Mark Steyn: The Da Vinci Code: bad writing for Biblical illiterates

Maxleans ^ | 05/10/06 | Mark Steyn

[Steve_Seattle]

I think the churches are responding to TDVC because many people do seem to take the book as thinly-disguised history. I have personally met several people who think that, in essence, the book is historically accurate, even if the contemporary characters are fictional. I am not myself an orthodox Christian (I believe that Jesus viewed himself as the Jewish Messiah, and that he was later divinized as Christianity lost touch with its Jewish roots), but I do not subscribe to the silly revisionist "histories" and conspiracy theories of early Christianity that today get so much uncritical publicity.

[frogjerk]

Another peculiar thing is the reaction of the churches.

Why wouldn't one want to defend their faith?

[frogjerk]

I believe that Jesus viewed himself as the Jewish Messiah, and that he was later divinized as Christianity lost touch with its Jewish roots

I've heard this argument somewhat before but I cannot recall hearing the actual evidence for this belief. What is the evidence that leads you to believe this?

[RichInOC]

"Renowned curator Jacques Saunière staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum's Grand Gallery."

"Physicist Leonardo Vetra smelled burning flesh, and he knew it was his own."

"Death, in this forsaken place, could come in countless forms. Geologist Charles Brophy had endured the savage splendor of this terrain for years . . ."

Just a thought: Maybe one of the organizations debunking/lobbying against The DaVinci Code could start a contest for the best purposely-bad examples of imitation Dan Brown and publish the winning entries to raise funds.

[bornacatholic]

He LIED ABOUT OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR.

To some of us Christians, that matters

[AmishDude]

Unfortunately, I have way too many Russian, Ukranian and Chinese colleagues and that is all too common for me to read.

[Kokojmudd]

Why wouldn't one want to defend their faith?

IMHO the church doesn't need to defend the faith against this since it is such an obviously bogus and temporary fad.

Sometimes I think if the church would spend more time teaching basic Christian theology and less time involved with Googling-God or E-Bay Righteousness there would be fewer victims of TDVC and whatever other new age fads that may come down the pike.

[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

I have personally met several people who think that, in essence, the book is historically accurate, even if the contemporary characters are fictional.

They think that because Dan Brown is indeed claiming it, which is why anyone is bothering to debunk the book. Brown's historical FACTS happen to be as fictional as his fiction.

[Steve_Seattle]

"I've heard this argument somewhat before but I cannot recall hearing the actual evidence for this belief. What is the evidence that leads you to believe this?"

In my opinion most of the evidence is in the New Testament itself. I don't think that any passage in the New Testament unambiguously describes Jesus as God incarnate. A debate about specific proof-texts is beyond the scope of this thread, but I recommned the following books:

The Brother of Jesus and the Lost Teachings of Christianity - Jeffrey Butz

The Doctrine of the Trinity: Christianity's Self-Inflicted Wound - Anthony Buzzard/Charles Hunting

The Metaphor of God Incarnate - John Hick

In my opinion, these are all sober, non-sensationalist books. They do not resort to bizarre conspiracy theorist, but explain things according to understandable, plausible historical developments.

[Grendel9]

IMO, most people think of
Gnosticism as being just
this side of Atheism.
You're right. They haven't
the vaguest idea what true
Gnostics believe at all.
And I'm not even sure
Dr. Hoeller, a professed
Gnostic, is entirely sure
of the entire dogma that he
prates about.

http://www.gnosis.org/welcome.html

[omega4412]

Good material for the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, "where www means Wretched Writers Welcome."

[RichInOC]

That and the Imitation Hemingway contest are basically what gave me the idea.

[Albion Wilde]

Brown is Jewish.

Au contraire - old New England preppie boy. He (groan) professes to be Christian on his web site - scroll down to the seventh Q&A.

[AmishDude]

Jesus couldn't have viewed himself as a messiah in the way first century Jews would have seen one. They were waiting for a political messiah, one who would (in that era) deliver them from the Romans.

As I heard one scholar say, "As you read the gospels, you can't help but come to the conclusion that this guy [Jesus] was trying to get himself killed."

If Jesus were a political messiah, he was a pretty poor one. Getting himself crucified did nothing for the Jewish people in the short run but the diaspora. If he were not divine and trying for something, it wouldn't be:

"I'm going to get myself executed so that one crazy emperor will crush and scatter the Jews and a later one will come to believe in a religion based on me and the backwoods parts of the Empire will adhere to that religion so that, 1300 years later or so, they will emerge from a plague and along with Jewish and these new Jesusian* values and traditions, will rebirth themselves into being the most pre-eminent culture on the planet, eventually bringing the ideals of justice, peace and individual empowerment to the world."

*He wouldn't have even thought of the word "Christian".

[Steve_Seattle]

I'm sure that Dr. Hoeller understands historical Gnosticism very well; he is probably one of the few who do, and who nonetheless considers himself a Gnostic. The number of people who actually take real Gnostic ideas seriously, and who try to live by them, is very small, miniscule in comparison to the number of people who have read TDVC and claim to sympathize with Gnosticism.

[EyeGuy]

Au contraire - old New England preppie boy. He (groan) professes to be Christian on his web site - scroll down to the seventh Q&A.


Comment withdrawn, then.

It was posted on FR in several places that Brown was "Jewish."

[AmishDude]

Betcha $100 Brown is a believing gnostic. I'd like to get him in a live Q&A and start running down gnosticism. I'd love to see his face.

[Revolting cat!]

Wow, we've gone 13 posts without someone saying "It's just fiction!"

Yeah, but we've gone 20 posts without someone saying that the Church's condemnation of this nonsense is what's making it so wildly popular!

[ex-Texan]

Thanks for posting this article. A good read!

[Steve_Seattle]

Although I have some problems with the book, "The Passover Plot" by Hugh Schonfeld (recently reissued) does a good job of explaining the meaning of messiahship in the time of Jesus, and makes a good case that that is how Jesus viewed himself.