Another question from a bright former youth group member: “What’s the church say about the Da Vinci Code? What’s your opinion?”
I actually got a chance to see the cathedral where they taped parts of the Da Vinci Code during my study trip to England. The church had a fairly impressive exhibit about it, and they explained it like this: The Davinci Code is a gripping fiction story, sprinkled with just enough history to make it seem convincing. There really was a movement called gnosticism, and they really were rejected by the church as heretics (false believers), and some of them really did think Mary Magdalene was Jesus’ girlfriend/wife. There also really was a group of knights called the Templars and they really were put down by the pope. However, there is no historical connection between those two groups. Some people claim there is a connection, but no one with any credibility in academic circles. They’re conspiracy seekers who value a good story more than good evidence.
Me: If Davinci Code is true, then all of Christianity is a lie. If you read the rest of his stuff, especially his earlier stuff, it becomes clear that this guy has a serious grudge with Christianity and he’s trying to take it down. He says that the gnostics believed Jesus was just a man, and that the church came and turned him into a God. But when you actually go read gnostic stuff (which you absolutely can do on the net, despite the way he pretends like it’s a super huge secret suppressed by the church) you’ll discover that the gnostic’s problem with Jesus was that he was too human. They believed that the earth and all created things were dirty and evil, and that the realm of pure ideas and spirit was perfection. Dan Brown puts words in their mouth that are the exact opposite of what they actually believed. They believed Jesus was some kind of demigod that only seemed human. That’s specifically why the church rejected them, because the church has said from very early on that Jesus is fully human and fully divine. If he wasn’t fully human, then he still doesn’t know what it’s like to be us and all his claims of being on our side are just lies. The way they said it was “Whatever is not taken up is not redeemed” meaning anything about us that Jesus didn’t take on himself would therefore not be fixed by him. If he took all of our humanity on himself, then all of our humanity is understood and restored through him.
