Re: DaVinci Mania

On 20 May 2006 04:55:05 -0700, john.vampatella@xxxxxxxxx quacked:


Agreed. I, for one, loved the book (I liked Angels and Demons even
more, actually), but found his history, well, let's just say that I
don't think he has a good grasp of history. And the problem with it is
that he certainly gives the impression that the history part of it is
true. And that's what's controversial. Personally, I'm fine with
that. It's ok with me if a person says something is historical, but is
in fact in error. But it is true that people will be influenced to
believe certain things because of Brown's work (I have several in mind
right now with whom I've had conversations on the topic).


Brown's history is bad, or at least some of it. The odd thing is that
much of the controversy would have occurred even if the history were
more accurate. For example, Brown suggests that Jesus moved from being
viewed by Christians as a messiah to a god much later than most
Christian historians believe (I don't remember the dates, but roughly
4th century instead of 2d century, with some suggestive stuff, as in
Paul's Epistles, in the 1st century). For a lot of the faithful, the
blasphamy of the true story would be as bad as the false story. Same
on a lot of the Justinian stuff --- Brown's version is wrong, but the
accepted version is not flattering to the Church.

Church history is a dangerous area for some of the faithful. Many
Christians, for example, think that John the Apostle is the same John
as the person credited with writing John's Gospel. This "eye witness"
aspect is important to their belief. They would not be happy with a
novel that actually got that point right, and understandably so.

But the false histroy also does damage with the Church critics. They
end up believing false stories that support their pre-conceived views,
whereas the true story is more complex and interesting and less easy
to fit into their pre-conceived world.
--McDuck
.

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