Critics fear 'Code' hurts Christianity
By Laurie Goodstein
The New York Times News Service
April 28, 2004
Fearing that the best-selling novel "The Da Vinci Code" may be sowing doubt about basic Christian beliefs, a host of Christian churches, clergy members and Bible scholars are rushing to rebut it.
In the last 13 months, readers have bought more than 6 million copies of the book, a thriller with a coverup at its center: that the church has conspired for centuries to hide evidence that Jesus was a mere mortal, married Mary Magdalene and had children whose descendants now live in France.
Word that the director Ron Howard is making a movie based on the book has only intensified the critics urgency.
More than 10 books are being released, most in April and May, with titles that promise to break, crack, unlock or decode "The Da Vinci Code." Churches are offering pamphlets and study guides for readers who may have been prompted by the novel to question their faith. Large audiences are showing up for Da Vinci Code lectures and sermons.
"Because this book is such a direct attack against the foundation of the Christian faith, its important that we speak out," said Rev. Erwin W. Lutzer, author of "The Da Vinci Deception" and senior pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, an influential evangelical pulpit.
"I dont think its just an innocent novel with a fascinating plot," said James L. Garlow, co-author of "Cracking Da Vincis Code" and pastor of Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego. "I think its out there to win people over to an incorrect and historically inaccurate view, and its succeeding. People are buying into the notion that Jesus is not divine, he is not the son of God."
Among "The Da Vinci Code" critics are evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics who regard the novel, which is laced with passages celebrating feminism, anticlericalism and pagan forms of worship, as another infiltration by liberal cultural warriors. They also say the book exploits public distrust of the Catholic Church in the aftermath of the clergy sexual abuse scandal.
The debunking books range from scholarly hardcovers to slim study guides. Among the publishers are well-known Christian houses like Tyndale and Thomas Nelson, to less-familiar outfits.
The critics and their publishers are also hoping to surf the wave of success of "The Da Vinci Code," which has been at the top of The New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller list for 56 weeks. There are 7.2 million copies of the book, published by Doubleday, now in print. Of the 10 new Da Vinci-related books, eight are by Christian publishers. One evangelical Christian publisher, Tyndale House, which hit gold with the "Left Behind" books, is about to issue not one but two titles rebutting "The Da Vinci Code."
Dan Brown, the former schoolteacher who wrote "The Da Vinci Code," is declining all interview requests, his publisher says, because he is at work on his next book. But Brown says on his Web site that he welcomes the scholarly debates over his book. He says that while it is a work of fiction, "it is my own personal belief that the theories discussed by these characters have merit."
"The Da Vinci Code" taps into growing public fascination with the origins of Christianity. More scholars have been writing popular books about the relatively recent, tantalizing archeological discoveries of Gnostic gospels and texts that offer insights into early Christians whose beliefs departed from the gospels in the New Testament.
The plot of "The Da Vinci Code" is a twist on the ancient search for the Holy Grail. Robert Langdon, portrayed as a brilliant Harvard professor of "symbology," and Sophie Neveu, a gorgeous Parisian police cryptographer, team up to decipher a trail of clues left behind by the murdered curator at the Louvre Museum, who turns out to be Neveus grandfather.
The pair discover that the grandfather had inherited Leonardo da Vincis mantle as the head of a secret society. The society guards the Holy Grail, which is not a chalice, but is instead the proof of Jesus and Mary Magdalenes conjugal relationship; Langdon and Neveu must race the killer to find it.
Along the way they learn that the church has suppressed 80 early gospels that denied the divinity of Jesus, elevated Mary Magdalene to a leader among the apostles and celebrated the worship of female wisdom and sexuality.
The book portrays Opus Dei, a conservative worldwide network of Catholic priests and laity, as a sinister and sadistic sect.
The real Opus Dei has posted a lengthy response to "The Da Vinci Code" on its Web site, warning, "It would be irresponsible to form any opinion of Opus Dei based on reading The Da Vinci Code."
Our Sunday Visitor, the Catholic publishing company, has published a book and a pamphlet offering a Catholic response to the book. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has also issued its own guide.
Though for many readers the notions about Christian history in "The Da Vinci Code" seem new and startling, the novel introduces to a popular audience some of the debates that have gripped scholars of early Christian history for decades.
Darrell L. Bock, a professor of New Testament studies at Dallas Theological Seminary, sees "The Da Vinci Code" not merely as an effort to undermine traditional Christian belief but also to "redefine Christianity and the history of Christianity."
"Thats why you see so many Christian people react to a novel," said Bock, author of "Breaking the Da Vinci Code."
There is evidence that the Browns novel may indeed be shaping the beliefs of a generation that is famously Biblically illiterate.
Michael S. Martin, a high school French teacher in Burlington, Vt., said he decided to read "The Da Vinci Code" when he noticed that his students were reading it in Harry Potter proportions.
"We like conspiracy theories, so whether its JFK or Jesus, people want to think theres something more than what they are telling us the they in this case being the church," Martin said.
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