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| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| Da Vinci�s Code By Antonio C. Abaya Written August 19, 2004 For Philippines Free Press, August 28 issue By some coincidence, years before I got to read, last month, Dan Brown�s fast-paced and celebrated potboiler �The Da Vinci Code�, I had been doing some reading on the early history of Christianity, the Gnostic Gospels, the role of Constantine the Great, the Council of Nicaea and the Nicene Creed�..which are all cleverly intertwined into the fictive plot of the novel. (By another coincidence, Dan Brown�s earlier potboiler �Angels and Demons�, starring the same invented hero [Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon], which I am currently reading, involves such topics as subatomic physics, particle accelerators, matter and anti-matter and The Big Bang, all of which are integral parts of a personal Cosmology which I have been working on, off and on, since at least 1959. But that�s another story.) �The Da Vinci Code� is easily one of the most controversial novels in recent years. There are at least a dozen books listed in amazon.com�s book department that have been written in reaction to Dan Brown�s novel, many of them by Catholic and Protestant writers who felt their faith was being attacked or undermined by the insertion into the plot of some historical data, literary inventions and interpretations of art that some obviously find blasphemous of or offensive to deeply cherished religious beliefs. Certainly the novel�s keystone event in which Jesus of Nazareth co-habited with and married Mary Magdalene was bound to generate controversy. This was the central focus of the 1960 novel by my favorite writer Nikos Kazantzakis, �The Last Temptation of Christ�, and for that he was excommunicated from the Greek Orthodox Church. When that book was made into a film in 1988 by the American (and Roman Catholic) director Martin Scorsese, it was condemned by Roman Catholic bishops even in Europe and was banned by Manoling Morato from being shown in Manila. Now you can buy it at your friendly Muslim globalized DVD outlet for only P80. The depiction of the ultraconservative Opus Dei as murderous villains, at least until the climax of the Da Vinci book, may also explain the backlash that the novel has triggered among conservatives. But �The Da Vinci Code� has never pretended to be anything but fiction. And it is not even on par with other fiction of similar literary or theological bent such as Umberto Eco�s �The Name of the Rose� and �Foucault�s Pendulum�. I do not intend to give away the plot of the Da Vinci book. I will just dwell on some of the historical facts that have been interwoven into its fiction. It is no secret that in its first 400 years, Christianity generated thousands of narratives, testaments, treatises, accounts or interpretations of Jesus, etc written by various wise and not-so-wise men (and apparently some women) all over the far-flung reaches of the Roman Empire, where Christianity was a minority religion often subject to recurrent bouts of genocidal persecution. The accidental discovery in December 1945, in a cave near the town of Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt, of thirteen papyrus books, bound in leather, became a Eureka moment. Under the scrutiny of European and American biblical scholars, these papyrus books created a virtual cottage industry among religious historians. They turned out to be nothing less than 52 manuscripts written, mostly in Coptic script but translated from Greek originals, during the second to the fourth centuries after the crucifixion of Jesus, and contained the texts of various �Gospels� that are not included in the New Testament; some of them in fact contradicting the officially accepted Gospels. Collectively, these officially excluded Gospels became known as the Gnostic Gospels, from the Greek word gnosis, meaning knowledge or insight. To know oneself, at the deepest level, is simultaneously to know God, as one of the Gnostic teachers wrote. Not surprisingly, this widespread but highly subjective interpretation of God and our knowledge of God resulted in scores, even hundreds, of sects within Christianity, often contradicting each other, and often violently. Enter Constantine the Great, who in my view was the second most important figure in the history of Christianity, second only to St. Paul. Constantine was born in or about 280 AD in Naissus, now known as Nish (Serbia), son of a Roman army officer, Flavius Valerius Constantius, and his wife Helena. (In our now almost-forgotten Santa Cruz de Mayo annual socio-religious processions, a youthful Constantino marches as guard and escort to a venerated and canopied Santa Elena. Remember? This was where it came from.) At that time, the sprawling Roman Empire had been divided into two autonomous sub-empires, the Western Empire based in Rome, and the Eastern Empire based in Byzantium, now known as Istanbul (Turkey). In 293 AD, Constantius was promoted to the rank of Caesar or deputy emperor, to serve Augustus (or Emperor) Maximian in Rome. His son Constantine was sent to serve at the court of Emperor Diocletian at Nicomedia, now known as Izmit (Turkey). In 305, his father requested the transfer of