the daVinci Code vs. Christianity?
So -
Would anyone like to explain to me how "the greatest threat that Christianity has faced in over two thousand years" (a little bit of hyperbole I heard on the radio this morning - I certainly believe that the Roman Empire, the rise of Islam, and the Protestant Revolution were more significant threats, and even the Protestants only represented a challenge to the orthodoxy - not the faith itself) basically amounts to a very popular Clive Cussler or Ian Fleming novel, and not a particularly good one at that...? I mean, the substance of the Conspiracy described is certainly nothing new or even original. Its inception may even originate in a difference of opinion as to the Divine nature or Messiah status of Jesus of Nazareth that probably began during his lifetime, and would flare up among the faithful every few hundred years or so - frequently to be brutally repressed by whichever hierarchy relied upon Jesus' divinity as part of the legitimacy to their scriptural and temporal authority. Most recently, this particular Conspiracy has popped up in no less than three separate fictional novels (the best of which remain "the Historical Illuminatus Chronicles"), a comic book (Alan Moore's "from Hell" on the Ripper murders mentions it as a possible justification for Freemason involvement), a videogame (the Gabriel Knight adventure, "Sins of the Father"), two television series ("ALIAS" has a thinly veiled 'Rimbaldi' pushing prophetic code and technology into this century through his ancient arts and science, and of course, there is "the X-Files"), and tangentially in at least two movies ("the Matrix" series touches upon the Gnostic heresies describing the physical aspect of the divine, and daVinci's secrets are the touchstone of the comedic "Hudson Hawk").
So why is it only now that the Gnostic 'Heresies' have lately become so popular? I mean, popular again. It isn't like anyone is getting rounded up in the streets and burned at the stake as a witch... but why is this silly little story by Dan Brown so threatening - or any more convincing than anything mainline Christianity has produced? Are most folks really that unquestioning of their own faith - or perhaps more importantly, so blind or unconcerned that they will accept any old prophet who comes along?
I am so confused by our little society.