when all human relations, all human institutions and even secular governments were permeated by the doctrines of Christ. Then civilization went into a reverse mode marked by a religious revolution, then a political revolution, and finally economic and social revolutions. In this reverse process Christianity appears to be reaching the worst stages of the ancient persecutions. The Da Vinci Code mirrors the mentality behind that persecution.
I found the plot of Brown's latest book to be more or less a vehicle for the retelling of a conspiracy theory with some pretty good insights thrown into the mix. The fact that it has provoked such a response from Christians is testament enough to one of the warnings of the book that if what is being talked about were true, the consequences could be quite dire for the power structure of the modern Christian religion. Brown cites a variety of Biblical and extra-Biblical sources, yet as rebuttal, Christians only cite the Bible time and time again. This ignores a big problem for Christianity, namely why only the certain books contained in the modern Bible were chosen over SO many others. Out of some 50 to 80 Gospels, only 4 made it into the final cut. This begs the question of why even as the modern church claims it had knowledge of which were "valid" or "inspired" over others.
It is indeed unfortunate that many readers of this book have been mesmerized by Brown's storyline and have become convinced that The Da Vinci Code presents, or may present, a true, academic account of history. On the contrary, art scholars do not support Brown's claims about Renaissance art and biblical and patristic scholars do not confirm his assertions regarding Jesus, Mary Magdalene, the church, and Constantine. In the final analysis, Brown's claims turn out to be just as fictional as the rest of The Da Vinci Code.
The Da Vinci Code is very creatively written by Mr. Dan Brown. He is a great man with fantastic imagination. However his interviews are based on an inclination on what he wants to hear; It's something for "quencing" the ear and a feather to tickle the armpit.In the same note........I've heard: God Is Love, Love Is Blind, Therefore God is Blind
More than once in the book, the protagonist, Teabing, makes the claim that the canonical gospels are not the earliest gospels. Instead, he claims, the suppressed Gnostic gospels are the earliest written gospels and the canonical gospels were selected from among 80 other gospels.
Much of Brown's argument centers around da Vinci's Last Supper, a painting the author considers a coded message that reveals the truth about Jesus and the Grail. Brown points to the lack of a central chalice on the table as proof that the Grail isn't a material vessel. But da Vinci's painting specifically dramatizes the moment when Jesus warns, "One of you will betray me" (John 13:21). There is no Institution Narrative in St. John's Gospel. The Eucharist is not shown there. And the person sitting next to Jesus is not Mary Magdalene (as Brown claims) but St. John, portrayed as the usual effeminate da Vinci youth, comparable to his St. John the Baptist. Jesus is in the exact center of the painting, with two pyramidal groups of three apostles on each side. Although da Vinci was a spiritually troubled homosexual, Brown's contention that he coded his paintings with anti-Christian messages simply can't be sustained.
Though marketed as fiction, The Da Vinci Code is clearly intended to present what Brown believes is factual material about the origins of the Christian church. All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel, the preface states, are accurate. Brown himself has said after a year and a half of research, he became a believer in the thesis that Mary Magdalene's role in the church was purposefully obscured, as was her marriage to Jesus.Many readers and reviewers of The Da Vinci Code unfortunately have reached the conclusion that Brown is presenting sound research. The New York Daily News, for example, described Brown's research as impeccable. Critical investigation, however, reveals that Brown has simply accepted a tendentious and unsupportable version of history put together by nonscholars. He is able to do this by assuring himself, as do many readers of The Da Vinci Code and adherents to popular conspiracy theories, that the "truth" has been suppressed and that history has been "written by the winners" (the Christian church, p. 256), who felt free to distort the record. Such claims are mere contrivances, however, and are often circular in nature.
Those who make such claims accept whatever evidence they can as positive and dismiss negative evidence or lack of evidence as further proof that the "winners" have been covering up the truth. Such theories are positioned to be unfalsifiable and therefore are critically worthless.
