The Da Vinci Code...

When I first started thinking about what I could write about, I decided to do a Google search for the “best selling books of all time” and other variations of that phrase. Not having any certain expectations when I began the search, I was surprised at what I found. Each list I found was slightly different, and I don’t know the accuracy of any of them, but here are some common titles I found:

The Bible
The Qur’an
The Book of Mormon
Quotations from Chairman Mao
The Lord of the Rings
The Da Vinci Code
Harry Potter series
The Catcher in the Rye
The Guinness Book of World Records
The Chronicles of Narnia series

It was interesting to me to see how many of these books were about religion or had strong religious themes. It becomes apparent to me that religion has been a popular topic in literature both in the past and the present. The book I am going to discuss in a little more depth is The Da Vinci Code, which was published in 2003.

This book raised a lot of heat among Catholics and Christians alike. Many feel that its author, Dan Brown, distorted and fabricated the history of Christianity and the Catholic Church. Many were upset about Browns opening of the book with his statements of fact, arguing that his statements are not true and that he should have done more research.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_inVOSGLuI

What I also found interesting is that on the publisher’s page, which comes before his “fact” section, it says, “This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, business, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.”

With this disclaimer at the beginning of the book, do people have the right to be upset about his distortion of facts? It is an interesting thing to consider. The same controversy is raised over both the book and the movie.

Movie director Ron Howard responded to the criticism, “It's supposed to be entertainment, not theology. It causes people to stop and think about what they believe. I think that's healthy."

I would have to agree with Howard’s statement. I think that it is important to distinguish between what we are calling theology and what we are calling entertainment. When individuals do this, it can completely change the perspective of what is being read, or seen in the case of The Da Vinci Code.

On his Web site Dan Brown says, “While it is my belief that some of the theories discussed by these characters may have merit, each individual reader must explore these characters' viewpoints and come to his or her own interpretations. My hope in writing this novel was that the story would serve as a catalyst and a springboard for people to discuss the important topics of faith, religion, and history.”

About the controversy he says, “Admittedly, this may be the first time these ideas have been written about within the context of a popular thriller, but the information is anything but new. My hope for The Da Vinci Code was, in addition to entertaining people, that it might serve as an open door for readers to begin their own explorations and rekindle their interest in topics of faith.”

Question: What difference does it make when distinguishing between entertainment and theology in books and are people justified it taking offense to fictional books with religious themes?