The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
With The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown masterfully concocts an intelligent and lucid thriller that marries the gusto of an international murder mystery with a collection of fascinating esoteria culled from 2,000 years of Western history.
A murder in the silent after-hour halls of the Louvre museum reveals a sinister plot to uncover a secret that has been protected by a clandestine society since the days of Christ. The victim is a high-ranking agent of this ancient society who, in the moments before his death, manages to leave gruesome clues at the scene that only his granddaughter, noted cryptographer Sophie Neveu, and Robert Langdon, a famed symbologist, can untangle. The duo become both suspects and detectives searching for not only Neveu's grandfather's murderer but also the stunning secret of the ages he was charged to protect. Mere steps ahead of the authorities and the deadly competition, the mystery leads Neveu and Langdon on a breathless flight through France, England, and history itself. Brown (Angels and Demons) has created a page-turning thriller that also provides an amazing interpretation of Western history. Brown's hero and heroine embark on a lofty and intriguing exploration of some of Western culture's greatest mysteries--from the nature of the Mona Lisa's smile to the secret of the Holy Grail. Though some will quibble with the veracity of Brown's conjectures, therein lies the fun. The Da Vinci Code is an enthralling read that provides rich food for thought. (From Amazon.)
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In the Da Vinci code Brown alludes to many ways in which Christianity has, in a sense “ripped off” the symbols and meaning of pagan belief. For instance, he references how the Hebrew name for God-YHWH, derived from Jehovah, actually comes from a fusion of the words Jah, and Havah. These pre-Hebraic pagan names refer to the union of male and female [Brown 309].
After reading the heritage of this Old Testament name for God, one is left with the feeling that the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob was only the appropriation of pagan concepts that casts overtones of previous pagan understandings upon the Biblical presentation of God. Perhaps one need not conclude that the Old Testament understanding of God is not unique or is overshadowed with pagan meaning. One might just as easily conclude that YHWH was the redefinition of former pagan religion. Rather than inventing new categories from which to see the divine, perhaps God decided to utilize their existing understandings and reveal whom it was that they were really seeking in pagan ritual.
There seems to be significant precedence for God’s revelation having utilized existing historical beliefs. Little research into the historical connection between the terminology for Jesus kingdom, and the kingdom dominated by the Roman Caesar , for example, reveals the ways in which early Christians understood Christ’s birth and rule as a direct reinterpretation of the power of Rome . The use of historical categories to reflect the true nature of the divine speaks not of the imitation of existing practice, but of a God who uses finite human understandings to reveal a representation of himself that we have only begun to construct. We have altars to unknown gods and we see through glass darkly but soon we will see face to face .
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Jesus and Empire: The Kingdom of God and the New World Disorder by Richard A. Horsley, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003).
Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography by John Dominic Crossan, (Harper Collins, 1995).
Acts 17:23, 1 Cor 13:12