“But who do you say that I am?”

Proclaiming Jesus Christ after the Da Vinci tsunami

An analysis by Bertrand Ouellet

     The Cannes Film Festival opened this year with the world premiere of Ron Howard’s new film The Da Vinci Code, which is now being released worldwide. With the phenomenal success of the novel of the same name and the considerable resources invested in its production, the film has been expected to be a box-office hit, especially since it will benefit from the expertise and notoriety of an international cast. It stars American actor Tom Hanks, a two-time Oscar winner as best actor (in 1993, for Philadelphia and in 1994 for Forrest Gump), French actors Audrey Tautou (Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain) and Jean Reno, as well as British actor Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings). It was therefore expected that for the public and critics alike, it would be “a good movie”.

 The intention here is not to review the film since these remarks were written before its release. The issue lies elsewhere. The movie brings to the screen a novel that has already had a profound effect on the imagination of people throughout the world. If it had attracted only the interest of fans of “whodunits” and thrillers, it would scarcely be worth mentioning. But tens of millions of people have already read it. Whether he is adulated, loathed or ignored, Dan Brown is now a well-established writer of books of mass appeal. His novel has triggered a cultural tsunami with effects that will be felt for a long time.

 Some readers shower him with praise, hailing him as a genius; others consider him mediocre, calling him an impostor. For some, the book is a model of the genre; for others, it is one of those books one reads on a train or at the beach and subsequently throws away. Just as the public is fascinated by conspiracy theories involving large institutions, those who admire works of esoteric inspiration believe that Dan Brown is one of their own. But while the media praise him, it is not uncommon to find historians and theologians accusing Brown of incompetence and ignorance.

I – The Novel and Its Sources

 The Da Vinci Code casts a wide net and draws from many sources, including the history of the Templars, the legends of the Holy Grail and various recent rewritings on the origin and development of Christianity based on Gnostic or neo-pagan sources. The theories that ensure the novel’s success are not new and do not come from Dan Brown. The novelty resides in their widespread circulation and their favourable reception.  

 Numerous Christians, and Catholics in particular, feel directly challenged by the ideas thus popularized by The Da Vinci Code. Many had never heard of these sensational writings that had for so long presented multiple, often contradictory, and at times, ludicrous versions of the story of Jesus, the origins of Christianity and the role of the Church. This controversy takes on another dimension, however, when friends or relatives read the novel and conclude that the Gospel and the Creed are fabrications, and that the Church has carefully hidden the truth through fraud, manipulation and all kinds of abuse and violence. 

 Admittedly, attacking the Christian faith and slandering the Church are not recent phenomena. In 2,000 years of history, there has been no lack of controversy and attacks, although few have been as widespread as the current flood. It is a mass phenomenon in a mass media culture.

     1.     Twin Novels

 The Da Vinci Code, which appeared in 2003, is Dan Brown’s fourth novel, after Digital Fortress (1998), Angels & Demons (2000) and Deception Point (2001).

 Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code go together. Both novels have the same main character as well as the same structure; the second book makes frequent reference to the first. Each time, the story begins with a late-night telephone call to the main character to request his help in solving a mysterious murder. To find the assassin, he embarks on a hair-raising chase through several European cities. For those who read both novels in succession, there is a strong sense of having read it all before. In other words, Dan Brown uses the same recipe while changing some of the ingredients.

      1.1     Previous Novel: Angels & Demons

      In the first book, Angels & Demons, the adventure has all the hallmarks of a manic undertaking with fantastic incidents that defy all probability, succeeding each other at a dizzying pace. Awakened late at night, Professor Robert Langdon, a specialist in esoteric and religious “symbology”, immediately flies by hypersonic jet from Boston to Geneva to reach the scene of the crime. From there, he flies to Rome where, within the space of a few hours, he visits the necropolis beneath St. Peter’s Basilica; searches through the secret archives of the Vatican where he discovers a message written by Galileo himself; survives traps set by an assassin whom he chases through several Roman churches, passing through the papal apartments, the Pantheon and Castel Sant’Angelo; flies over Rome in a helicopter and ejects without a parachute just before a nuclear explosion occurs in the sky over the Eternal City, which escapes the explosion without significant damage. Robert Langdon is portrayed as a cross between Indiana Jones and James Bond, capable of feats worthy of a comic-strip hero.

     The plot also includes the sadistic murders of four Cardinals who are prospective papal candidates (the story takes place on the first day of a conclave). These murders are ordered by the Camerlengo (who is not a Cardinal), who is finally revealed to be the natural son, by artificial insemination, of the late Pope, his mother having been a religious who, in the author’s words, had had a “chaste” relationship with the future Pontiff.