In The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown says....More than 80 gospels were eliminated from the New Testament that were unfavourable to "male rule" by Constantine and his delegates at the Council of Nicaea. But this assertion is bogus. It’s a reminder that legends are often confused with facts in such a way that the legends actually appear to replace the facts.
Christians will take offense to some of the theories and/or the facts in this book. It mainly deals with a secret about Jesus that the Catholic church tried to hide from its followers. They felt the need to hide it because if found out, it would topple the beliefs of so many and ruin the business of the Church. Many people show interest in this secret for many reasons...some to show how evil the church is, some to gain fortune and fame, some just to feel like their apart of something greater than themselves.
"The Da Vinci Code" floats the notion that the fourth century Roman emperor Constantine suppressed the earlier gospels for political reasons and imposed the doctrine of the divinity of Christ at the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325. A character in "The Da Vinci Code" points out that it is history's winners who get to write history, a refrain echoed by Mr. Brown on his Web site. A wide spectrum of Christian scholars agree the depiction of the Council of Nicaea is one of the book's most blatant distortions. While there was a diversity of early expressions of Christianity, they agree, Jesus' divinity was part of the church's established canons well before 325, and predates most of the newly found Gnostic and other gospels.
There is no truth to be found in Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" This incredibly rotten book, in addition to sensationally bad writing, offers absolutely nothing in the way of shedding new light to the Da Vinci code. The author brings no footnotes, no sources to the table. His research can't have taken many hours, and he just blabbers on based solely on his own ideas, with no references.
Do not buy it.
The Da Vinci Code did not break new ground, but continued in a long line of scurrilous books that attack Catholic belief. Like most symbolic literature, it was written on two levels. The writer had the ability to construct a tight, fast-paced narrative about a man and a woman fleeing from dangerous enemies. Interspersed with the story line was a running dissertation that exhibited the most sacrilegious, abysmal understanding of theology and a grotesque, erroneous view of history. But more important, the novel serves as an excellent compendium for the Gnostic, anti-Catholic belief-system that has been used in recent decades to undermine and replace a Christian civilization based on Church teaching.
This is without doubt the worst "history" book I have ever had the misfortune to read. Whether Lunn actually researched his material or sat and googled it is debatable. An example is the chapter on the supposed marriage of Christ. Lunn contradicts himself in two paragraphs. One saying that Mary Magdalene is often mistake for Mary of Bethany incorrectly and another saying that they are the same person. (Incidentally it is not true that they are the same person.)His argument for Jesus's marriage to Magdalene rests on the incident of Lazarus's death and Mary of Bethany's behaviour there (having already denied that they are the same person) and the wedding that is mentioned in John. This passage in John makes it very clear that Jesus is merely a guest there and the Mary in question there is his mother.
However, since Lunn appears not to have bothered reading the gospel, it is no surprise that this didn't deter him. In short, he presents a contradictory argument, full of holes and often merely his own opinion with no evidence to back it up. The rest of the book follows a similar pattern.Do not waste your money on this book unless you are a history student seeking a good example of how not to write an essay.
Readers should know that the basic plot of Dan Brown's novel has existed for centuries and can be found in esoteric and New Age literature such as Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent (1983), which is referenced in the novel. The difference is that Brown takes these legends and wraps them in a quasi-historical story that is being read by millions.Many who read the book are wondering if all, or at least some, of its claims might be true. (p. xix) But The Da Vinci Code also attacks the Bible, the deity of Jesus and the origin of Christianity. Christian's should be concerned about fact and fiction when they read this book.
Does anyone really take these ideas seriously? Yes; as a matter of fact, they do. This is partly due to the way Brown has written his story. If one sets out to read The Da Vinci Code, the first word he will encounter, in bold uppercase letters, is the word "FACT." Shortly thereafter Brown writes, "All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate." And the average reader, with no special knowledge or training in these areas, will assume the statement is true.
