The Da Vinci code, just one comment.

it is a book, a story, not fact, so why all the fuss

i agree a good book, but IT IS JUST A STORY

What makes me laugh is when the book first came out the Author said in his words "pure fiction" why have people not remembered that?

It's just a book...I've read it. I've seen the film...I may yet buy the T-shirt

Yes it is just a book and a work of fiction, but when many first read the book, like me they were initalily left wondering "What if it's true "...This initial period of wonder passes and reality returns.

But what Dan Brown HAS done is make people talk and think about the Church. It has been a Godsend (pun intended) to theologians, people are actually talking about religion and searching for 'facts' whatever they are.

I knew that the Bible had been "messed around with", but never before was I bothered about how it came about, Then I read the Da Vinci Code and heard about the Council of Nicea...so I like many others started looking it up...and learned. That's what the book has done if it's done anything, made people curious about some core beliefs. What's scaring the powers that be is that some of the curtain of ignorance has been pushed aside.

Not because of what's in the book, but what people have learned about afterwards.

unfortunately not everyone has looked into and questioned the book, they are just taking it as fact

I know...great fun ain't it

now i know you are not making fun at them

I like to encourage all extremes.

now this is something interesting, hq admitting to having fun

You'd be amazed...you really would.

try me,

I think we need to let this thread return to the topic of the Da Vinci Code.

now there the old hq back

Da Vinci Code, Da Vinci Code, now what was i saying

The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail has similar themes as the Da Vinci Code - but claims to be fact, and - it is claimed - was plagarised by Brown. There have since Holy Blood and Holy Grail been a few books based on the idea that Jesus survived the crucifiction and married Mary Magdalene - all of which claim to be true and none of which are that outrageous in principle if you've no time for the idea that Jesus was anything else but human.

So The Da Vinci Code film is upon us, with reams of commentary from right and left. I thought I might share a somewhat different perspective on Mary Magdalene from Teresa Berger, who is a scholar of liturgy and feminist theology (among many other things) at Duke University. She begins by discussing why the traditional, though not biblical, tradition of Mary Magdalene as a former prostitute, in whom "our mothers and grandmothers, and so many women through the centuries, have found meaning and solace," should not be left behind. Then she writes:
I think that opening our eyes to the present reality of women's lives might help us create a new frame for this Mary that can hold the older frames together in ways that speak to us today. I imagine framing Mary of Magdala as a symbol of a misused, exploited, and trafficked woman who was freed and healed in the encounter with Jesus. The powerful attraction that drew this woman to Jesus undid all other ways of living for her. The encounter with Jesus thus freed Mary from "seven demons"—why should the sexual exploitation of women's bodies not be one of these? It is certainly a demon that has plagued women's lives for millennia. But there is more to this Mary than her demons. It is this woman's body, with its history of abuse and exploitation, that becomes the first site of encounter with Christ's resurrected body. It is precisely this woman—not the Virgin Mother or any other immaculate figure—whom the risen Jesus chooses to appear to first. And it is precisely this woman—with a history of abuse and exploitation—who is charged to be the apostle to the apostles. There may be something precisely in this framing of Mary Magdalene as a prostitute-turned-apostle that can evoke for us the power of redemption, of the wholeness of very concretely broken women's lives and bodies, and of the beauty of a God who does not shun the messiness of our lived lives.


Our own framings of Mary of Magdala will be incomplete until we allow her to frame these questions for our lives, for her apostolic witness in our midst continues. Every time we profess that we believe in the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church, Mary of Magdala herself stands at the very foundation of this apostolicity. She proclaims to us, as she proclaimed to the male disciples so long ago: "I have seen the Lord." May this apostle to the apostles encourage us to go and do likewise.
Dan Brown's book certainly has some entertainment value, but his isn't the most powerful understanding of Mary for me. Though our society and many others see women primarily in relation to the men they marry, St. Mary Magdalene's place in God's Kingdom stands for itself, in her powerful witness as the first apostle. I will certainly be thinking of Dr. Berger's words and of Mary's witness the next time I say that part of the Creed

honestly, one of the worst [probably the worst] book that i've ever read.... it's like reading a crapy hollywood-action-script-scenario

An old thread but here's my twopennorth: I thought the da Vinci Code was a good story but not very well-written - had to make myself keep reading it. The theories are, as someone else said, taken from "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" which is a hypothesis; takes some ploughing through, but worth it for the background info.

There are other novels on this theme - "The Last Templar" - I forget the author, was I thought, more feasible, and worth a read if you can find it - it was out a few months ago. A friend of mine wrote an alternative Crucifixion - i.e they got the wrong bloke and it was really Barabbas the crowd wanted - a messiah because of the tyranny of Rome - and Pilate only strung up the one the crowd bayed for, - i.e. bar abbas which means "Son of the Father". It wasn't published but just shows how many different versions it's possible to come up with if you just bend the facts to fit your philosophy, which is what the Church did...