paul roberts anticipates his holiday reading and offers some sensible advice to anyone contemplating perusing The Da Vinci Code this summer.
My guess is that nothing can now be done about this from the point of view of changing culture in the near future. Instead, the Church needs to invest again in its teaching role, preserving the tradition of rigorous, critical thinking about historical texts, particularly as they pertain to Christian identity and belief. This work may not bear immediate fruit, but in the longer-term it will be the only way that the Christian story and identity will be preserved from sinking into a forgetful swamp made up of the worst kind of mythology, masquerading as ‘history’. Or to put it another way, when something is a load of pure tripe the Church politely needs to say so, and point out why, even if nobody much listens.
With thanks to maggi dawn
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Wood 07.25.05 at 11:21 am
True, it is complete tripe (there’s not a single “fact” in the book which can’t be disproved with even a brief bit of research), but actually, the main reason you should give pause before reading it is that it is, given the evidence of the text, written by a near-illiterate of subnormal intelligence (and an American imperialist, to boot) with no idea of dialgogue, plotting or even the most cursory knowledge of what “Yurpeans” are actually like.
It’s rare to read a book with no redeeming feature whatsoever, but this one - this really is devoid of any merit whatsoever, and it’s a testament to the stupidity of the reading public that people actually like this crap.
Wood 07.25.05 at 11:23 am
My own review:
No, tell us what you really think, Wood…
Wood 07.25.05 at 11:24 am
The actual link (Oops)
DH 07.25.05 at 3:04 pm
Great point about the Da Vinci Code. I wholeheartedly agree.
monitor 08.01.05 at 10:14 pm
“Rigorous critical thinking about historical texts” is a great idea. Not too rigorous or critical though - or that’s the resurrection out of the window!