Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number.
Download to your computer
Kindle Cloud Reader
Facebook Twitter Pinterest

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon
Flip to back Flip to front
Listen Playing... Paused   You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more
See all 2 images

The Grail Code: Quest for the Real Presence Paperback – May 1, 2006

by
Mike Aquilina (Author)
› Visit Amazon's Mike Aquilina Page
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author? Learn about Author Central
Mike Aquilina (Author), Christopher Bailey (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars 15 customer reviews
See all 3 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions
Price
New from Used from
Kindle
"Please retry"
$11.78
— —
Paperback
"Please retry"
—
$6.01 $0.59
The Numberlys Best Books of the Year So Far
click to open popover

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.
Back
  1. The Mass of the Early Christians
    Mike Aquilina
    4.5 out of 5 stars 70
    Paperback
    $9.08 Prime
  2. Word on Fire: Proclaiming the Power of Christ
    Robert Barron
    4.9 out of 5 stars 25
    Paperback
    $14.66 Prime
  3. The Crucified Rabbi: Judaism and the Origins of Catholic Christianity (Origins of Catholic Christianity Trilogy)
    Taylor Marshall
    4.9 out of 5 stars 192
    Paperback
    $15.00 Prime
Next
NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE
The latest book club pick from Oprah
"The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead is a magnificent novel chronicling a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. See more

Product Details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Loyola Press (May 1, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0829421599
  • ISBN-13: 978-0829421590
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,452,658 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customer Reviews

5 star
100%
4 star
0%
3 star
0%
2 star
0%
1 star
0%
See all 15 customer reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers
Write a customer review

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsLooking for the Grail but finding the divine
By Julie D. VINE VOICE on June 13, 2006
Format: Paperback
The subject seems daunting. Who really wants to read an entire book about the Holy Grail? Not me. How about a book looking for King Arthur? Hmmm, that's a bit more interesting but still no sale. At least, that is, until I was shown that we really are not merely talking about the grail or King Arthur but a much bigger story, something divine really. To quote the book:

"If there was a real Holy Grail -- a cup venerated by the early Christians as the cup used at the Last Supper -- then it would eventually have become so encrusted with jewels and precious metals from the far corners of the earth that the original object would be hard to recognize. The cup would have been unchanged in essence but surrounded by a superstructure of ornamentation designed to draw attention to the beauty of its holiness.

All this is simply speculation. In spite of the strong claims about some relics in various parts of Europe, we really have no idea what became of the cup that Jesus used. Whether or not the object still exists, the veneration and ornamentation that might have happened to the Holy Grail is exactly what did happen to the story of the Holy Grail. One generation after another added jewels from all kinds of unlikely sources until the thing seemed to have a completely different shape. But the essence -- the original meaning of the Eucharist -- was unchanged. The added layers of ornament only expressed centuries of veneration for the truth of the Eucharist..."

Interesting concept isn't it? Certainly it is one that never occurred to me but is fascinating in the implications. Just to make sure I don't lose the trail, the authors then go onto King Arthur and work the same magic ... making connections I didn't know existed.Read more ›
Comment 12 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsNot really an anti-Da Vinci Code book
By C. J. Reno on June 24, 2006
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Although the introduction, chapter 1, and the afterword deal with modern focus on the Holy Grail, The Grail Code is much more vibrant in the chapters that deal with how the legend of the Holy Grail came to flourish and grow, than in those brief passages.

Starting with the history and legends surrounding Joseph of Arimathea and King Arthur, and detailing the bardic traditions of idealizing romantic and courtly love, Aquilina spells out, step by step, how what basically started as a 'pop fiction romance' grew to be the obsession we experience today.

What Aquilina considers to be the true meaning of the obsession with the Grail--the need to experience the Real Presence of Christ, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, in the Eucharist as celebrated in the Catholic Church--is also emphasized. Non-Catholics will probably not agree with his theology, but don't let that stop you from experiencing this amazing literary history.