     At the core of this preposterous intrigue is the theft of a small quantity of antimatter from a nuclear research centre in Geneva. Transported to Rome by the thief and initially hidden in the Vatican necropolis, it finally explodes in the sky over Rome. The reader ultimately learns that the thief, who is also a hired killer, was acting on the orders of the Camerlengo, who had intended using this explosion to frighten humanity and ensure the Church’s triumph over the threat of science.

     Angels & Demons probably has appeal for fans of this type of fiction but, on its own, it does not have what is needed to be a bestseller. It is obvious that the repeated editions and translations of this book are a direct result of the worldwide success of Robert Langdon’s second adventure, The Da Vinci Code, which appeared three years later.

1.2     One Structure, Two Novels

      A comparison of the two novels, each containing over 100 short chapters, highlights their vast similarity. One synopsis would be suitable for both. One needs only to insert the appropriate elements in the proper places to obtain a summary for either book. Knowing it is the second novel, not the first, that achieved worldwide success, it may be useful to outline their differences to understand the reasons for this success. 

     This is the outline used for both novels, followed by a list of “ingredients” that distinguishes one from the other. Inserting them in the places marked by the letters in parenthesis would result in either Angels & Demons or The Da Vinci Code.

i. Outline

     Robert Langdon, an international authority, is a professor of “symbology” at Harvard University. He is awakened one night by a telephone call. His help is needed to solve a mysterious murder in a prestigious European institution (A). Codes and symbols have been found at the murder scene. The victim is a renowned scholar (B). Langdon recognizes the signature of a secret society established centuries ago (C), whose members were illustrious individuals (D). He teams up with a young woman whom he meets at the scene, who is herself highly qualified in the field (E), to investigate the murder by following clues hidden in various works of art and architecture, including those of the great masters (F).  

     They then begin a frenzied race that leads the reader through a number of European churches and historical sites (G), passing through the well-guarded vaults of a famous institution (H) where they find a vital clue (I). The assassin whom Langdon and his companion are pursuing – and will in turn be pursued by – answers to a high dignitary in the Catholic Church (J) who wants to prevent public knowledge of certain explosive information (K). At the end, it is revealed the reader already knows who has orchestrated (L) the entire series of events, including the murders, because with flawless duplicity that individual had joined Langdon’s investigation while it was taking place. The book concludes with the start of a romantic adventure between Langdon and his beautiful partner.

ii. “Ingredients”

1.3           Key to the Success of The Da Vinci Code

     It can be said these two novels are variations on the same theme. There is no doubt that what has made the second – The Da Vinci Code – such a resounding success, what distinguishes it from Angels & Demons, is the secrets it claims to reveal.

     The Da Vinci Code is one of a long line of stories about quests for the Holy Grail. In the traditional version that dates back to Perceval ou le Conte du Graal by Chrétien de Troyes (c. 1135-1180), the Holy Grail is the cup Christ used at the Last Supper. It was also this cup that Joseph of Arimathea supposedly used to receive the blood that flowed from Christ’s side. The quest for the Holy Grail by Percival and the Knights of the Round Table inspired numerous works as far back as the Middle Ages, and the story continues to be exploited. We have only to think of Richard Wagner’s opera Parsifal created in 1882, or Steven Spielberg’s film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), in which “Indy” finds the Grail only to lose it immediately, because, of course, the quest will never cease.

     In The Da Vinci Code, the legend is re-interpreted: instead of a cup, the Grail is something quite different. It is claimed that the secret of its true nature would be so damaging to the doctrine and power of the Church, that it has used every possible means throughout its history to prevent disclosure.

     Dan Brown weaves the intrigue around the Opus Dei prelate who believes his actions will protect the organization that he oversees. The conclave that took place in the first book had elected a Pope described as a “liberal”. However, the reader now learns that the new Pontiff disapproves of Opus Dei and has given it six months to separate completely from the Catholic Church and become an independent Catholic organization or another Church. The prelate then embarks on a quest for the Grail, believing that possessing this secret would give him sufficient power to force the Vatican’s hand and overturn the decision. This may appear ludicrous to someone with even the slightest knowledge of the Church and its institutions, but the reading public evidently sees nothing illogical in this.

     The famous secret is revealed to the reader throughout the book because two of the main characters, Robert Langdon and Leigh Teabing, already know what it is. They constantly talk about it in order to reveal to their companion the truth about the Church and Jesus, as the greatest specialists of our time would have revealed it. The brief outline can be found in the conversation which takes place in chapters 55, 56, 58 and 60.

