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The Gospel According to The Da Vinci Code: The Truth Behind the Writings of Dan Brown

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Most of the responses to The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown deal strictly with facts (or the lack thereof). But what about the big picture? What does the novel communicate and how has it impacted our culture? As Christians, how ought we to respond? The Gospel According to the Da Vinci Code by Kenneth Boa and John Alan Turner seeks to answer these questions.

While the novel is actually fiction, our culture is such that many people treat it as non-fiction. "What Dan Brown says he believes is fundamentally incompatible with historic, orthodox Christianity. However, in a pluralistic society such as ours, millions of people seem to think you can pick and choose your beliefs like toppings on your pizza." (2)

Through their introduction and 12 chapters, Boa and Turner analyze the problems The Da Vinci Code presents in our current culture and how Christians should respond. "So what is the gospel according to Dan Brown? Simply put, `Everything you've ever heard about Jesus is wrong.'" (23) They discuss postmodernism, truth, and history, while pointing out Brown's problems and errors.

The authors ask, "What Would Jesus Do With Dan Brown?" (90) They essentially boil down the proper Christian response to "We've got to stop being foolish. We've got to stop being tacky. And we've got to stop being mean." (118) Though they deal a few of the errors in Brown's novel, they point to Darrell Bock's Breaking the Da Vinci Code for a more thorough critique.

There are a number of great points throughout the book, such as, "Saying that Dan Brown's book is about Christianity is like saying Finding Nemo is about marine biology. We have just as much evidence to suggest Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene as we have that clown fish talk." (25) The authors also get points for using Jack Bauer as an illustration (102-103).

Unfortunately, these good points are counterbalanced by poor ones. In at least one case they esteem a cheesy slogan as good methodology: "people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care." (106) The book doesn't appear to have a logical structure and often switches focus without reason. The authors make some brief points about Gnosticism and "the sacred feminine," but no thorough analysis of those topics is offered.

The Gospel According to the Da Vinci Code has periodic good points to offer, particularly in regards to the status of our culture. In that sense, it succeeds in dealing with the big picture. However, readers would be better off reading a book responding to the historical claims and pagan worldview of The Da Vinci Code.

I wondered what the hubbabaloo about the Da Vinci Code, so when I received the ARC to review this book, I was eager to start it. I was a little confused with Code book, because I liked the story, but found some of the narrative a little boggling, but this book, the Gospel according to, was amazing complex and simple at the same time. These authors take the reader piece by piece through the Dan Brown book and shows who, what, where, when and whys the book is a failure on so many levels. I highly recommend this book to those who enjoyed the Code or didn't like hte code...either way you'll be enlighted!!

I read the book "The Da Vinci Code" and found it to be extremely disturbing. In fact I was furious after completing it. I kept saying "Where lies the truth in this book"? Did someone jump of the train too soon? Then fortunately for me, a friend informed me that your book was being written. For that I say thank you. You do an excellent job of dispelling a number of innaccuracies while empowering the readers to validate the "facts". Though the Da Vinci Code is a work of FICTION, it is written in a fashion in which it may lead to the clouding of the senses! I half expected your book to be a "preachy" rhetoric but it was by far anything but. So my thanks goes out to you for putting a fresh perspective out there for readers to enjoy and to provoke thought so that they too will seek the TRUTH.

Sincerely,

Wm. Quinones