Book Review

Church-and State Politics, and clandestine operations of Church-based organizations like the Opus Dei and a host of others. The book seeks to provide not only a thrilling reader to the general public, written in simple English, (made a bit difficult for the non-Europeans due to the copious use of French phrases through out the book.), but also to influence the cultivated  English knowing people with outrageous interpretations of the life-history of Jesus.

While the new interpretations of the life-story of Jesus can be too shocking for the Christian believers of all hues,  the same can shaken the foundations of the Catholic Church by  encouraging the fence-sitters to opt for more secular view of the life of Jesus, with practically  no divine versions for the historical Jesus. If it is conceded, as advocated by the author that Jesus had married and had begotten children through Mary Magdalene, that he did not die on the Cross, that the Resurrection story is a cooked up one, then there is very little of orthodox Catholicism to hold on. It is no wonder then that the orthodox Christian  scholars  from and outside the  Catholic Church have come out with strong reactions against the thesis advocated by Dan Brown.

The Author uses two of characters, Robert Langdon ( Harvard Professor of Symbology) and Sir Leigh Teabing ( Royal Historian of England) to informal lectures on his own theories on Christian Theology and Philosophical models.

The book also extensively deals with the codes designed and employed by Leonardo Da Vinci in his most important works such as   Mona Lisa and the Last Supper arguing that these contain coded secret messages regarding the life of the historical Jesus as well as the intentions of Jesus to make Mary Magdalene, rather than St. Peter leader of his group of followers after he is gone from the scene. He even goes to argue through Langdon, that the person sitting on the left side of Jesus in the work on the Last Supper was Mary Magdalene, and also that the picture of Mary Magdalene therein shows that she was pregnant ( bearing the child of Jesus). According to Dan Brown, as  he makes Langdon to explain, the Last Supper scene also contains symbols showing a conflict between Peter and Mary Magdalene over who  should inherit the mantle of leadership from Jesus.  Jesus is presented here as desiring that Mary Magdalene should do that ( which would mean that she would have been the first Pope in a line of succession of women Popes to follow).  Jesus is interpreted here as a follower of a tradition that venerates the divine feminine in Nature, in contrast to that which venerates the divine masculine as advocated by St Paul and St. Peter, and later by St Iraeneus,  Constantine and other leaders of the future Church. What more is required to re-write the history of the world, and for pulling down the pillars of the oldest, largest, strongest, and richest multi-national corporation of the world maintained today by the more than 120 million believers of the Catholic Church, under the leadership of the latest Pope?

Employing the style of a detective novel with a suitable theme to justify the same, and keeping the reader pinned to the pages with anxiety and suspense over what would follw the present page being read by him/her, the author has produced a work of extraordinary resourcefulness. It is not only a great entertainment to read the book, but it is also a great education to go through its pages.  Rather than merely reading it as a detective novel, I have really studied it, enriching myself with new knowledge and insights on the variety of scholarly issues dealt with by the author on themes such as the following: 

1. The role of Constantine in the shaping of the present day Catholic Church
2. The status of the sacred feminine in early Christianity
3. The role of Mary Magdalene in the life story of Jesus
4. The symbolism of the Rose Flower in the occult schools
5. The nature and importance  of  Fibonacci  sequence as well as of PHI in Nature
6. The historical foundations of the Church Organisation
7. The Eminence and secret codes of Leonardo Da Vinci
8. The long suppressed historical aspect of Jesus the mystic leader
9. The role of women in the Church
10. The nature and role of clandestine organizations such as the Priory of Sion
11. The nature and role of the sinister organisdation the Opus Dei
12. The legacy of the Grail in European history
13. Theological controversy over the human-divine nature of Jesus the Christ
14. Role of symbolism in sacred literature
15. Conflicts over the succession of Jesus between Peter and Mary Magdalene
16. The theory that Jesus was the original feminist
17. The Status of Mary Magdalene as a descendent of the tribe of Benjamine
18. The theory of the bloodline of Jesus via Mary Magdalene in Europe
19. The alliance between Roman Emperors and the Popes in building Christendom
20. The historical crime of the Church in destroying knowledge about Jesus.

To this reviewer, the success secret of Dan Brown as an author appears to be his ability to produce a reading material that simultaneously provides entertainment and enlightenment of an extraordinary nature, while also raising controversies that will provoke organized forces that are well entrenched in history to take up all the arms in their arsenal for self-defense against annihilation. The article “Decoding the Da Vinci Code” by Michael Gleghorn, sponsored by the Probe Ministries

( whose mission is declared as assisting the Church in renewing minds of believers with a Christian world view and to equip the Church to engage the world for Christ)  and the book Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code by Bart D, Ehrman ( Oxford, New York:2004) are the immediate expressions of such reactions, seeking to refute the theories of Dan Brown by re-stating the age old doctrinal positions of the Church  based on the authority of tradition and logic.

More such attacks on Dan Brown are bound to come, considering the damaging effect of his book on the Catholic Church and Christian Communities and their own need for self-defemce.

Despite my appreciation for the book, it needs to be pointed out that the author has violated norms of professionalism by not giving due acknowledgement to what he borrowed from the  well researched book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail authored by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln whose publishers are now suing him for 150 Sterling Pounds for copy right violations.

The Author: 

Dan Brown is a graduate of Amherst College and Phillips Exeter Academy, where he was an English Teacher for a few years. He is the son of a Presidential Award winning Maths Professor and of a professional sacred musician. Thus he grew up in a family environment mixed with the philosophies of science and religion. He started writing on themes of philosophy and symbolism, set in Paris, London and Washington, D.C. His wife Blythe is an art historian and painter. He is the author of numerous best selling novels. The Davinci Code, which has sold more than 12 million copies by now, bringing a royalty of more than 140 million Sterling Pounds, is set to be released as a film by Columbia Pictures.