Ordinary Eve
Now I don't want to moan but....just what is it with The Da Vinci Code? Isn't anyone else sick of the Church bashing that is going on and isn't anyone else amazed by just how far off the point books like this are?
Ok you may be thinking - but this is a work of fiction, you can't get worked up about that. Well ask yourself these two questions:-
Why does he write at the beginning of the book that the art, rituals, institutions and locations in the place are all true?
Why does no one talk about the brilliant prose, interesting character development and amazing story of this book?
The main focus of anyone reading this book is the possibility that Jesus was married to Mary Magdelene and that they had a child and that their descendants are alive today. Also that there is a secret society set up to protect these descendants because they are in some way special. This would mean that the Church has been peddling a lie for centuries to make themselves rich.
This particular theory isn't new. Its most modern incarnation was the 80s triumph Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln. (This bunch are allegedly suing Brown but on what basis I don't know since they assert their book to be fact, he asserts his to be fiction and there is no monopoly on writing fictional books about fact...unless Holy Blood, Holy Grail was in fact...fiction.)
But what both books miss out on is the following:- If Jesus is not the Son of God then who cares? What relevance does the death of a carpenter and failed revolutionary in 1st century Palestine have to...well, anything?
These authors are busy considering the Church and Jesus from the wrong side of history, from the side that says that Jesus and Christianity are important. To the Roman civilisation that ironically provided its rapid spread Christianity was at best an irrelevance and at worst a cult that needed stamping out. It was never a power house with a long term view of world domination - it was started by a bunch of fishermen from the most insignificant province and race in the Roman Empire.
There is a lot of historical and artistic inaccuracy in this book which is pretty annoying! But the most aggrevating thing about it is that it makes Jesus an important enough figure for secret societies across the globe to be dedicated to preserving his memory and blood line but can't explain why on earth he was important if he wasn't the Son of God.
And as CS Lewis said when you look at Jesus you have to decide if he was "mad, bad or good". This book takes him as none of these things and therefore is a massive irrelevance.
