Shaun Kenney | Politics and Religion in Virginia's Public Square


Thursday, November 13, 2003 The DaVinci Code and Jesus as Myth Here is an interesting critique of the DaVinci Code from George Weigel at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Looks like a treasure trove of cutting edge information here. Check it out: Dan Brown’s blockbuster novel, The DaVinci Code, will certainly outsell N.T. Wright’s The Resurrection of the Son of God by a factor of 10,000:1, and probably more. Quite unintentionally, though, Dr. Wright’s book is the perfect response to the anti-Christian slander that underwrites The DaVinci Code – the charge that the early Christians deliberately lied about Jesus, his friendships, and his fate in order to keep women subjugated. Really. Jesus, you see, was not a carpenter and itinerant preacher of the Kingdom but a wealthy religious intellectual with aspirations to David’s throne. His well-healed and royally inclined lover, Mary Magdalene, is the "holy grail," because she held within herself the blood of Jesus while bearing his children. After Constantine legalized Christianity, the Church rewrote the story to suit its, and Constantine’s, imperial purposes. Thus the truth (sic) about Jesus and the origins of Christianity can only be found in the "gnostic Gospels," ancient texts never incorporated into the New Testament but unearthed by archaeologists in recent decades. These esoteric texts reveal the story the Church has suppressing for almost two millennia, often by violence. All of which could be dismissed as the most ludicrous rubbish were it not for the fact that recent academic work on the gnostic Gospels has tilted, if in a more refined way, toward a thesis not unlike Dan Brown’s in The DaVinci Code. I recently saw a whole slew of such books displayed on a single table in a large bookstore under the rubric, "Now that you’ve read The DaVinci Code...". (I asked the store manager whether they were planning a display entitled "Now that you’ve read The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," the classic anti-Semitic canard. He didn’t know what I was talking about.) Now that's hard hitting stuff! I understand that revising history seems to be in vouge nowadays. Heck, take a good trip to Borders and take a look at all the new books being published today. Dissertations turned into books, thesis papers being turned into books, the great American rant being turned into books. . . you get the idea. Sometimes I wonder whether we are burying ourselves in a culture of too much information - where we can't separate the jewels from the glass. Books like the DaVinci Code come under the guise of scholarship, but is it really a reliable source of information? Catholic-basher Gary Willis is another outstanding example of trash disguised as scholarship. His "extensive Vatican research" consisted of three documents and fifteen minutes. . . research indeed. I have no problems sorting out the good from the bad. I just feel utter contempt for those who would write this knowing deep down that what they have published is more rant than research. What a disservice to the reader. posted by Shaun Kenney \| 11/13/2003 12:12:00 AM \| 0 comments 0 Comments: Post a Comment Home
	RedStormPAC $ JEFFERSONIAD POLL: Whom do you support for Virginia Attorney General? 1) John Brownlee 2) Ken Cuccinelli View Results About ShaunKenney.com is one of Virginia's oldest political blogs, focusing on the role of religion and politics in public life. Shaun Kenney, 30, lives in Fluvanna County, Virginia. Contact E-mail RSS/Atom Feed The Jeffersoniad Archives March 2002 April 2002 May 2002 June 2002 July 2002 August 2002 September 2002 October 2002 November 2002 December 2002 January 2003 February 2003 March 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 December 2003 January 2004 February 2004 March 2004 April 2004 May 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 April 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009