     The Holy Grail is, in fact, supposed to be Mary Magdalene’s womb, which contained “the blood of Christ”, that is, his descendants, who are still at work today through a secret society known as the Priory of Sion. The Templars brought the proof back with them from the Crusades and concealed it somewhere in France. It is this proof that everyone is seeking. There are supposed to be four enormous cases containing thousands of pages of documents dating back to the start of Christianity, including a book summarizing the true teachings of Jesus, written by Jesus himself. After the reign of the Emperor Constantine, who it is claimed took the initiative of deifying Jesus and suppressing all proof to the contrary, the Church is supposed to have systematically deformed the truth and propagated a fabricated doctrine to ensure its power and domination.

     Dan Brown did not initiate this theory that has brought him such overwhelming success. He did not invent these theories on Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Constantine, the Holy Grail, the Templars or the history of the Church. He drew them from other writings. An examination of the sources he used – and identified in the novel – places the origin of “The Da Vinci Code effect” within the current of pre-existing ideas.

2.       Sources of The Da Vinci Code

2.1     Main Source: The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail

     One of the books Brown explicitly mentions in the novel (chapter 60) is his main source – The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln. First published in London in 1982, this book was at the centre of the recent plagiarism lawsuit brought against the author of The Da Vinci Code in Great Britain. Moreover, Dan Brown used the family names of two of these authors to form the name of one of his characters, Sir Leigh Teabing (“Teabing” being an anagram of “Baigent”).

     The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail is a voluminous work presented under the guise of an investigation. The book begins with rumours circulating about a certain Abbé Béranger Saunière, a parish priest in the village of Rennes-le-Château in southwest France in the late 19th century. (Readers of The Da Vinci Code will recognize the name “Saunière” as that of the Louvre curator assassinated at the beginning of the book.) Abbé Saunière became a legend by mysteriously amassing wealth while serving in a poor parish. The village rumours were finally assembled together in 1967 in Gérard de Sède’s book, L’or de Rennes ou la Vie insolite de Béranger Saunière. Today, there are numerous Internet sites containing information on Rennes-le-Château and its mystery.

     On this basis, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail constructs hypothesis upon hypothesis and develops a convoluted theory that Dan Brown exploits without reserve: In a pillar in his church, Abbé Saunière found documents the Templars had brought back from the Crusades. These documents establish the truth about Jesus. He was truly of royal blood, of the family of David, and the Romans had identified him as such. This is why they finally executed him as a pretender to the throne. Jesus’ spouse, Mary Magdalene, was of another royal family, the “house of Benjamin”, to which Jerusalem formerly belonged. Together they founded a new dynasty; their wedding was known as the “wedding at Cana”. One of their children was Jesus Barabbas, the very Barabbas whom the crowd chose over Jesus when he was brought before Pilate, in order to preserve the royal dynasty. Mary Magdalene was the sister of Lazarus of Bethany, who is the beloved disciple in the fourth Gospel, and whose resurrection by Jesus is an initiation rite symbolizing a death-resurrection. Moreover, before meeting Jesus, Mary Magdalene had been associated with a cult of the Mother-Goddess Ishtar, which included a seven-stage initiation: these are the seven demons from which Jesus freed her….     

     And so on, and so on…. It continues in this way, page after page. No proof, no justification. The “ifs” are linked together to become, a few pages later, established facts on which new hypotheses are founded: Mary Magdalene took refuge at the other end of the Roman Empire, in southern Gaul, where her bloodline survived. Clovis and the Merovingian kings were descendants of Jesus, and their dynasty, stripped of power, was kept a secret throughout European history, notably by the Templars and the Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion, dreaming of a Europe united under a single crown, enjoying the prestige and authority of Christ himself…. The meaning of the book’s title, Holy Blood and Holy Grail, becomes apparent at this point. Sought by the legendary Knights of the Round Table, the legendary Holy Grail that held the blood of Christ at the Last Supper and subsequently the blood of Christ on the Cross was not what it was believed to be. The French term “Saint-Graal” (Holy Grail) is a deformation of “Sang-Real” (royal blood). The Holy Grail was Mary Magdalene herself, who carried in her womb the royal bloodline of Christ.

     This type of theory is typical of some esoteric literature that has long had its followers. In response to the demands of a consumer society, titles of this kind have multiplied at a dizzying rate since the success of The Da Vinci Code. Moreover, Michael Baigent (one of the three authors of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail) has just published a new work, The Jesus Papers: Exposing the Greatest Cover-Up in History (Harper San Francisco, 2006), in which he develops the thesis already introduced in the 1982 book, that Jesus survived his crucifixion, which is said to have been a false execution and an elaborate show staged with Pilate’s complicity.