Brown is not the first to propose that Christianity is a vast conspiracy by the Vatican and/or others to hoodwink the world about the true Jesus. He will not be the last. What is surprising is not that he would boldly label "FACT" what has been so totally refuted by the evidence. What is surprising is that our culture is so ill-equipped so as not to be able to discern fact from fiction, misinformed about Christianity, woefully ignorant of history, and clueless about the Bible; its origin, composition, preservation, and translation.This novel is based on such flimsy fabrication that if it used any other setting; an ethnic neighborhood, a police investigation, an environmental conservation movement, for example; no one would be able to suspend disbelief long enough to enjoy the story. That millions of people are not turned off by the lack of authenticity in The DaVinci Code is more than surprising, it is sad. That critics and even news media are so gullible is more than revealing about the state of our culture, it reveals the tragic truth that our culture is in need of rediscovering Truth.
THE CONCEPT that Jesus is God was invented centuries after Christ's death, at least, according to Dan Brown. This reinvention of Christian history is one of the central premises behind his runaway bestseller, The DaVinci Code. Brown's thriller also depicts a Vatican conspiracy to suppress the truth: that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene; that Mary's womb was the legendary Holy Grail; and that Jesus fathered children whose descendants now live in France. In recent months, Christians have responded with books such as Breaking the Da Vinci Code, by Darrell Bock. Brown's critics maintain that he is simply rehashing a thesis presented two decades ago in another best-seller, Holy Blood, Holy Grail.
One of these critics is biblical scholar Ward Gasque, president of the Seattle-based Center for Innovation in Theological Education.
He has been presenting a seminar, 'Cracking The Da Vinci Code,' in various North American cities. Westridge Community Church in Mississauga, Ontario invited church members to read Brown's book, and then participate in Gasque's seminar March 21. Gasque will present the seminar in B.C. later this month.
Many Christians, he told ChristianWeek, "have found themselves ill-equipped to deal with the alleged 'facts' mentioned by Brown." said Gasque, adding: "You wouldn't think that people would be believing this, because it's a work of fiction. But it's being assumed to be a work of history and historical research." The DaVinci phenomenon, he said, highlights "the need to read and think critically." He is encouraging concerned Christians to respond to the book's popularity by making "a serious study of the history of the church, as well as the Bible itself." Christianity, he stressed, "has more going for it than [Brown's] pseudo-research into Christian origins."
The Last Supper.
Brown sees The Last Supper in an entirely different light. John, seated next to Jesus, is not John. In fact, he is not even a man.
"The disciple whom Jesus loved" in John's Gospel (Jn 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7, 20) is in fact Mary Magdalene! Now to be fair, Brown did not come up with this himself; it has been surmised by a number of writers and a few scholars. Based on the group of texts that Brown referred to as "the earliest Christian records" (245) and "unaltered gospels" (248), some scholars have suggested that Mary had a special relationship with Jesus, and that she was the "the beloved disciple" and the writer of the Gospel of John.
Brown quotes two of the best known of these ancient texts, the Gospels of Philip and Mary Magdalene as historical fact (245-47). That makes Mary Magdalene actually the longhaired beardless one seated next to Jesus at Da Vinci's Last Supper – the key to Da Vinci's code!
Further proof of this thesis is the "V" form that Mary/John make with Jesus on Da Vinci's painting. This, Brown's character point out, is the ancient symbol for the feminine gender (244). In addition, Mary/John and Jesus help form the letter "M" while sitting at the table.
The "M" stands for Mary (245) and that pretty much settles things for the book's characters.
Historically, we know that the church fathers (second and third centuries) wrote against a group of texts that taught heretical things about Jesus. Mentioned frequently as an immediate issue they needed to address, copies of these actual documents were discovered in 1945 at Nag Hammadi in Egypt (234).
Known today as the Gnostic Gospels (from the Greek word ginosko "to know" and the basis of our English word agnostic "not/know"), Brown did not use that designation in the book. Maybe he thought people had heard about them and he wanted his texts to sound more "secret." Either way, these texts were condemned by the church fathers for teach things contrary to revealed truth.
