title: The DaVinci Code
author/editor: Dan Brown
reviewed by: Georgene
THE DA VINCI CODE
I've just finished, The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. It's a conspiracy theory, and murder mystery told through a theological lens. The "good guys" are academics who understand religion as being universally necessary to the human mind as a vehicle to cope with life. Yet, as academics, they are drawn to the mysteries being revealed as leaders in two religious organizations use the follower's faith to further their own agendas.
In this contest the academic "good guys" are caught in the cross-hairs of a battle between the Roman Catholic Church and the Knights Templar. The story promotes that the Church maintains its power by teaching Jesus was God, unmarried, and upon his death, gave The Church "the way" to show humans how to worship and ultimately join God (which they of course, abuse to their own gain).
In this book, The Knights Templar believe there is proof that Jesus fathered a child (and established a lineage to forward the truth so they practice a form of Christianity that still includes the Sacred Feminine. This is the recognition of the womb as the chalice of life and part of this concept includes sexual act rituals as a celebration of the creator and "the way" to meet God.)
In this story, our understanding of the "Search for the Holy Grail" is to be moved from the Knights Templar search for an object-the chalice Jesus used at the last supper, which would strengthen the current church teachings-to a person, a descendant of Jesus. If this turns out to be true, Christendom as the Church now teaches could no longer be "the way."
It is a good, easy read, as long as you remember it is fiction and don't get too tangled in the theology.
Georgene says, "As a Catholic, I am sometimes weary of what feels like bashing of the Church in many book and movie plots. On the other hand, it's true there will always be folly's and abuses from any major power structure and it's important that we be vigilant to recognize them."