[GeraldCortis]

Dear Antonios,

Your thread is making me seriously reconsider my position on both the book and the movie. I should point out that I never claimed boycotting the entire "Da Vinci" market is not a viable and seriously respected Christian choice, perhaps the only viable Christian choice.

If my previous posts have led to the impression that I take this "impious book" (Sr Theopesta's words from an earlier thread) for "entertainment", then I have expressed myself badly. My thinking is that a Christian should either not read the book or see the film at all, or that both should be viewed in a deeply critical spirit, preparing to do battle intelligently and in an informed manner with the purveyors of this preposterous garbage. Sadly, there are many such, as you yourself have experienced. As Christians, we ought to know the 'facts and figures' the arguments in this book base themselves on - and claim as true - and we need to be able to show them up for their falsity. For example, the book claims as an actual fact that Jesus' divinity was only made official at the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D., giving the impression that Arianism was the mainstream Christian view before that! Arius' view however, as we know, was clearly a minority heretical one, and was never the majority view of the early Christians. I agree also that the Vatican should condemn this work, although no doubt that will add fuel to the fiery imaginanations of conspiracy theorists, who will probably see such condemnation as "proof" that the 'suppression of the truth by the Vatican' theory is correct.

You write We should not fear heresies, but more importantly we should not fear condeming them. Its remarkable how cartoons of Mohammed can cause such an uprising, but a story which claims historical evidence that Jesus was not divine, that Him and Mary Magdalene deceived the world and had a child, and that the entire Church from the beginning was a complete lie and coverup ends up becoming a sensational hit, rakes in millions upon millions of dollars, and stands to make countless more in the future. The claims of this story are so ridiculous, that I find it difficult to believe even its supporters don't really know they are false, at least in the sense that they are not, and never have been, the story of Christianity. Behind the "Da Vinci" phenomenon is not really heresy, but a guilty atheism. It's not that anyone (given perhaps a few cranks) really believes the novel's claims; it's more that sadly, few modern people really believe in God or Christ as anything but mythology, our real modern deities being science, technology and human ingenuity - but at the same time the unconscious guilt this provokes is superficially "eased" by books like this, which really say: "relax, all that stuff about Christ and God was just made up anyway - it's all about human struggles over conflicting beliefs and political interests ultimately". In this sense, the Da Vinci Code is satanic, inasmuch as all worldly thinking that excludes God is inimical to Him; there is no real mystery, in the sense of mysterion in this book however. Its soiled pages can never ultimately touch the deeper, fathomless and spotless appeal of the Truth.

Of course, unconscious guilt cannot account entirely for the huge popularity of the book. Well, that thrown in with a bit of murder / mystery / thriller action, a crash course in half-digested "symbology made easy", and a few pretentious but authoritative-sounding reasons to be both feminist and carnal - well, that makes for quite a tempting modern brew, even if it is poison.

Would I let my children watch it or read it? Not until they are old enough to know better.

For those of us who wish to be "in the world, but not of it" there seems to me to be a necessary creative tension between the extirpation and the transformation of provocations such as this. Boycotting is a good option, but lays us open to being caught off-guard, especially if we are living in the world, i.e. not monastics. On the other hand, I can clearly see the even greater risk of uninformed exposure: Perhaps by believing in their own strength of faith, which is obviously stronger than mine since I get repulsed just thinking about reading it and confusing my weak mind, they fail to see how many of their fellow Christians will come to doubt Christ and Him crucified by filling their eyes and their minds with Satan's entertainment and his seeds of doubt. I know my faith is weak. I also know many brothers and sisters will be confused and misled by the trash being served up by this book. I am still wondering whether it's best to leave well alone, or prepare to do battle. My only hope is that our Lord and God Jesus Christ will help me ond others in my position make the right choices as we walk together through this valley of the shadow.

Many thanks for your thoughtful words of caution Antonios. Pray for me, a sinner.

In Christ
Byron