     What is new with The Da Vinci Code is that this type of idea and theory is no longer marginal but part of mass culture and popular thinking. The Da Vinci Code is, of course, a work of fiction, but its author contends it is based on serious research to which he makes explicit reference. He has not used all the details of Baigent’s, Leigh’s and Lincoln’s theories, but readers of his book will recognize the broad outlines. What the majority of people retain is based on a concise affirmation: “The Church has hidden from us the truth about Jesus: he was married to Mary Magdalene, with whom he had descendants.”

     In 1996, in the introduction to a new edition of their 1982 book, the authors of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail stated that many of the elements of their theory had already been repeated by others in works of fiction. They cited the names of novelists Anthony Burgess and Umberto Eco who said their book contained everything needed to write a novel. Eco even described the direction this “novel of the future” should take. One may think that Dan Brown probably took this direction and thus the idea of writing a sequel to Angels & Demons.    

2.2     Gnosis, Esotericism, Rewriting History

     Dan Brown also uses a number of other sources. In chapter 60, three of them, all published after The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, are among the books in Sir Leigh Teabing’s library.

     The first source named is The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ.

     The authors (whom Brown does not name) can easily be identified. They are Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince, who published this book in 1997. For those who are not familiar with these writers, it is enlightening to know that they subsequently published The Stargate Conspiracy: The Truth About Extraterrestrial Life and the Mysteries of Ancient Egypt (New York, Berkley Books, 2001). Their books belong to the genre of “conspiracy theories” and the authors obviously have broad fields of interest, ranging from extraterrestrials to the Templars, from ancient Egypt to Christ. This gives an idea of the nature of the research conducted by Dan Brown and the value of his sources.     

     The other two sources specifically named in The Da Vinci Code, again in chapter 60, are two books by Margaret Starbird, published in 1993 and 1998 respectively, well after The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, from which they could therefore draw. The reader can readily recognize the themes of the goddess and the sacred feminine that are so important in Brown’s novel:

    a.    The Woman with the Alabaster Jar: Mary Magdalene and the Holy Grail (1993)

               b.   The Goddess in the Gospels: Reclaiming the Sacred Feminine (1998).

     The Da Vinci Code also contains evidence of the influence of books by Elaine Pagels, a specialist in the Gnostic literature of Nag Hammadi. In addition to her scientific works, she has published popular works in which the history and origins of Christianity are reviewed and “corrected” from the perspective of certain radical trends of the feminist movement:

    c.    Adam, Eve and the Serpent, New York, Random House, 1988

 d.   The Gnostic Gospels, New York, Vintage Books, 1989 (1st edition: 1979).

These diverse sources have provided several key elements for The Da Vinci Code, notably the following:

-        The Church we know is “Peter’s Church”. It is not the Church that Jesus wanted. It is the Church of Peter who wrote the “official” Gospels and suppressed all other writings that did not correspond to his vision of things. Fortunately, some of them have been rediscovered. These Gnostic writings – that the Church discredits by labelling them as apocryphal – are more reliable sources than the New Testament for learning the truth about Jesus and the origins of the Church.

-        Jesus entrusted his Church not to Peter, but to Mary Magdalene. He attached great importance to the sacred feminine and to the Mother Goddess that his people first knew. Peter supplanted Mary Magdalene; his Church imposed a patriarchal religion and oppressed women.

-        Jesus was not God for his first disciples and did not present himself as such. It was the Emperor Constantine, in the 4th century, who manipulated the Church in order to deify Jesus and rewrite the Bible, thus creating the religion he needed to control his empire.

-        Throughout history, the Church has used every means to impose its doctrine and power, crushing all who tried to reveal the truth.

     The “Esotericism and New Age” sections in bookstores offer a vast range of titles developing similar ideas. A public with an appetite for these books has existed for a long time. It could be said that Dan Brown’s novel has, in a manner of speaking, channelled all these sources and created a great river in which mass culture is now slaking its thirst.

2.3     Conclusion: It Is Not “Just a Novel”

    Faced with the negative reactions in Christian circles, some people are astonished and reply, “It’s just a novel.” In their opinion, too much is being made of something that is ultimately only a work of fiction.

     However, a comparison of the two novels – Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code – and an examination of the sources the author uses suggest this is not the case. Although the first book can undoubtedly be dismissed with the words “It’s just a novel,” the same cannot be said of the second, because it is not “just the novel” that is the cause of all this excitement, but rather the theses it presents to the general public.

