Summary
Title: The Da Vinci Fraud: Why the Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction
Author: Robert M. Price
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1591023483
Pro:
• Very informative and educational about something very important in popular culture
• Does not try to provide absolute, final answers
Con:
• None
Description:
• Critical, scholarly analysis of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code
• Does not defend Christian orthodoxy, but adopts an independent viewpoint
• Extended introduction to early development of Christianity and the Bible
Book Review
The Da Vinci Code may give readers (or viewers of the movie) the impression that author Dan Brown knows a lot about Christian history and that he may even have taken risks to bring the truth to the public. In reality, it doesn’t appear that Brown knows much of anything about Christian history and the early developments of Christian theology. Most critical responses to Brown’s book are defenses of traditional Chrisitian orthodoxy; only a very few are critical of both Brown and orthodoxy.
One, The Da Vinci Fraud: Why the Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction, is written by Robert M. Price and he definitely knows what he is talking about. Price explains the legends of the Holy Grail, the truth behind how and why Constantine became involved in Christianity, the background to council declarations about Jesus being identical with God, how the biblical canon was formed, and the development of the role of Mary Magdalene. In every case, the truth of history is generally far more interesting than the fiction written by Dan Brown.
Robert Price’s book is based upon the best and most recent scholarship, but historical scholarship is almost never final and absolute. Whereas Dan Brown tries to present final and absolute answers, Robert Price presents informed judgment mixed with reasonable speculation. Everything is open for revision on the basis of new evidence which might be found and hopefully this will draw in readers even more than fiction, because it should ideally encourage them to do more research of their own.
It might be argued that Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code does serve a valid purpose in that it gets people to question the doctrines, dogmas, and history of Christianity. The tale spun by Brown is no more fantastic and no less fictional than the tales which form the basis of Christian orthodoxy, so where’s the harm? There’s something to this argument, but not a lot in my opinion. The first problem is that an entirely fictional story is presented as being based on historical fact, which isn’t true. You can’t encourage a long-term preference for hard truths over comforting fantasy with such deceptiveness.
A second problem lies with the fact that The Da Vinci Code doesn’t really encourage the intellectual values of skepticism and critical thinking. The story is founded upon a massive conspiracy of political and religious authorities and secrets that have been kept hidden for thousands of years. None of this is the least bit plausible and thus the book encourages replacing one set of religious myths with a different set on the basis of faith in the power of conspiracies.
Readers are perhaps encouraged to doubt the honesty of church leaders, but of course not the honesty or judgment of those who expose conspiracies of church leaders. Too many people get their information about history from fictional works; too few people in America read any books at all after school and will get the impression that the new movie is actually educating them when, at most, it may only be entertaining. Only if people pick up scholarly responses to The Da Vinci Code, like Price’s The Da Vinci Fraud or Ehrman’s The Truth Behind The Da Vinci Code will the goals of critical thinking and skepticism be furthered.