Constantine to the Western Empire. They met at Gesoriacum, now known as Boulogne (France). Together they journeyed to the British Isles where they led a military campaign to subdue rebellious British tribes. The elder Constantius was killed in battle near Eboracum, now known as the city of York (England). The army immediately proclaimed the younger Constantine emperor of the Western Empire. In 313, Emperor Constantine of the West and Emperor Licinius of the East met and signed the Edict of Milan, in what is still known as Milan (Italy), which officially put a stop to the persecution of Christians and restored the properties seized from them. This edict allowed Christianity to flower and spread rapidly throughout the Roman Empire. In 325, the empire was recombined and ruled by Constantine, alone, from Byzantium, renamed Constantinople, after he out-maneuvered his erstwhile co-equal Licinius. Although Constantine did not convert to Christianity until he was on his deathbed in 337, he saw and used the discipline and social cohesion of the early Christians to consolidate his empire, which was constantly threatened by civil wars and invasions by barbarian tribes, and he made Christianity the official religion. In 325 he also called more than 300 Christian bishops from all corners of the empire to a synod or council in the town of Nicaea, also in what is now Turkey.. After weeks of learned discussions, this council drew up the Nicene Creed, which we also know as The Apostles� Creed, which officially proclaimed, as it were, the Church�s entire party line The Council also decided for all climes and for all generations which Gospels were to be incorporated into what later became known as the New Testament, and which Gospels were to be discarded and suppressed as heresy. Communities which persisted in their heresies were exterminated through wholesale massacres. After Nicaea, Christianity was transformed from a previously persecuted religion into a persecuting one. Among the Gnostic Gospels that were suppressed was the Gospel of Philip which said, in part, that � �.the companion of the Savior is Mary Magdalene. [But Christ loved] her more than all the disciples, and used to kiss her [often] on her [mouth]. The rest of the disciples were offended�.They said to him, �Why do you love her more than all of us?� The Savior answered and said to them, �Why do I not love you as I love her?�� � This seems to have been the basis for Dan Brown�s fictive invention of Jesus� marriage to Mary Magdalene, whose direct descendants are said (by Brown) to have extended down to the present era through the Merovingian dynasty in medieval France. Other suppressed Gnostic Gospels suggest that in the early Church there were women priests and deacons and that God was worshipped in some places as a female deity. No wonder they did not make it to the New Testament, as decided by the all-male bishops at Nicaea. Cardinal Ratzinger would have been immensely pleased if he were there. As for Constantine the Great, one may wonder why, with his enormous contributions to the spread of Christianity, he was never beatified and canonized as a saint. The answer may lie in the fact that, suspecting them of having an illicit amorous affair, he stabbed to death his own son (by his first wife) Crispus, and then he sealed his second wife Fausta in a sauna room and turned up the heat until she was, in effect, boiled to death like a lobster. Even by the early Church�s famously loose criteria for sainthood, it would have been difficult to make a saint out of such a notoriously cruel parricidal murderer. �The Da Vinci Code� is so much more fun as fiction if you are aware of some or all of the historical facts woven into it, than if you weren�t. ***** OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Reactions to �Da Vinci�s Code� Dear Tony, The "Da Vinci Code" seems to be a very dangerous fiction novel. Two of my very gullible colleagues in New Jersey - one, an M.A. in Theology degree holder at the Immaculate Conception Seminary in Seton Hall University and a Archdiocesan Deacon; the other one, a church minister and a reader in a local church, they both believe in the historical authenticity of the Da Vinci code. Frank Jimenez, [email protected] August 23, 2004 West Orange, New Jersey wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww I thoroughly enjoyed reading your essay......... perhaps more than you relished writing it Dick Powell, [email protected] August 23, 2004 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Brown's book cannot be called fiction because the New Testament itself is fiction, Maybe it is the official fiction but that is what it is. None of the Apostles even saw the shadow of the alleged Christ. And Jesus (or Yeshu) was a very common name in Judea. It's like me telling you I had a drink with Pedrito, our new prophet the other night, and believe me he reduced my viagra budget to Zero. St. Luke was believed to be a woman, if not Mary Magdalene herself someone writing on behalf of her. As for St. John he was probably many persons, many of whom were women. Digressing from Christianity, many believe that Homer was a woman. Ross Tipon, [email protected] August 23, 2004 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Mr. Abaya, This isnt