Two years ago I sat and watched Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2. Not once was I tempted to close my eyes to avoid seeing the blood and gore that accompanied the gratuitous dismemberments, because I never had a chance to be tempted. The swift slice-and-dice of Japanese steel kept my eyes riveted through the whole horrific scene. Only later, much later, did it occur to me that I had enjoyed the movie way too much.
I can say pretty much the same thing about reading The Da Vinci Code. You know you should look away; you know you shouldn’t have to suspend your disbelief quite so much; you know there are better things you could be doing with your time. Still, you don’t look away, because the fast-paced, cliffhanger action doesn’t give you much of a chance to look away. Unlike the Quentin Tarantino movie, however, The Da Vinci Code has managed to create an all-too-convincing alternate reality, one in which the truly disturbing action is taking place apart from the story and in the minds of readers-turned-believers.
The response to the book is disturbing not so much because DVC threatens our personal faith but because it exposes our cultural illiteracy. When the first DVC debunkers began writing and speaking out against Dan Brown’s shoddy research and flawed conclusions, I wondered if their out cry wasn’t an overreaction. I reasoned that anyone with even a superficial knowledge of early church history would immediately spot many of his factual errors. And the whole Knights Templar, Mary-Magdalene-as-Holy-Grail story line had been written off 20 years ago, when Holy Blood, Holy Grail provided a fascinating read—and a fanciful theory lacking any historical merit.
As it turned out, of course, the debunkers were and are needed, because an unknown percentage of DVC readers believe they have been deceived about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and the authenticity of Scripture for their entire lives. Many traditional Christians are understandably upset about the confusion Brown has caused. One result has been a publishing phenomenon.
Brown made so many mistakes that you practically find yourself cheering him on when he manages to get something right. And yet, some people who know their history—dismiss the errors as insignificant. What really matters, for them, is the obviously true story that Jesus fathered a child with Mary Magdalene, which the lying, murderous church has somehow managed to keep secret all this time. It’s as if they’ve suddenly taken leave of their senses, as if they cannot see that faulty research leads to faulty conclusions.
What is Dan Brown's gift to the church, if DVC makes us uncertain about what we really believe?...
DVC has done something else as well, something orthodox Christians need to be thankful for. It has, “set off a pretty loud pealing of the electric chimes at the front door of the culture.” I cannot recall a popular title that has set off such a loud pealing at the front door of the church as well. In that sense, Dan Brown has done us a service by leaving at our doorstep an invitation to indulge in some fairly heady talk with the culture around us. To miss that opportunity would be, well, a sin—. Our Challenge is in part to learn to communicate with that culture. If there's a man that will proudly announced that he hadn’t read the book because he refused to read anything that wasn’t worthwhile, by which he meant anything that wasn’t of a biblical, religious nature. I can understand his point and respect his resolve. But that kind of thinking makes it highly unlikely that he will be able to significantly impact the culture.
Reading DVC, along with Internet discussion boards about the book and reader reviews on Amazon and other sites, offers an invaluable glimpse into the postmodern mind. Our ability to interact with the culture on a deep theological level requires us to take advantage of as many of those glimpses as we can.
We truly do have an amazing opportunity at our doorstep. Dan Brown has given us a way to talk about spiritual realities that allows us to use the images and the history and even some of the words—the name of Jesus, no less!—that we cherish as part of our spiritual heritage. With so many readers-turned-believers placing their faith in Brown’s alternate reality, maybe we shouldn’t look away after all.
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