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Tackling the
Da Vinci Code |
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Sessions
References
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“For the time is
coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having
itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their
own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander
away to myths.”
- 2 Timothy 4:3-4 (NRSV)
The
best selling novel The Da Vinci Code has been a publishing
phenomenon. It has been on the New York Times best-seller list for over 60
weeks, most of the time as number one or two. Seven million copies are in
print, and it is being translated in 40 languages. The
film version from Sony Pictures
was released in May 2006.
The
novel makes allegedly well-researched claims that Jesus and Mary Magdalene
were married and had children, that Mary Magdalene rather than Peter was
the head apostle, that Jesus was not considered divine until Emperor
Constantine insisted on it for political expediency in 325 AD, and that
the Church subsequently suppressed these truths and the alternative
“gospels” that documented them by terror and force.
Many
non-believers have embraced the book’s claims as further evidence for the
groundlessness of organized Christianity. Some believers, perhaps ignorant
of the history of the early church, have been enthralled by the new
possibilities and spiritualities the book seems to open up.
In four Sunday sessions from August 1 to August 29, 2004, we took on some of the claims of The Da Vinci
Code and put them to the test of history and current scholarship.
On
Sunday, June 4, 2006, following a Fellowship outing to see the newly
released movie, we met for a synopsis presentation of the issues discussed
in the above four sessions.
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References
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Primary References
Breaking the
Da Vinci Code, by Darrell L. Bock, Nelson Books,
Nashville, 2004, ISBN 0-7852-6046-3
The Da
Vinci Hoax: Exposing the Errors in the Da Vinci Code, by
Carl E. Olson and Sandra Miesel, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2004,
ISBN 1-58617-034-1
The
Gospel Code. Novel Claims About Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Da Vinci,
by Ben Witherington III, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois,
2004, ISBN 0-8308-3267-X
Other References
Credo. Historical and Theological Guide to Creeds and Confessions of
Faith in the Christian Tradition. Jaroslav Pelikan, Yale
University Press, New Haven and London, 2003. ISBN 0-300-09388-8
Early
Christian Doctrines. Revised Edition. J. N. D. Kelly,
HarperSanFrancisco, New York, 1978 (revised edition). ISBN 0-06-064334-X
Early Christianity and its Sacred Literature. Lee
Martin McDonald and Stanley E. Porter. Hendrickson Publishers, 2000.
ISBN: 1565632664
Lost Christianities. The Battle for Scripture and the
Faiths We Never Knew. Bart D. Ehrman. Oxford University Press, 2003.
ISBN 0-19-514183-0
Lost Scriptures. Books that Did Not Make It into the
New Testament. Bart D. Ehrman. Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN
0-19-514182-2
The
Creed. What Christians Believe and Why It Matters. Luke
Timothy Johnson, Doubleday, New York, 2003. ISBN 0-385-50247-8
The
Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600). Volume 1 of The Christian
Tradition. A History of the Development of Doctrine.
Jaroslav Pelikan, University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1971,
ISBN 0-226-65371-4
The Four
Gospels and the One Gospel of Jesus Christ. Martin Hengel,
Trinity Press International, Harrisburg, 2000. ISBN 1-56338-300-4
The Gnostic Gospels. Elaine Pagels, Vintage, 1989.
ISBN: 0679724532
The
Penguin History of the Church 1. The Early Church. Revised Edition.
Henry Chadwick, Penguin Books, London, 1993 (revised edition). ISBN
0-14-023199-4
The Spirit
of Early Christian Thought. Seeking the Face of God.
Robert Louis Wilken, Yale University Press, New Haven and
London, 2003. ISBN 0-300-09708-5
Media, Web Resources
ABC News Special: Jesus, Mary, and Da Vinci,
November 3, 2003
Church of England -- The Da Vinci Code, Making up
Your Mind
Luther Productions:
Decoding the Da Vinci Code,
and
Da Vincis Mystery
Speaking of Faith: Deciphering the Da Vinci
Code, August 5, 2004
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