Book Review On Review Of “The DA Vinci Code”

First, it should be mentioned that “The Da Vinci Code” is a novel by Dan Brown, which has become the bestseller in mystery-detective genre. It describes the secret scheme that was invented by Leonardo Da Vinci in order to protect the fictional truth about the Catholic Church and the images of Jesus Christ and Maria Magdalene. Although, it is not only the mysterious hidden truth about the Church made the book famous. Its flow and author’s writing style make the book an outstanding piece of modern literature. However, the current review will be focused more on the religious and historical aspect of the book, as its concept of hidden Catholic society hiding its secrets provoked an outstanding reaction among the historians and theologists that tend to dispute the Brown’s theory till nowadays.
Like it was mentioned previously, the course of the book unravels the theory that the representatives of the Catholic Church are establishing a conspiracy that lasts for centuries. This conspiracy is intended to hide the truth about Jesus real historical image and his life from the public awareness. Moreover, the agents of the Church that are intended to protect this information will do everything, including killing other people. That’s why the main character of the novel is hunted by these agents, as with his every action he finds out more and more of this knowledge.
As for Da Vinci himself, he is depicted as a former leader of the conspiracy that was protecting this truth about Jesus. The “code” by Da Vinci lies within various symbols and codes in his creation; although, the book focuses mainly on his painting called “The Last Supper”. It is historically confirmed that a person near Jesus Christ pictured in this painting is John the Evangelists, the youngest of all the apostles depicted there, therefore, it is obvious that he is being depicted without a beard not only on this painting, but on all the other examples of art that pictured him. Although, Dan Brown offers his own vision of this painting and tells the readers that Da Vinci has hidden an image of Mary Magdalene instead. Brown offers other historical works as a proof of this; however, this claim is not yet confirmed by the historians and remains disputed.
Consequently, the Catholic Church and the Christian society in general remain concerned about the book. Dan Brown depicts the Christian faith and Christian society from the way that it is a powerful manipulative society that focuses on controlling masses. The most dangerous fact about the book and its claims is that all of them have the historical, cultural and religious background, thus the book claims that all the facts it depicts are based on the fact. The main hero of the book discovers all these facts, unravels the “truth” about the Church and remains pursued by its agents, as all these claims remain a great insult towards the Christianity. For example, the book states that Jesus Christ is not God, but a regular Jewish man, who married Mary Magdalene. The fact is that the book describes Mary Magdalene more as a Goddess. They had a daughter with Jesus, who started the family line of so-called “Royal Blood” that spread within Europe and the representatives of this family are still present nowadays. As for Jesus, he was depicted as a mortal man and was recognized as embodiment of God in the fourth century by the Roman Emperor Constantine; moreover, the book claims that the Bible itself was put together by him, as well, despite the fact that Constantine remained paganist. The Gospels were changed from the original ones in order to support the claims of the Catholic Church. Moreover, the original Gospels describe Mary Magdalene as the first establisher of the Church; in addition, the book mostly focuses on the Gospel of Mary that is nowadays hardly mentioned above all the other Gospels. Dan Brown also describes the secret religious society called “Priory of Sion” that worships Mary and tries to keep the truth about its life; however, this society is outnumbered by the common Christian societies. Moreover, the most horrific fact about the Church is that the agents of Catholic Church used to assassinate the Christ’s descendants in order to keep the society and the “Royal Blood” family outnumbered. Thus, the Catholics are more than concerned about the book as it not only describes the Church as a violent organization, but also distorts the concept of Christian faith in general.
The book hides the message that faith is nothing more than a tool of controlling the masses and manipulating them. Moreover, the truth about the faith will make the Christian believers think that there is no God, which will be a mortal strike for the Church. It should be accepted that the historical facts presented by Dan Brown are of uncertain reliability and his book still remains more of a fictional literature than of the documentary; however, it tells that a person that seeks for truth in the questions that he wants to answer is usually oppressed, especially when this truth is dangerous for the ones, who hides it. This point should be taken into consideration not only in the aspect of a belief, as it can be applied on any other aspect of human life. Every person chooses, what to believe in; however, a person should not be manipulated by this faith. Moreover, a person should not be oppressed by the followers of some belief if this person does not support this belief.
The book by Dan Brown is mostly for the ones that tend to discover something more about the religion and history, even if it is not true. It offers the alternative that is represented as a more human, peaceful and honest concept of faith.
It should also be mentioned about the growing religious awareness and disputes regarding this book. “The Da Vinci Code” and Dan Brown himself were considered as anti-Christian, anti-religious and even heretic due to the facts that this book describes and offers to its readers. However, if the Catholic Church considers the book to depict the false claims about the Christianity, why should not it ignore them instead? If the Church is sure than it is right from the cultural, religious and historical aspects of the questions, why the book remains disputed and even cursed by them? It is still not clear, whether Dan Brown was right in his religious claims, but he managed to create a fictional book that showed the face of Christianity in reality. And it is not Robert Langdon, the main character of the book, who was oppressed and hunted by the Church. It was Dan Brown, who created a mysterious fable, but was hunted by the Church in his real life.