     The Da Vinci Code is not just a novel. It is a trigger. A catalyst. A means of revelation. What makes it a success, and what will remain after this cultural tsunami, does not come from the book but from its sources: these theories, ideas and theses have been simmering in a wide range of marginal literature – Gnostic, esoteric, theosophic, occultist, etc. – and thanks to The Da Vinci Code have erupted into the mass culture. Tens of millions of readers have learned about them, readers who would never have read the original works.   

     Yet these theories, ideas and theses are fashionable. A vast reading public has welcomed and adopted them with enthusiasm. A turning point has been passed, a point of no return. We cannot go back to square one, to pre-The Da Vinci Code. Pandora’s box has been opened, and closing it is futile when everything it contains has been scattered to the four corners of the world.

     With the upcoming release of the movie, there will continue to be a great deal of discussion about The Da Vinci Code. No doubt the fad will pass, but the effect will last a long time. It is not unlikely that the current generation will remain marked by this phenomenon. We will never again be able to speak about Christ, the Church, the Gospels, the apostles of Jesus, the women who accompanied Jesus, or the Creed, without being confronted with the aftermath of the Da Vinci tsunami. Millions of people will remember reading in the novel that “almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false” (chapter 55).

     The most important issue perhaps is not that we should know how to “respond” to The Da Vinci Code, how to refute the innumerable falsehoods, half-truths and unfounded affirmations it contains; how to explain gnosis, the apocrypha, the Church’s institutions and the Councils; how to re-establish the facts and the truth of history…. Already many articles, books, web sites, documentaries and programs are doing so, but their impact is modest, at best.

     Neither is it merely a question of preparing a communications plan for the duration of the commercial and media success of the book and the film.

 Rather, we are entering new terrain.

     The true issue is knowing which pastoral, catechetical and missionary adjustments will be necessary to reach those who appreciate and welcome the ideas conveyed in Dan Brown’s novel. In other words, how are we to proclaim Jesus Christ after the Da Vinci tsunami?

II - Success of The Da Vinci Code:

A Sign of the Times

     Why has this novel been so successful? What does its success mean? What does it reveal to us about the aspirations and concerns of our contemporaries? What does it teach us about current sensitivities and religious questioning? Basically, it is not so much Dan Brown’s book itself, but the infatuation it is causing which should receive careful consideration. This enthusiastic reception from a vast public is a sign of the times that needs to be interpreted. 

     The success of The Da Vinci Code is obviously not a monolithic phenomenon, and it would be rash to attempt an unequivocal explanation. Also, there is the other side of the coin. Our world is rarely unanimous and the divisions are serious, profound and lasting. The Da Vinci Code does not only have admirers, even though they are numerous. The people who will race to see the film will certainly not be the same who two years ago applauded Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, and raised it to the rank of one of the five greatest box-office hits, with accumulated revenues of more than US$600 million. There are people who are troubled by The Da Vinci Code. There are some who are saddened and hurt. And there are others who cry blasphemy or call for a boycott.

     If the immense success of The Da Vinci Code is a sign of the times that needs to be interpreted, what does it teach us? The analysis of the phenomenon and the pastoral reflections will no doubt continue for some time, but we can already establish some leads.

1.       Pastoral Challenges

     The first lesson is one we know already, but is revealed to us here in a particularly harsh light.  We note a generalized lack of knowledge, indeed an unfathomable ignorance, of history and religion which are frequently reduced to puerile simplifications or appalling caricatures. That the most hare-brained theories, integrated into a novel, can be so easily acclaimed both by critics and the public is enough to stun an informed observer.

     Even while admitting that ignorance of religious matters is inevitable in a secularized society, one might have thought that, in this era of science and technology, a little scientific methodology would have passed into the general culture: verification of sources, logical reasoning, the nature of proof, etc. But no. It is obvious everywhere, even in the processing of information in the popular media: there is a much greater appeal to emotions than to reason. The public is entertained more than it is informed. On the television news, the opinion of a passer-by, stopped by chance in the street, takes on as much if not more importance than that of the expert interviewed at the end of the program. “How do you feel?” has become the first question in many news stories.

     The emotions triggered by The Da Vinci Code range from adulation to indignation, from amusement to sadness, from indifference to anger. This is where the first level of pastoral intervention is to be situated.

1.1       Wounded Body

     Our first thoughts must be for Christians who are saddened or hurt, worried or upset by Dan Brown’s novel. Many Catholics view with great distress the way the Church is caricatured, ridiculed and slandered in this book. They hear their relatives and friends praise it and suffer in silence.

     In his encyclical Deus Caritas Est (paragraph 25b), Pope Benedict XVI wrote: “The Church is God’s family in the world.” The image is useful for understanding the connection and attachment we have to the Church and the sadness engendered by the enthusiastic reception to The Da Vinci Code. When the family is attacked, all its members suffer. When the attack is based on lies and slander relayed by a vast advertising and media campaign, the wound is all the more painful. “‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account” Jesus said (Matthew 5, 11). Few of us are prepared to see this Beatitude come true.

