Take the Da Vinci Code seriously, says bishop

One OF the UK’s leading theologians says controversial best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code must be taken seriously by Christians because it offers many readers a spirituality they feel is lacking in the church.

Dan Brown’s book, which features Rosslyn Chapel and is being made into a Hollywood blockbuster starring Tom Hanks, was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church as blasphemous and historically inaccurate when it was published two years ago.

But the Bishop of Durham, The Right Reverend Tom Wright, said the novel has functioned as a lightning rod for several impulses within our culture. Speaking ahead of a lecture to the Scottish Bible Society – titled The Bible and Postmodernism – Wright

said: “It [The Da Vinci Code] has a great deal to say about where our culture currently is and which myths our culture is eager to buy. It comes in on the tide of the new age post-modern hunger for spirituality which assumes that spirituality is a good thing but also assumes that the one place you will not find it is mainstream Christianity.

“What Dan Brown has done brilliantly is bottle it and turn it into a page turner plugging into the major alternative myth of Christian origins which millions of people feel is where they want to be.”

He added: “There are many pages in the book that made me laugh out loud because the guy is so hopelessly off historically and that can be demonstrated in dozens and dozens of different points.

“But it is a sign of what a lot of people in our culture want to believe therefore it presents a challenge to the Church and one that the Church should take seriously.”

Brown’s fictional thriller follows professor Robert Langdon as he investigates the murder of an elderly member of an ancient society that guards dark secrets about the quest for the Holy Grail and the story of Christ.

The book’s mix of code-breaking, art history, religion and mystical lore has helped it sell 25 million copies since it was published two years ago.

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