But Brown, his characters and Da Vinci believe they have the real truth and the rest of us have had it all wrong for centuries (that was the mindset of the ancient Gnostics – we know something you don't!). Mary, the "beloved disciple," eventually married Jesus, they had children and their family line continues to this day.
Mary represents the sacred feminine and as the wife of Jesus, she herself is the Holy Grail holding and passing on his royal bloodline. Mary represents the sacred feminine found in all ancient religions that has been suppressed by the church for centuries. That is the message that Da Vinci passed on to posterity in code in The Last Supper.
I enjoyed reading the book, despite some flaws in the writing style. But even whilst reading the book I was suprised by the many errors in the story, and after doing some hugely interesting background reading, error upon error in the 'facts' presented itself. They are quite right to put the book on 'trial' for misrepresenting figures like Leonardo da Vinci because as just a first year art history student I could counter many allegations about his works. However, the book is a very good stimulus for people to go deeper behind the meaning of religion but it should not be taken for a true account of religous events.
The claims in the Da Vinci code are just as plausible as the claims in the Bible. No modern christian has actually seen God, or Jesus, in the flesh, and yet they can claim their beliefs as truth. Why should the same not apply to the book? The trouble is, religious zealots are too closed minded to accurately question their own views.
The book is a first rate adventure-mystery. The highly defensive reaction of so many is amusing. The most difficult claim to rebut is that of Mary appearing in the Last Supper. If that is a painting of a man, then Da Vinci was not as good an artist as I believe him to be.
On a recent plane journey, my husband and I scanned the books that passengers were reading. A clear third of them were nose deep into a Dan Brown book. Clearly his "historical" claims have grabbed the attention of today's society. No more do people sit down and just take things as the truth when it comes to religious and political issues. Whether the "facts" in the Da Vinci Code are indeed factual or if they truly belong on the fiction list, one thing is certain - it has made a lot of us sit up, pay attention and question what has been handed down to us from the church for hundreds of years. Hoorah to Dan Brown for that.
This is very silly. These ideas have been around for years, in more factual books (The templar revelations, Holy blood & Holy grail etc.), that haven't appeared to the masses! Surely, all this hysteria over a storybook which has reached the masses has scared some societies out there to take action and curb the trend!
It took almost a thousand years after Jesus passed away for the Grail story to appear. What was happening to the knowledge of the Grail during that time and why was such an important section of the life of Christ never referred to before hand. Either the original Grail story is a well-crafted fabrication or the Christian Church is covering something up. The more the Church protests the more I feel they are concerned the truth will be revealed.
The whole point of a novel is to create a scenario whereby the reader is addicted to the story and becomes involved with it as well as enjoy it so much that they "advertise" the book through word of mouth. In order to do so, Dan Brown touched on a taboo subject, exagerating on certain aspects so as to intensify his views and claims thorugh his words.
It's a novel.... what you choose to believe or not believe is a matter for the reader. Are we going to disect every other novel ever written about secret organisations and rituals? Let me go and look up the definition of 'fiction'again. I agree with the sentiments above too - "the claims in the book are just as likely to be true as those in the Bible". There's no proof for that story book either!
Many years are missing in Jesus' life in The Bible stories, who is to say what happened in that time. Brown? the Christian church? Both books tell a story taken from historical fact.
Why did Vatican City and the Vinci city over-react in such fashion? Dan Brown did nothing to defame the great master. All is allowed In the world of creativity. Remember Nikos Kazantzakis's The Last Temptation of Christ, Umberto Eco's The name of the rose or even Passion Of The Christ? They are innovative works of art which all once roused much sensation. Do they still provoke people? Negative. This mock trial only boosts the sales of the book and tourism of France and UK. Reticence and tolerance for sure will silence the noise.
