Commentary: "Damning the Da Vinci Code? Pre-review Part One/NO SPOILERS"

by Heather Cloete, Magenta/Usherette

"One of the ways in which we now celebrate the great Christian festivals in our society is by a little flurry of newspaper articles and television programs raking over the coals of controversies about the historical basis of faith,"

"We are instantly fascinated by the suggestion of conspiracies and cover-ups. This has become so much the stuff of our imagination these days that it is only natural, it seems, to expect it when we turn to ancient texts, especially biblical texts. Anything that looks like the official version is automatically suspect."

"Such theories may be appealing, they do not help in understanding what the New Testament writers are actually saying and why."
-taken from Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams at Canterbury Cathedral 04/16/06

"While we celebrate here the memory of the passion and death of the savior, millions of people are seduced by the clever rewriting of ancient legends to believe that Jesus of Nazareth was never crucified,"

"There is much talk about Judas' betrayal, without realizing that it is being repeated. Christ is being sold again, no longer to the leaders of the Sanhedrin for 30 denarii, but to editors and booksellers for billions of denarii,"

"The apocryphal gospels on which they lean are text that have always been known, in whole or in part, but with which not even the most critical and hostile historians of Christianity even thought, before today, that history could be made."
-taken from Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher to the pontifical household

Opus Dei has told Sony Pictures that putting a disclaimer on the upcoming movie "The Da Vinci Code" stressing it is a work of fiction would be a welcome show of respect toward the Church.

With so much chest beating and screaming going on, let's review a few historic facts.

Whatever happened in and around the Middle East happened. (I'll leave the specifics to your own beliefs.) Stories of those happenings were passed person to person as an oral tradition. There is no way to tell how many of those stories never made it to paper because someone who knew the story didn't pass it on to someone before they died. There is also no way to tell if the stories stayed "accurate" since the teller will inevitably drop a word here, add a word there. Later, when writing methods arrived, people began putting the stories they knew to papyrus or dried animal skins. Various groups devoted to the tales would create by hand perhaps hundreds of copies, which they carried with them and distributed to those they wished to share them with. Again, the accuracy problem comes up. If you wrote out this paragraph, how many times could you do it before you missed a word or a sentence?

The church did not exist in that time as it does in ours. There were hundreds, maybe even thousands of sects, each with their own interpretation of events and their meanings. If you compare two modern-day movie reviews, you can see how differently just two people can see the same thing. Differences in interpretation are why there are still so many different Judeo-Christian faiths today. (Catholic, Jewish, Baptist, Lutheran, on and on).

The issue comes down to the Emperor Constantine the Great. In or around 325 AD (centuries after Christ was said to have been crucified), he decided, for whatever reason, that there needed to be a single form of Christianity. He held the Council of Nicaea. They made all kinds of choices that affect us today (like when is Easter). As a result of that meeting, Constantine commissioned a new Bible containing a selection of the stories. The rest from that point onward were to be considered heretical. No one knows how many hundreds of pages were gathered up and destroyed. Some copies were hidden away. Some of those have been located in more modern times. The Coptic Scrolls were found in 1945, the Dead Sea Scrolls in the 1950's, and still in the headlines, a gospel of Judas. Many scholars believe that additional works have been found, but are in private hands.

That's the facts, folks. My uncle, a devout Catholic, chooses to believe that the Bible as it exists today, is as God wants it to be. His faith is based on that belief, and will not be shaken by anything in this or any other film, book, etc.

"The Da Vinci Code" is a work of fiction with some factual elements woven into it. Opus Dei does exist. They are a very devout group who's practices are a bit more severe than most, but nothing the average person would be put off by. They have faced accusations of brainwashing and other strange practices, but no proof has come to light. It is clear, at least in the book, that the going's on in the story are not coming from their organization, but by fictional individuals acting on their own motivations.

The Priory of Sion also existed, but practically no facts are known about the organization. The speculation of who may have been members, what their beliefs or practices were, is endless. A document exists that claims Da Vinci was a member, but he can't be asked to confirm it.

The heretic documents also are real. You can read any of them that you choose to. They contain a lot of familiar ideas, and a lot you may have never come across before. Whether you should believe what they say is no more my business than any of the rest of your beliefs. It is fact
that these historic documents exist. It is also a fact that Constantine went to great lengths to try to destroy them all. Why? There is no factual answer to that question. Theories range from divine inspiration to deepest greed. You believe what you choose.

Dan Brown did not make up many of the theories in the book. (Hence the various lawsuits.) Theories about the exact nature of the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene, the details of events around the crucifixion, even the question of Christ being of a divine or mortal nature predate Gutenberg's printing press. There is a rich history of various people proposing alternatives to accepted church dogma. Long ago, representatives of the church put some of these people to death. Historic fact. These days, the church attempts to shout them down, drown them out in hopes average people will never hear what they have to say.

Da Vinci had a reputation as a secretive man who was fond of pranks and puzzles. Art historians have debated all kinds of elements of his work from all kinds of perspectives. Was Mona Lisa a self-portrait in drag? Did he actually paint the Shroud of Turin? Is that figure a man or a woman? I've always thought he would have enjoyed listening in to the arguments. We know from his own writings that he wasn't fond of the church. Anything beyond that is speculation.

The reaction coming from the various pulpits is that somehow "The Da Vinci Code" is going to put their faith on trial. That the church, and even Jesus Christ himself will be damaged by the average person seeing this material. It was interesting to read Archbishop Rowan Williams's
statement about "controversies about the historical basis of faith". History and faith are neither opposing nor interlocking concepts. The whole point of faith, of belief, is that it is not factual! It is a fact that the sun will rise tomorrow. I believe I will wake up tomorrow, but I can't prove it today.

If people have committed themselves to a specific church, nothing in this book/film will change those beliefs. It never proves any theories, merely puts them forward. The viewers then have the free will to judge for themselves. History will not be re-written by Dan Brown. It will also not be re-written by a church that wishes to claim anything they don't sanctify can ever be voiced.