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Clueless
"Code" Craze Goes On Blind guides: Secrets of the Code won’t clear up your questions about The Da Vinci Code. By Carl E. Olson.  A
review of Secrets of the Code: An Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries
Behind The Da Vinci Code. Edited by Dan Burstein (New York: CDS Books,
2004). 373 pages.Our Sunday Visitor, July 11, 2004 The implied promise of an "unauthorized guide" is that it will provide readers with the truth and serve up information that will likely upset fans of the person, book, or institution in question. Which means that Dan Burstein, the editor of Secrets of the Code, is a better marketer than editor since his book—a compilation of essays and excerpts from various authors—is mostly a long, self-important, and exasperating advertisement for Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. It’s not that Burstein believes everything in Brown’s mega-selling novel. But that’s only because belief really isn’t the issue for fans (including Burstein) of The Da Vinci Code. No, it’s all about a narcissistic search for a customized spirituality and a rejection of anything containing anything smacking of "orthodoxy," "dogmatism," or Catholicism. Readers thinking this "unauthorized" book will provide an objective and scholarly response will be disappointed. Burstein, who runs a venture capital firm, barely contains his adulation for Brown’s novel: "I was as intellectually challenged as I had been by any book I had read in a long time." With a knowing wink at aging Baby Boomers, he recounts sitting with his latte and making his way through "scores of books that had been mentioned or alluded to in The Da Vinci Code: Holy Blood, Holy Grail, The Templar Revelation, Gnostic Gospels, The Woman With the Alabaster Jar, The Nag Hammadi Library, and more." All are well represented in Secrets of the Code. But if Burstein’s goal is to ascertain the validity of Brown’s many claims about early Christianity, Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Leonardo da Vinci, his heavy reliance on Brown’s sources is flawed and unconvincing. But Burstein really isn’t interested in rigorously comparing Brown’s work against, say, leading Biblical scholars, noted theologians, medievalists, and art scholars. He’s already convinced that Brown is on to something big even if he’s forced to admit, as he must, that Brown is wildly off on numerous points. But for many people being wrong about facts is unimportant. The point is to ask questions, seek an "alternative" path, and embrace ideas that resonate with you. "DVC [The Da Vinci Code] is a novel of ideas," Burstein explains, "Say what you will about some of the ham-fisted dialogue and improbably plot elements, Dan Brown has wrapped large complex ideas, as well as minute details and fragments of intriguing thoughts into his action-adventure-murder mystery." If this is a pleasant way of saying Brown throws everything, including the kitchen sink, against the wall and figures something will stick, then Burstein is correct. You insert enough references to goddess worship, conspiracy theories, bizarre sexual rituals, cryptography, Renaissance art, ancient heresies, and Paris into a novel and you’re bound to get someone’s attention. But there is something more: "DVC challenges readers to imagine what they have always heard or believed may not be the truth after all. . . . In doing so, DVC is an implicit critique of intolerance, of madness in the name of God, and all those who believe that there is only one true God, one true faith, and one true way to practice religious devotion." Put another way: Catholic-bashing and relativism are good things. And antagonism towards the Catholic Church is a common trait in most authors featured in Secrets of the Code. Occult and paranormal expert Lynn Picknett has six essays featured. Former Catholic-turned-feminist Margaret Starbird and neo-gnostic "seeker" Elaine Pagels each has four. Harvard feminists Pagels and Karen King appear repeatedly, and Pagels ("a true Renaissance woman") is thanked for her support of the book. Gnostic priest Lance Owens, neo-gnostics Timothy Freke and Peter Grandy, and the three authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail (one of Brown’s main sources), make appearances, explaining why the Catholic Church is so bad, rotten, bloody, superstitious, misogynist, and otherwise corrupt. The Catholic side is represented by James Martin, S.J. of America magazine, controversial Richard McBrien of Catholicism fame, and historian Katherine Ludwig Jansen of Catholic University. Martin laments the existence of Opus Dei and McBrien frets over the Church’s alleged problems with sex. Only Jansen stands out for her keen and scholarly observations about Mary Magdalene, which completely refute Brown’s main premises. No orthodox Catholic theologians or biblical scholars (or Protestant, for that matter) are represented. If you’re seeking innuendo, conspiracy theories, and baseless conjecture, Secrets of the Code is the perfect "guide." Serious seekers of truth and fact should look for clues elsewhere. Reprinted by permission of Our Sunday Visitor. ©2004. Carl Olson is editor of IgnatiusInsight.com and author of the best-selling book, Will Catholics Be "Left Behind"? (Ignatius, 2003), as well as a regular contributor to Catholic publications, including National Catholic Register, Our Sunday Visitor, This Rock, Crisis, and First Things. For more information about The Da Vinci Hoax, visit www.davincihoax.com. |
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G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) was one of the finest Christian authors and apologists
of the past two hundred years. Raised as an agnostic, he embraced Christianity as a young man, ultimately entering the Catholic Church
in 1922. He wrote hundreds of essays, as well as novels, short stories, poetry, apologetics, literary
criticism, and nearly everything else imaginable. Dale Ahlquist, president and co-founder of the American
Chesterton Society and author of 