     This suffering must be received with particular pastoral concern. It is important to be attentive to the weakest, to those whose faith has neither the words nor the knowledge to respond to the attacks. What confusion would be created among them, for example, if one of their pastors were to state publicly on radio or television that he is a “whodunit” fan and quite liked The Da Vinci Code, that he found it a relaxing read, and that ultimately it is good entertainment and should not be taken too seriously because, after all, “it’s just a novel”?

     This situation is reminiscent of the ancient controversy surrounding the question of idolothytes, the meat sacrificed to idols, to which Saint Paul devotes a lengthy passage in his first letter to the Corinthians (chapters 8 to 10).

     In the Roman society in which the young Church was evolving, meat bought in the marketplace and eaten could, in many circumstances, come from animals sacrificed in one of the city’s numerous places of worship. Christians were divided on the question: could a person eat this meat without being automatically associated with idol worship? Some had no objection, noting that idols were nothing and their worship was mere ritual without effect. Others, on the contrary, scrupulously avoided eating the meat out of fear of compromising their attachment to Christ and their witness to the faith. Saint Paul, along with the more well-informed members of the community, recognized that objectively there was no harm in eating this meat. “Food will not bring us close to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.” In other words, it is not serious, it is only meat.

     But, he says, take care of the weakest! Paul continues – and here it is the pastor speaking: “But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.  For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols?  So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed.  But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.  Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall” (1 Corinthians 8, 7-13).

     The same pastoral sensitivity is essential in the present circumstances.

1.2     Beyond Words

     At the other extreme, there are those who have been won over by The Da Vinci Code and have become its ardent promoters. They are legion and will ensure the film’s success as they have already made Dan Brown’s fortune.

     Among them are members of parish communities a well as of Catholic movements and institutions. Others, although farther removed, nonetheless claim Catholic identity. The reasons for their interest in The Da Vinci Code are undoubtedly multiple and complex. All in their own way, and in their innermost being, must reconcile this interest with what they have adopted from their faith in Jesus Christ.  

     There is also matter here for pastoral concern. The numerous books, web sites and other documents produced to refute one by one the falsehoods, half-truths and unfounded speculations of The Da Vinci Code will be of only relative use. They will be used more to reassure worried Christians than to initiate dialogue with Dan Brown’s fans.

     Undoubtedly, the appropriate pastoral response will neither be debate nor verbal sparring and certainly not a didactic or magisterial discourse. It should be directed instead to the sources of interest in the so-called secrets relayed by the novel, that is, to the personal experiences that have led people to challenge or deny the Church, its doctrine and its faith. The popularity of The Da Vinci Code has germinated and grown in a compost of dissatisfaction and wounds, of difficulties and questions shared by a large number of people in our time.    

     The pastoral response cannot therefore be anything other than an invitation, a welcome and a word of hope that opens up the true Christian experience. Is it not through religious experience, which gives ample space to sensitivity, aspirations and emotions, that so many encounter with wonder the Lord living in his Church? 

1.3     Power of Story

     One of the most effective means of transmitting ideas is to integrate them into a story. It was true in Homer’s time. It was true in the time of Jesus, whose parables are a perfect example of teaching that is not didactic but narrative. The history of literature is marked with examples of this kind of success.

     This is even truer in the current culture, which is often described as a media or communications culture. The importance of television series and film as proponents of values and ideas needs no further demonstration. As noted in the 1999 document by the Assembly of Quebec Bishops entitled Annoncer l’Évangile dans la culture actuelle au Québec (pp. 59-60), “Among the major communication methods, the story should have a place of its own. Too often, Christian faith and a series of dogmatic proposals that are supposed to contain the revealed truths are viewed as being identical. However, in the Old and New Testaments, the confession of faith is expressed in another form: the story. We must never forget that dogmatic proposals have a derived nature since they reflect the passage from story to concept. When we go back to the origins of believer discourse, that of the confession of faith, we find testimonies or stories. The primitive creed (Deuteronomy 26, 4-10) is a confession in the form of a story about what God does for us” [translation].

     The popular success of the novel The Da Vinci Code is a brilliant illustration of the major role of the story in the transmission of values and ideas. This is why we should not minimize its importance by saying “It’s only a novel!” On the contrary, the reply should be “Exactly! It is a novel! That is why it is so important!”

     Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte emphasized the importance of the narrative form in an address to the Pontifical Council for Social Communications during its Plenary Meeting in 2003: “Bear witness and relate. These are the two principal forms that our words should take if we wish to be heard and understood in the media realm. Jesus taught through parables; we must teach using the story methods of our day. The cinema, the theatre, televised series – soap operas – are all ways in which the spirit of the Gospel can be communicated using characters and situations. We must therefore rely on authors, actors and producers who share our faith. We must help and encourage them and associate them with the mission of the Church” [translation].

2.       A Church in Question

     If the success of The Da Vinci Code is a sign of the times that requires interpretation, this reveals a mistrust of the Church which is given an extremely negative image.

     It is difficult to ignore that a large part of this success rests on the fact that the novel presents the Catholic Church in a sinister light. It is quite clear that Dan Brown knows little about the Church and its history, and what he does know he knows badly. The list of glaring examples of his ignorance is unending. But while the injustice of the portrait he paints could be debated at length, it would have little influence on the reality. Many people are evidently pleased to see the image of the Church violated in this way. In fact, a large number appear to feel it is an accurate picture. Although we may have believed at one point in “friendly” secularization and de-denominalization, we must now recognize that many will not be satisfied to leave it there.  They will not rest until the Church is discredited and its word dishonoured.

2.1     What is the Church?

     “Church, what do you say that you are?” The question that had been asked in previous days to the fathers of the Second Vatican Council, and to which the Council responded with the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, is therefore once again at the forefront. The current challenge is how to reply to the question in an often hostile environment where many have already made up their minds about the question – in a negative, conclusive opinion –, a world where there is misunderstanding about what the Church says. Even within the ecclesial community, many often manifest their uneasiness in singling out the “institutional Church” with which they say they have little in common.  This uneasiness, already nourished these recent years by scandals and controversies, could intensify with the Da Vinci Code effect.

      “The medium is the message” is heard repeatedly since the days of Marshal McLuhan. The methods we use to communicate constitute the first word we speak, before our first word is actually spoken. To show is just as important, if not more so, than to speak. But how are we to show the profound and essential nature of the Church? How can we communicate our experience of the Church as the People of God, the Body of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Spirit? How can we express what is the order of the Mystery when what is perceived is the order of the structure? It is unlikely that communications strategies and the expertise of the advertising world can be of much help in this situation, for the Church in its most fundamental nature has little in common with a lobby or pressure group, or a communications firm. Nevertheless, it is only in knowing the Church at depth that we can see beyond its limits and faults and discover what Lumen Gentium called “the sacrament of intimate union with God and the unity of all humanity”.

     The Da Vinci Code consolidates public opinions of a negative, incomplete and distorted image of the Church. Unfortunately, in this way it formulates an opinion that from now on may be, by default, the opinion of the majority.

2.2     “Do You Also Want to Leave?”

     The fictitious Church in The Da Vinci Code is repeatedly presented as distorting the facts or lying outright to achieve its goals. We are left with the impression that, at best, the word of the Church is suspect. Prevailing opinions readily welcome this impression and the true Church will need to cope with the outcome. It will be all the easier to discredit its word since it must often make declarations that run counter to prevailing trends in public opinion.

     This brings back to the foreground the thorny issue of the relationship between faith and culture. Some still dream of a Church that would fit harmoniously into society, a Church whose message, short of a consensus, would be received with benevolence. Nostalgic perhaps for a time when “faith, language and homeland” formed a compact whole, some see the Church easily adapting its teaching or changing such a position or doctrine in order to be more readily welcomed. Others, on the contrary, resigned to the fact that faith has become divorced from the dominant culture, claim to belong to the model of a prophetic Church that must go against the tide and suffer the consequences.  

     To be openly Catholic is becoming more and more difficult. It will be even more difficult in the wake of the Da Vinci tsunami. For many practising Catholics, it is already a private issue, something rarely discussed beyond the circle of close relatives and friends. Others distance themselves, frightened perhaps by what may seem inaccessible or too demanding. Throughout the world and down through history, the Church in many societies has had a similar experience: as an era marked by unanimity and consensus comes to an end, and when the time comes for testimony, even for marginalization or persecution, many prefer to vanish into the anonymity of the crowd. Who knows? Perhaps it will happen before our eyes among the crowds who will soon see The Da Vinci Code.

     Saint John relates that after Jesus’ speech at the synagogue in Capernaum, many of his disciples, deterred by his teaching, “turned back and no longer went about with him.  So Jesus asked the Twelve, ‘Do you also wish to go away’?  Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom can we go?  You have the words of eternal life.  We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God’” (John 6, 66-69).

     Peter’s confession leads us finally to what is most important.