A large population of the world believes in the (arguably) fictitious stories of the Bible. So why is it so hard for us to allow readers to buy into these stories? In my opinion, the claims made by Brown have just as much credibility, if not more, than most of the stories in the Bible.
The book is a series of cliff-hangers that keeps the reader interested and wanting to go on. The writing is sometimes a bit clumsy and it is about 300 pages too long, and gets annoying nearer to the end. Overall a good read but I don't think it deserves the hype it gets. The church should have shut up and most of us would never have read it or heard about it. Very similar to the Passion of the Christ in that it has achieved a greater audience due to its critics being so vocal.
The book was hugely enjoyable. As far as I can see, the claims in the book are just as likely to be true as those in the Bible.
While many of the claims and facts are forced or stretched, there are many kernels of truth in the story. I do believe that Jesus was married to Magdalane and that they had children. Many of the claims are touching truths, but are often bent to suit the story. The information in the book is not new and has been bubbling underground for thousands of years.
Interesting novel - bizarre and pointless worldwide reaction... I'm just waiting for the headline Novelist Accused of Writing Fiction.
I enjoyed reading the novel as a work of fiction based around some historical fact and ideas. However, the debate that I think is more worthwhile discussing rather than Da Vinci's role in the Holy Grail is the concept of Jesus' relationship with Mary Magdalene. He may be considered the Son of God, but he was still a man.
As one who has grown up surrounded by theology and art history, it was an entertaining piece of fiction pulling interesting facts and images from reality, but it is just that - an entertaining piece of fiction.
I really enjoyed the book mainly because of the connection between one of the greatest painter and the Holy Bible. I am a Christian but still have some questions about the Bible and the book gave me an open mind about a new direction on how Christianity could have been written? Meanwhile, I do not denied that most of the book were pure fiction and it is to the individual to decide what it wants to believe.
Don't care either way - the best book I have read, not only for an exciting plot but for provoking the desire to find out more about the fascinating locations and issues covered. The willing suspension of disbelief came easily for me!
Remember the day Orson Welles' Martians landed in Grovers Mill, New Jersey? The Da Vinci Code falls in the same category - believable, but not to be believed.
I would like the facts in the book to be true and at first reading believed them, but after finding out more I am not too sure. It is a good story though, even if not wholly accurate!
I'm starting to feel quite outnumbered, but I for one have found many of the facts from Brown's book even more credible after reading some of the rebuttal books. Most of the evidence on either side seems circumstantial, and I lean toward Brown's assessment of the church as historically biased against women, one American atheist's opinion.
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http://www.opusdei.org/art.php?w=32&p=7017The Da Vinci Code, the Catholic Church and Opus Dei A response to The Da Vinci Code from the Prelature of Opus Dei in the United States. Many readers are intrigued by the claims about Christian history and theology presented in The Da Vinci Code. We would like to remind them that The Da Vinci Code is a work of fiction, and it is not a reliable source of information on these matters.
The book has raised public interest in the origins of the Bible and of central Christian doctrines such as the divinity of Jesus Christ. These topics are important and valuable to study, and we hope that interested readers will be motivated to study some of the abundant scholarship on them that is available in the non-fiction section of the library.
Readers who do further research and exercise critical judgment will discover that assertions made in The Da Vinci Code about Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene, and Church history lack support among reputable scholars. By way of example, the book popularizes the idea that the fourth century Roman emperor Constantine invented the doctrine of the divinity of Christ for political reasons. The historical evidence, however, clearly shows that the New Testament and the very earliest Christian writings manifest Christian belief in the divinity of Christ.
Recommend reading... Amy Welborn's book, De-Coding Da Vinci, or The Da Vinci Hoax by Carl Olson and Sandra Miesel.We also want to point out that The Da Vinci Code's depiction of Opus Dei is inaccurate, both in the overall impression and in many details, and it would be irresponsible to form any opinion of Opus Dei based on reading The Da Vinci Code. Those interested in learning more about the real Opus Dei may wish to read What is Opus Dei?, by Dominique LeTourneau, or Uncommon Faith, by John Coverdale. For those interested in further information about the various false impressions the book gives of Opus Dei, please continue reading.
