The extent to which
a novel attains (and sometimes maintains) cult status is a reflection of the
extent to which it resonates in the minds of readers. This remains true whether
we are talking about The Da Vinci Code, Miguel Cervantes’ ageless Don Quixote,
or A Milne’s delightful tales of Christopher Robin and his animal friends.
It is interesting
that many people – some devout Christians among them - seem to fear that
the Christian Church will fragment if Jesus is finally proved to have been not
of entirely divine nature but a great religious teacher who was fully
human. But in fact many Christians,
including dedicated priests and high officers of the church, question much
established Church dogma, and many prominent religious thinkers have done so
over the centuries.
Far from questioning
or reducing the value of the teachings of Jesus, honest enquiry is more likely
to strengthen rather than weaken the Church. Jesus wanted to free the Jewish
people from both their own sectional dissensions and from unwelcome Roman
influences. The Romans were far from displeased at Jewish lack of unity as it
was the best possible assurance that no uprising against an occupying force
would be successful. The failure of Jewish uprisings simply confirm this.
Fighting broke out
between bands of Zealots and Romans in Caesarea in 66 AD before spreading to Jerusalem which the
Zealots held for four years before the city fell to Flavius Titus, commander of
an army sent from Rome. The abortive uprising culminated in the mass suicide in
74 AD of several hundred Jews who held out in the mountain fortress of Masada until they were entirely
without the necessities of life.
At the end of the
hostilities, Jews fled the Holy Land in their thousands to re-establish
themselves mainly among their eastern neighbours. It was at this stage that
most of the Dead Sea Scrolls appear to have been hidden, never to be retrieved
by those who stored them in urns for protection and deposited them in caves in
the cliffs of their arid environment.
Even stronger
dissensions have grown over the centuries into major rifts within Christianity
where Christians have persecuted Christians on no stronger grounds than
differences in religious dogma. These illogical prejudices have persisted over
two millennia and remain violently active in some parts of the world today.
Author Dan Brown
uses fiction in order to explore ancient religio-historical mysteries that
fascinate not only him but most of the Western world. Part of his intention as
a writer is to encourage people to think for themselves and to question beliefs
that have perhaps gone unquestioned for too long. Plato records that Socrates
said that the unexamined life was not worth living. It remains one of the
wisest comments ever made.
Setting a work of
fiction against an historical background, more particularly a powerfully
controversial one, enhances the novel and gives tremendous back-up to the
story. Many readers are intrigued to the extent where they finish reading the
book with so many questions tumbling through their minds that they set off on
their own search for further information - for new ideas and tantalising
possibilities that lurk behind the telling of the story.
In the case of The
Da Vinci Code, this can be a thorny path because some readers whose belief
systems are different feel a sense of outrage at a novel that they see as
undermining the very substance of their most dearly held religious beliefs.
Inevitably, some
commentaries reflect such views and focus on debunking The Da Vinci Code. But
if it were Brown’s intention to proselytise, The Da Vinci Code would not be the
international bestseller it is, because most of us have a built-in resistance
to a novel that preaches. The prime intention of a novelist is to interest
readers into continuing to turn the pages.
On the other hand,
novels that make us think have a role beyond the telling of a story. If there
is one thing that Dan Brown’s fascinating novel does, apart from entertain, it
is to awaken a spirit of enquiry.
The author of a work
of fiction is not presenting himself as the conveyor of ultimate truths. Dan
Brown’s between-the-lines message is much closer to: ‘Do yourself a favour and
at least think about these things. What is it that you are actually believing
in? Could it be that many of us have lost sight of the real message and instead
are slaves to the dogma?’
In the same vein, the varied ‘stories’ that make up the background of The Da Vinci Code demand enquiry. For readers interested in doing this, there is much enjoyment ahead.
Here are the answers to the 32 most asked questions about the Da Vinci Code
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