3.       Faith to Confess

     It is neither new nor rare to find works of fiction that propose reinterpretations of the life and person of Jesus. The first examples appeared in the early centuries of the Christian era. Of the more recent works, it can be said they are occasionally respectful but often iconoclastic. Some are written by talented authors, while others do not deserve the attention they receive. Some are a passing fad and quickly forgotten, while others remain inscribed in our memory. Some are based on the work of reputable researchers, but others, like The Da Vinci Code, will stoop to anything and seek effect rather than substance. 

3.1     “Who Do People Say that the Son of Man Is?”

     Several attempts have been made through music, cinema and the theatre: from Jesus Christ Superstar (1971) to Jesus of Montreal (1989), from The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) to Terrence McNally’s Corpus Christi, which created a sensation and scandal in New York in 1998 by depicting Jesus and his disciples as homosexuals. Some recent novels have attracted attention because of their refined knowledge of the subject matter or even because of their scholarship. Examples are Le Manuscript du Saint-Sépulcre by Jacques Neirynck (1994) or the voluminous and provocative Gospel by Wilton Barnhardt (1993), a hair-raising race around the world in search of the manuscript of the “Matthias Gospel”. None of these books, of course, has had the popular media impact of The Da Vinci Code.

     Dan Brown’s novel responds to a need for a Jesus reviewed and updated according to the flavour of the day, a Jesus who does not upset, and who reinforces an era in its habits and life options. A Jesus totally unlike the disturbing prophet who announced the Reign of God and called for conversion, a Jesus who is certainly not the Word made Flesh, God made man. The faith experience of innumerable witnesses of all time, saints who lived the fire of the Gospel and the meeting with the Risen Christ, is swept away: “almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false,” concludes Sir Leigh Teabing in chapter 55.

     All these opinions, from the simplest to the most outrageous, are replies to the question that has been asked unceasingly since Jesus phrased it in Caesarea Philippi: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” As in times past, faced with a variety of replies, the question is now readdressed to Christ’s disciples: “And you, what do you say?”

3.2     “But who do you say that I Am?”

     Authors who have provided Dan Brown with his theories speak of Christ in the past tense.  Christians speak about him in the present. For the former, he is a distant historical character, for the latter, he is the beloved Saviour they know and encounter in prayer, the Scriptures, the sacraments and the community of faith. The former seek codes and secrets; the latter live and are filled with the wonder of the Mystery, forever new, of Emmanuel, God with us.

     For those who base their lives on their relationship with Christ, there is great sadness in this infatuation with The Da Vinci Code. It is with consternation that they see millions of readers welcome with pleasure a disfigured portrait of Christ. They are taken aback when other Christians cannot see anything wrong with it and even find it amusing. It is the pain which is felt when a loved one is ridiculed, insulted or slandered.

     The announcement of God’s gift of Jesus Christ can only be received in liberty. John Paul II reminded us in 1990: “Can one reject Christ and everything he has brought about in the history of mankind? Of course one can. Man is free. He can say ‘no’ to God. He can say ‘no’ to Christ” (Redemptoris Missio, no. 7). But the success of The Da Vinci Code forces us to take note: those who believe that the depiction of Christ and the Church in the book is accurate do not have the basis for a true response, negative or positive, to God’s call.

     This underlines the urgency of the mission. Admittedly, “men can gain salvation also in other ways, by God’s mercy, even though we do not preach the Gospel to them; but as for us, can we gain salvation if through negligence or fear or shame – what Saint Paul called ‘blushing for the Gospel’ – or as a result of false ideas we fail to preach it?” (Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, no. 80).

3.3     The Holy Grail Was Never Lost

     In 1982, the authors of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail reinterpreted in their own way the old legends of the Holy Grail through a total distortion of this allegory of the quest for salvation in Christ. Others tapped into the thesis to insert it into the modern renaissance movement of beliefs and cults honouring the Great Goddess. 

     Working this seam in turn, Dan Brown finally leads the hero of The Da Vinci Code to the inverted pyramid of the Louvre under which the bones of Mary Magdalene are supposedly buried, the end and outcome of the quest for the Holy Grail. The novel ends at the moment when in a sudden flash of illumination he believes he hears a woman’s voice, “the wisdom of the ages” coming from the chasms of the earth. He has found the mother goddess….

     This ending will no doubt bring more visitors to this section of the Louvre, but they will wait there in vain for illumination. Their quest will continue.

     As for Christians, they have never lost the true Holy Grail, the only one that counts. They still hear the voice of the Master as he presents it to them: “Take this, all of you, and drink from it: this is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant. It will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven.” In thanksgiving, they continue to come to the altar where the cup is offered to them. 

Bertrand Ouellet

May 2006