Book Review: The Gospel According to the Da Vinci Code

May 14, 2006 Posted by Roger Overton

Most of the responses to The Da Vinci Code by Dan
Brown deal strictly with facts (or the lack thereof). But what about the big
picture? What does the novel communicate and how has it impacted our culture?
As Christians, how ought we to respond? The Gospel According to the Da Vinci
Code by Kenneth Boa and John Alan Turner seeks to answer these questions.

While the novel is actually fiction, our culture is such
that many people treat it as non-fiction. “What Dan Brown says he believes is
fundamentally incompatible with historic, orthodox Christianity. However, in a
pluralistic society such as ours, millions of people seem to think you can pick
and choose your beliefs like toppings on your pizza.” (2)

Through their introduction and 12 chapters, Boa and Turner
analyze the problems The Da Vinci Code presents in our current culture
and how Christians should respond. “So what is the gospel according to Dan
Brown? Simply put, ‘Everything you’ve ever heard about Jesus is wrong.’” (23)
They discuss postmodernism, truth, and history, while pointing out Brown’s
problems and errors.

The authors ask, “What Would Jesus Do With Dan Brown?” (90)
They essentially boil down the proper Christian response to “We’ve got to stop
being foolish. We’ve got to stop being tacky. And we’ve got to stop being
mean.” (118) Though they deal a few of the errors in Brown’s novel, they point
to Darrell Bock’s Breaking the Da Vinci Code for a more thorough
critique.

There are a number of great points throughout the book, such
as, “Saying that Dan Brown’s book is about Christianity is like saying Finding
Nemo is about marine biology. We have just as much evidence to suggest
Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene as we have that clown fish talk.” (25) The
authors also get points for using Jack Bauer as an illustration (102-103).

Unfortunately, these good points are counterbalanced by poor
ones. In at least one case they esteem a cheesy slogan as good methodology:
“people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.” (106)
The book doesn’t appear to have a logical structure and often switches focus
without reason. The authors make some brief points about Gnosticism and “the
sacred feminine,” but no thorough analysis of those topics is offered.

The Gospel According to the Da Vinci Code has periodic good points to offer, particularly in
regards to the status of our culture. In that sense, it succeeds in dealing
with the big picture. However, readers would be better off reading a book
responding to the historical claims and pagan worldview of The Da Vinci Code.