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Cracking the Code
By the Revd David
BurgessI’ve had a few conversations with people this year about The Da Vinci Code – both the book and, more recently, the film. Responses have varied from curiosity about how accurate parts of the story are to concern about the effects it will have on the Christian Church.
To the latter I’d say this: don’t worry – it’s just a piece of fiction!
I haven’t seen the film yet, but I read the book about a year ago, before it started to appear everywhere and anywhere.
To be honest, I found it to be an unexceptional but harmless page-turner – well-structured and efficient, written at an express pace, with a guaranteed cliff-hanger at the end of each chapter. But why ‘harmless’? You’d be entitled to tell me that it contains a central idea that’s heretical or even blasphemous – that Jesus Christ, far from dying on the Cross, continued his life on earth, married and had at least one child, and that his bloodline still has documented descendants today.
And it’s true; that is the central theme of the book. But why are so many people so upset by it?
I think there are two reasons. The first is a lack of confidence in Christian truth. If we don’t know the core facts about what we believe, we can’t explain them or defend them if a contrary idea comes along. For example, what evidence would you be able to give if challenged to defend the idea that Jesus did actually die on the Cross?
The second is that Christians often tend to be too willing to let others set the agenda for them. There’s a tendency for something to be taken as truth solely because someone has said it. Because Dan Brown, like others before him, claims that Jesus didn’t die a large proportion of his readers will simply accept that. Whenever fiction and fact are intertwined in this way, readers and viewers – Christian and non-Christian alike – need to put their critical faculties in gear.
Having said that, there may be parts where Christians are entitled to take offence. For example, I know nothing of the inner workings of the Opus Dei organisation, but if their beliefs and practices have been distorted or misrepresented then they are right to at least seek redress, even though they’re unlikely to get it.
In its history, the Church has faced far greater threats than those posed by this year’s blockbuster. If you want to read or see it, go ahead – but do so with a grasp of what you yourself believe, so that you don’t get distracted by a very efficiently-written book or seduced by the skills of a major Hollywood production. If you’re a Christian simply measure your beliefs, which you confidently believe to be fact, against the work of fiction with which you’re engaging.
And don’t worry. Have a good summer!