The Da Vinci Code
Everyone’s talking about it, the media’s full of it. First it was the book, and now it's the movie – Ron Howard’s film of Dan Brown’s bestseller The De Vinci Code is out on general release in the cinemas after kicking off the Cannes Film Festival earlier this week. It’s expected to make millions and be a runaway box office success.
In his controversial book the author, Dan Brown claims:
Jesus Christ was not God, but just man: a powerful leaderJesus married Mary Magdalene and had a daughter with her
A secret society (the Priory of Sion) has kept this truth since the Middle Ages and protected Jesus’ bloodline
The Christian Faith is founded on a lie: the Catholic Church is using criminal and violent means to keep people in ignorance
Opus Dei is the Catholic institution that does the ‘dirty’ work for the Vatican: murdering and robbing to protect the secret.
Brown also claims that the Church has for centuries been covering up to conceal the true nature of the Holy Grail and the clues to which are hidden in the works of Leonardo Da Vinci.
Whilst these claims are unpalatable to Christian they can actually provide a springboard for evangelism and outreach. Worth mentioning are a couple of local events taking place in Belfast:
The Church of Ireland Evangelical Fellowship have invited the Rev Ron Elsdon (rector of St Bartholomew’s, Stranmillis) to speak on “Cracking the Code” – Da Vanci, Dan Brown and the Real Jesus. This event takes place in Belvoir Parish Church, Belfast on Tuesday 23rd May at 8.00pm. Admission is free and a bookstall will be available.
The second is a series of five lunchtime lectures given by Dr Bob Keay, Institute of Theology, Queen’s University, Belfast. The title of the series is: The Da Vinci Code – A Sober Assessment. The lectures will take place at May Street Presbyterian Church, Belfast between 1.00pm and 1.40pm on Fridays from 26 May to 23 June and admission is free.
Many Christian writers have already produced a vast quantity of material available from bookshops and from the internet. The Goodbook Shop in Church of Ireland House, Belfast (www.goodbookshop.com) has the following titles available:
Coded Messages – Evangelism and The Da Vinci Code by Steve Hollinghurst.
Decoding Da Vinci by Tom Wright.
The Da Vinci Code – a response by Nicky Gumbel.
Is it Worth Believing? The spiritual challenge of the Da Vinci Code by Greg Clarke.
Beyond Da Vinci by Greg Jones, afterword by Deirdre Good.
Breaking The Da Vinci Code by Darrell L Bock.
Discussing the Da Vinci Code – Lee Strobel and Garry Poole.
Dr Christopher Brown, who is rector of Trinity Church, Potsdam, in our link diocese of Albany has done a lot of research into The Da Vinci Code and has written some excellent material on the subject. A couple of examples which can be downloaded are:
Fiction and Fact in the Da Vinci Code (pdf)
A Recommended Book List (pdf)
(A copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader (version 5 or above) is required to view these files. (For a free download of the latest version of Reader click here.)
Recommended websites worth a visit are:
www.cofe.anglican.org
www.sydneyanglicans.net
www.cop-online.org.uk
http://www.ratzingerfanclub.com/da_vinci_code/
www.spu.edu/depts/uc/response/summer2k5/features/davincicode.asp
www.challengingdavinci.com/
www.rejesus.co.uk/davinci
faithmaps.blogspot.com/2006/04/suggested-resources-for-da-vinci-code.html
www.cpo-online.org.uk