The DaVinci Code is being released as a movie this coming May, 2006. Are you ready?
Also, please note that there are spoilers regarding the book, The DaVinci Code included within this diary and comments. If you have not read it yet and plan on doing so, you may wish to skip this diary... Unless you really want to take a peek.;-)
More below...
I know I am. I can't wait until May 19, 2006 for it to open, and I will be one of the first on line to see this movie. I have read the book three times, and it is a book I LIKE. I LIKE the intrigue, the mystery, the art history, and yes, I also like the fiction...that is,
the part of the story so many believe is fiction. And that is really the best thing about this book, and happily I believe will be the best part of the movie.
For as Ron Howard the director states in this article, The 'Code Breakers', the movie will not skew the story simply to please the detractors. And I'm happy about that, and that is the way it should be. For if there is one thing this book has done above all else, it has brought people forward to question their faith, and to question what they have been told all of these years. It makes you think.
It has made me think about my own faith, in questioning a misconception I believe the Church has been handing down for centuries, and that is, the illusion that Jesus Christ was a human in every other way but in feeling love for a woman. For me, that is impossible. He was a living breathing human man, with all of the same feelings, wants, and needs of any other man. I simply cannot fathom that in his entire adult life he never once felt desire or love for a woman, or that he never put that love into expression. And if he did, that it was not the beautiful expression of love that the Church seems to want all of its members to fulfill in order to multiply. Even Jesus told his disciples to be fruitful and multiply... How cruel would it be for him to say that knowing he had not the capacity to do this himself? How cruel is it for the Church to propagate such a misconception that Jesus Christ couldn't feel true love and express it?
As the book goes into, the myth is that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene ( who on one hand has been cited as a prostitute by the Church, which is denounced by other gospels,) and then after his death she escaped to the South of France (after a time in Egypt) with Joseph of Arimathea to have their child, a girl named Sara, who later went on to marry into the Merovingian line. To many in the Church this is simply impossible because they state that there is no evidence to back this up. Well, if you want to get technical, there is really no evidence to back up anything that happened in Jesus Christ's life except for the Bible... yet it is believed by millions without question. Therefore, then in context, would not the Gnostic Gospels which were discovered hidden in Egypt in 1945 and said to be the lost Gospels which include reference to the close relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene be just as valid?
I'm not going to belabor that, because it has been argued to death. I'm merely looking at it through the eyes of someone who sees all as possible, and also believes simply, that if Jesus Christ was indeed a man in every sense of the word, that it would do nothing to tarnish the love I feel for him as a man who was a great teacher, peacemaker, diplomat, and spiritual leader who gave of his life for us to know that he expressed real love with a woman who was also a disciple of his. Seeing him as entirely human, does nothing to cloud my view of him as "Godly," and frankly, I find the vehement response of some to this possibility to be a very interesting insight into human nature and what is expected of us to be included in the Church.
I am a person who was also brought up in an Evangelical Lutheran home. I attended church every Sunday, was a soloist in the choir, taught Sunday School, and basically devoted my young adult life to the Church. Well, now I am an adult who has experienced events in life that have brought me to the crossroads in questioning my own faith, where we came from, and the validity of stories as handed down from generation to generation...And I definitely think there is more than what we have been told, and I am and questioning it and doing the research... And I think it is good that others are doing this as well... And I think it is time.
Has there been a conspiracy that is centuries old, deliberately undertaken to undermine feminine influence in the Church? Is the Holy Grail really the womb of Mary Magdalene and not a chalice? Does it exist at all? Did Leonardo DaVinci leave clues in his paintings as to that answer? Many do not believe it, and that is fine. However, there are also many like myself, who do not subscribe to simply believing everything we are told, and want more. Those who look deeper, believe in the impossible, think outside the box, and know what humans are capable of in getting what they want.
Therefore, whatever your beliefs are, questioning them is not something that should be considered heretical, but visionary and necessary to your fulfillment as a spiritual being. That is what I like about this book, and look forward to seeing in this movie.
Some references:(Feel free to add to them in the comments)
The DaVinci Code Movie Site
The Gospel of Mary?
Nag Hammadi Library
It also looks like more books of this type will be out in 2006 as well.
More 'Da Vinciequesce' Books To Come in 2006