1. Opus Dei and monks.
Throughout The Da Vinci Code, Opus Dei members are presented as monks (or, rather, caricatures of monks). Like all Catholics, Opus Dei members have great appreciation for monks, but in fact there are no monks in Opus Dei. Opus Dei is a Catholic institution for lay people and diocesan priests, not a monastic order.
Opus Dei's approach to living the faith does not involve withdrawing from the world like those called to the monastic life. Rather, Opus Dei helps people grow closer to God in and through their ordinary secular activities.
Numerary members of Opus Dei, a minority choose a vocation of celibacy in order to be available to organize the activities of Opus Dei. They do not, however, take vows, wear robes, sleep on straw mats, spend all their time in prayer and corporal mortification, or in any other way live like The Da Vinci Code's depiction of its monk character. In contrast to those called to the monastic life, numeraries have regular secular professional work.
In fact, The Da Vinci Code gets Opus Dei's nature 180 degrees backwards. Monastic orders are for people who have a vocation to seek holiness by withdrawing from the secular world; Opus Dei is for people who have a vocation to live their Christian faith in the middle of secular society.
Additional explanation from leading Catholic figures of Opus Dei's focus on secular life.
2. Opus Dei and crime
In The Da Vinci Code, Opus Dei members are falsely depicted murdering, lying, drugging people, and otherwise acting unethically, thinking that it is justified for the sake of God, the Church, or Opus Dei (p. 13, 29, 58-9, etc.).
Opus Dei is a Catholic institution and adheres to Catholic doctrine, which clearly condemns immoral behavior, including murder, lying, stealing, and generally injuring people. The Catholic Church teaches that one should never do evil, even for a good purpose.
Opus Dei's mission is to help people integrate their faith and the activities of their daily life, and so its spiritual education and counseling help members to be more ethical rather than less so. Opus Dei members, like everyone else, sometimes do things wrong, but this is an aberration from what Opus Dei is promoting rather than a manifestation of it.
Besides attributing criminal activity to Opus Dei, The Da Vinci Code also falsely depicts Opus Dei as being focused on gaining wealth and power. Additional comment from leading Catholic sources on Opus Dei's alleged wealth and power.
3. Opus Dei and corporal mortification
The Da Vinci Code makes it appear that Opus Dei members practice bloody mortifications (e.g., pp. 12, 14, 29, 31, 73, 89, 127-28, 195, 276-79, 293). In fact, though history indicates that some Catholic saints have done so, Opus Dei members do not do this.
The Catholic Church advises people to practice mortification. The mystery of Jesus Christ's Passion shows that voluntary sacrifice has a transcendent value and can bring spiritual benefits to others. Voluntary sacrifice also brings personal spiritual benefits, enabling one to resist the inclination to sin. For these reasons, the Church prescribes fasting on certain days and recommends that the faithful practice other sorts of mortification as well. Mortification is by no means the centerpiece of the Christian life, but nobody can grow closer to God without it: "There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2015).
In the area of mortification, Opus Dei emphasizes small sacrifices rather than extraordinary ones, in keeping with its spirit of integrating faith with secular life. For example, Opus Dei members try to make small sacrifices such as persevering at their work when tired, occasionally passing up some small pleasure, or giving help to those in need.
Some Opus Dei members also make limited use of the cilice and discipline, types of mortification that have always had a place in the Catholic tradition because of their symbolic reference to Christ's Passion. The Church teaches that people should take reasonable care of their physical health, and anyone with experience in this matter knows that these practices do not injure one's health in any way. The Da Vinci Code's description of the cilice and discipline is greatly exaggerated and distorted: it is simply not possible to injure oneself with them as the novel depicts. Moreover, their use is motivated by love of God and desire to unite oneself with Jesus Christ, not guilt, self-hatred or self-punishment.
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