Warning: The Grail Code may turn out to be just the beginning of your quest--you'll need access to a well-stocked library to read all the interesting books (including translations of all the various 'original' versions of the Grail and Arthur legends) mentioned in the selected bibliography--and after finishing The Grail Code, you'll want to read them.
Comment 10 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsLove, sex, God, swordplay
By Penn Jacobs on December 19, 2006
Format: Paperback
One of my favorite books this year, Grail Code is the thoughtful answer to a question that has been on my mind for years, well before Dan Brown unleashed the merchandising behemoth that The Da Vinci Code became: namely, what is the core of the Arthur/Grail stories, and how do we understand the relationship of these stories to Christian culture? Mike Aquilina and Chris Bailey have done a bang-up job with this book. It's fun, with mock arthurian stylings in its chapter heads and allusions to such popular treatments as the 1981 John Boorman film Excalibur and 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Aquilina and Bailey highlight the changing contours of the legends in the hands of men like Chretien de Troyes, Walter Map, Sir Thomas Malory, and Alfred Lord Tennyson. They've turned the history of these romances into an engaging intellectual romance; they pull the reader in to a world that is much larger than he could ever have imagined. Aquilina and Bailey capture the sense of yearning that is the strong undercurrent of these stories. They liken the tale to a jewel-encrusted relic, a tale that grew in reverent retelling. Christian theology, British history, romance and adultery, this is a wide-ranging, romping read.
Comment 6 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsA Moving Journey
By Matthew E. Bunson on June 29, 2006
Format: Paperback
It is unfortunate that The Grail Code will be seen by some merely as a work refuting The DaVinci Code. Such a misunderstanding might lead readers grown tired of the Dan Brown controversy to overlook it. In truth, the Grail Code is far more than another refutation of the dreadful novel. It is a superb account of the history and meaning of the Holy Grail. A must-read for those interested in the history of medieval literature.
Comment 4 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsWhat I Expected and More
By D. Ross on September 30, 2006
Format: Paperback
Having taken a course in Grail legends in college (so many years ago that the professor quite possibly knew Arthur), I was curious to see what the author's take would be on this vast subject. Mr. Aquilina calmly surpassed my expectations.

This book is a concise and lilting journey through the various stages of the growth of the Arthurian legends. I was happy to see the author include aspects of the myriad authors that were left out of the college course I took. Mr. Aquilina uncovered the yearning for the meaning of life and ultimate destiny in the legends that was missing from my class. Perhaps because my professor came was a self-proclaimed Anglophile (although he didn't take milk and cream with his Earl Grey), he missed the piercing Catholic underpinnings of the legends that were the foundation of the quest.

Mr. Aquilina was able, in relatively few pages to weave the nuances and intracacies of humanity's search for reason and belief in and out of the various Grail legends throughout history. I was pleased to be re-introduced to so many storytellers who I spent long nights with (usually right before exams) and to see them from a refreshingly new angle. It was like meeting an old friend whose memory has been distorted by the years. You see them as new creatures, filling in the details with new colors and textures. For me, The Grail Code completed the image in my mind of the legends, the history and the characters that mottle our literary landscape even today.

This book came to be a gem for me. I look forward to reading it again soon.

Thank you, Mr. Aquilina. It's been a pleasure.
Comment 3 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsexcellent book!

Great read!

Published 12 months ago by Abbey
5.0 out of 5 starsNot Brown bashing, but a thoughtful look at the development of the...

I was expecting an off-hand refutation of the Dan Brown et al. craziness re: the Holy Grail. What I got was a thoughtful look at the origins and development of the grail legend... Read more

Published 18 months ago by Chick
5.0 out of 5 starsThe Presence of the Creator

Since the publication of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, there have been a number of excellent books refuting the historical inaccuracies that Brown asserted as facts. Read more

Published on April 1, 2009 by Labarum
5.0 out of 5 starsFascinating and engaging

Our family homeschools, and we're wandering through the Middle Ages this year. I just finished reading The Grail Code and then stayed up too late to finish wandering around the... Read more

Published on March 20, 2008 by Karen Edmisten
5.0 out of 5 starsPerfect overview of True Grail

In a world that is searching for a mestery and other explinations for the Grail, this book puts it all in perspective. Read more

Published on June 25, 2006 by William Henning
5.0 out of 5 starsEnough with the Conspiracies

"The Grail Code" by Mike Aquilina and Christopher Bailey is an excellent introduction to the medieval grail legends, tracing their development from Joseph of Arimathea to King... Read more

Published on June 19, 2006 by Jeremy Abel
5.0 out of 5 starsThe Adventure of the Grail Legend

If the authors had done no more than present an historically accurate account of the grail legend, it would have enough. Read more

Published on June 12, 2006 by Paul C. Fox
5.0 out of 5 starsFascinating Detective Story for Finding the Holy Grail

This fascinating detective story shows us the quest for the Holy Grail and the meaning the quest continues to have. Read more

Published on May 25, 2006 by Doula Gal

There's a problem loading this menu right now.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.

Pages with Related Products. See and discover other items: church history