The Da Vinci Code and the Church. . . .

Well, much is made about the release of the movie The Da Vinci Code. A lot of film critics don't like it as a movie. And a whole cottage industry debunking it has been established. Just go to your local bookstore.

Serious scholars have debunked it. Take N.T Wright for example.

My take on it is that the Da Vinci Code is just the latest eruption of gnosticism that has always plagued the orthodox faith. In an article on the "Code" I wrote for a print journal, I argue for the comparison between the kind of religious faith called forth by believers in the Da Vinci Code outlook and early gnosticism.

Just as Gnosticism presented a serious confrontation to the early Christian witness, The Da Vinci Code evinces one side of a cultural continental divide that exists in current day American and European spiritually. On the one hand there is the historic claim of Christianity, which insists that the answers and hopes of our lives are found in the reality of the transcendent God who has acted in history through the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. Christ’s virgin conception, his sacrificial death, and his resurrection are central to God’s grace at work to give redeem his fallen creation. Hence, the answers to life’s most pressing and critical questions are not found within ourselves, but are located in the will and mind of our Creator-Redeemer God. So, our hope is to look outside ourselves. This search is carried out in the context of a community of repentant and seeking disciples.

But the other slope of the divide implies an entirely different spiritual and theological landscape. In this other and competing perspective – the new Gnosticism – the secret of ‘salvation’ and fulfillment is found by looking within oneself for divine illumination and wisdom. Tragically, this move is profoundly dehumanizing, because it cuts us off from the essentially communal nature that we as humans are made for. The central spiritual and moral imperative is to be true to what you find within yourself and to whom you really are. However, I do not need anyone else to be true to the inner subjectivity of my own illumination, nor do you. Seeking to find meaning, this orientation, which The Da Vinci Code appeals to, removes me from the community of longing and discovery for which humans are made.

And yet, honesty demands that we not be shocked that many are drawn to this kind of ‘Christianity.’ In many instances, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ does not have an admirable track record of living its radical faith as a community of disciples longing for God. Evangelical Christians, for instance, have tended to be too individualistic and subjective about faith. Hence, we know very little about the historical doctrines of the Faith. We have failed at times to worship the Jesus who is a historic figure – God Incarnate. In so doing we have forgotten that the Church’s historic affirmation, “Jesus is Lord,” was a claim that Caesar was not Lord. Jesus was and is a claim to our total allegiance, but the Church has often relegated him to the role of one who just provides us forgiveness for our sins and a promise of heaven. As well, and tragically, the world has not seen vibrant Christianity that changes the way disciples live on a day to day basis. In the absence of a true witness people are prey for all kinds of false substitutes, especially those that flatter our egos about how special we are deep down inside. And theories such as Brown’s that put sex up front and central to the life of the author of Christianity appeal to the sex-obsessed culture of contemporary America.

How shall people know that there is a real alternative to the self-actualization Gnosticism of our overly eroticized society? The Da Vinci Code when it comes out in theatres will certainly require of faithful Christians that we bear witness to its falsehood. In bearing such a witness we must, as well, be ready to defend the historic nature of the four Gospels and the traditional Christian faith. But that will not be enough. Even more, the Church must be ready to bear witness to the Truth. This will mean repentance over the false versions of Jesus that we have worshipped and that we have presented to the world. We must be ready to follow his Lordship and orient all of our lives around his way. Perhaps then the truth of the Gospel will be believable again to a non-Christian world. Like our ancient fathers and mothers in the faith, we must live for Jesus with all that we are. They died in persecution for their faith, gladly in many instances, because they first and foremost the LIVED for Christ each moment. Their witness ultimately won an empire. Our moment calls us to live for him as they did.