a reaction to your latest artcile. This is FAN MAIL :) !!!! I just want to express my appreciation -- i've been reading all your articles these past few years, conveniently sent by email before through the kompil egroup and now directly to me -- Thanks!! (that's my first thanks!). Second thanks -- because I really have been learning a lot! Many other article writers just analyze or criticize. With your articles, parang I'm also reading the encyclopedia, which at my age we never do anymore. And third, I really am impressed with all your knowledge, on almost everything -- history, religion, culture, current events... wow. Can I ask, are all these information already in your head from past studies, or do you also still research facts for some of your articles? Just wondering. Anyway, i just want to say thank you, and let you know i 'm a 'big fan of yours.' :) (Name and email address withheld) Silay, Negros (p.s. -- this is just personal mail; i hope you don�t mention my name in your next article). And if you visit Negros / Bacolod soon, let me know ok, thanks. MY REPLY. Many thanks for your fan mail. It really made my day. I have included it in the Reactions, but have withheld your name and email address. I hope that is OK with you. To answer your question, I do read widely and keep most of the material that I enjoyed reading. In this particular case, three years before I read "The Da Vinci Code" I had read "The Gnostic Gospels" by Elaine Pagels. Which encouraged me to print out and read articles from the Encyclopedia Britannica and the Catholic Encyclopedia on Constantine the Great and the Council of Nicaea. So you were indeed "reading the encyclopedia." Again, thank you for your kind words. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Hi, Tony It would be good if you would remind your readers that you are an atheist, as you have admitted in your column in the Philippine Star about 9 years ago. Your readers may think you are just a Catholic with a dissenting view. You are a very influential writer and it is but fair if readers know where you are coming from. Thanks. Bobby Tordesillas, [email protected] August 23, 2004 MY REPLY. I do not recall describing myself as an atheist. I prefer to classify myself a secular humanist, or a devout and practicing agnostic. But, atheist? No. An atheist is obsessed with God or his supposed absence. I am not. My upbringing and education (nine years under the Jesuits) were Catholic, but I distanced myself from the Church due to some irreconcilable differences over dogmas. Just like another, more famous Jesuit product more than 100 years ago. What about, you, Bobby, where are you coming from? wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww I enjoyed the book and passed it on to my friends. Some of them refused to read it claiming it was blasphemous and "advised" me not to recommend it to people who were of weak faith. Like i told them, read it purely for entertainment. If you enjoyed The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, you might want to check out Digital Fortress, also by Dan Brown. Marisa Suarez, [email protected] August 23, 2004 MY REPLY. Thanks for the tip. But I did not enjoy �Angels and Demon� as much as I did �The Da Vinci Code.�, mainly because of a basic flaw in Brown�s understanding of subatomic physics. I�ll try �Digital Fortress� as you suggested. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Interesting article / commentary by Mr. Abaya. Our home critics (wife and kids) have the same verdict that it should be borne in mind its fiction made interesting by historical data (some not widely known) interwoven in the story (- specially for those who have visited the Louvre although my wife thinks the ending was a letdown. Ooops!). Mang Senyong, [email protected] August 23, 2004 MY REPLY. I agree with your wife. The ending was a letdown. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Tony, I've always had a problem with things written several centuries after the event. I can't remember last week. Yet much of the bible was written decades, centuries (?) after Christ wasn't it? Cheers, Peter Wallace, [email protected] August 24, 2004 MY REPLY. The oldest of the four Gospels in the New Testament is believed to have been written around 40 AD, the most recent in 100 AD. I can�t remember last week either, Peter. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Tony - You've done it again. For months now I've been attracted to this book but held back from buying it because of its size. Now, after reading your article, Im no longer holding back and am thinking seriously of buying it. Regards, Kenneth Wright, [email protected] August 24, 2004 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Mr. Abaya, Below are reviews on Da Vinci Code that you may be interested in. I do not exactly know how I got into your mailing list. Perhaps one of my friends sent my e-mail address to you. At any rate, thank you for your articles. Oliver Tuazon, [email protected] August 24, 2004 MY REPLY. Thank you for the two articles critical of Dan Brown�s book. Because each one is quite long, we will archive them in the Reference Material section of this website, under the heading �On the Da Vinci Code�. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |