Art History and “The Da Vinci Code”
Having chosen Arts as my minor in university, I came across a lecture about Dan Brown’s bestseller “The Da Vinci Code.” I had heard a couple of things about this book, especially from a Christian and biblical viewpoint. In a nutshell, the book is about a conspiracy concerning the (biblically and historically untenable) alleged marriage between Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene, which is supposed to have resulted in a still existing line of descendants. The Catholic Church wants to keep this a secret, of course. Brown claims that Leonardo da Vinci was among the insiders and that he put appropriate hints into his paintings, such as the “Lord’s Supper,” where the figure of the apostle John is allegedly the depiction of Mary Magdalene.
I was not really sure if I really wanted to hear the lecture today, since I expected it to blow into the same horn as Dan Brown. My fear was unwarranted, however. The lecture was held by Frank Zöllner, a leading Leonardo expert (list of publications in English). With a pleasant combination of details from art history and aesthetics and an eloquent presentation, he deconstructed Brown’s claims as well as his credibility as a writer. Zöllner gladly admitted that the book was a very captivating piece of writing. It was the very success of the book that motivated him to this lecturing series and lead to heated debates on the public interest in the science of aesthetics. However, he also warned emphatically about the absolutely unprovable respectively clearly wrong picture interpretations made by the author Dan Brown. I was impressed by Zöllner’s calm and factual analyses. A thesis that I find interesting beyond this context is that conspiracy theories result from a feeling of powerlessness.
Besides the art-historical blunders of Brown which Frank Zöllner exposed, I am concerned about the spiritual motivation behind the book. I am quite critical of the institutional (state) church myself. However, Brown goes much further by questioning the authority and credibility of the Bible as God’s Word. This in itself is nothing noteworthy for a “secular” author. The danger lies in his strategy of selling things as facts which are not facts at all, combined with using style so cleverly as to let his readers quickly forget that this is a novel and not a textbook. One can only hope for a responsible treatment of such books by the readers, which I find hard to do given the increasingly anti-Christian spin in the media.
February 25th, 2006 at 8:14 pm
I love that you used the word “untenable” in your writing. Most of my American friends don’t even know what that means! Just out of curiosity, are you writing in English and translating to German or the other way around?
I was so happy to hear about Zöllner’s lecture. “The DaVinci Code” has obviously gotten a lot of press over here, especially with the release of Ron Howard’s movie by the same name scheduled for May. I think the American church is divided over whether to spend a lot of time refuting the claims of the book or to just ignore it and thereby not add to the attention it’s been getting. The latter tactic did not work so well for the movie “Brokeback Mountain”, which is about two gay cowboys and is set to win Best Picture at the Oscars this year. In trying to avoid inflating the hype over “Brokeback” the church missed out on an important opportunity to speak for righteousness and truth in our society.
One of the things my friend Carrie and I have been praying strongly over the last several months is that righteousness and truth would spring forth again all across Europe, particularly in the universities of Germany. It was so encouraging to read of a small example of that happening. Thanks for sharing!
February 25th, 2006 at 10:11 pm
I have tried both ways, writing in English first and then translating into German and vice versa. At the moment, I tend to write in German first. It’s an extremely interesting exercise and makes you think a lot about language!
I wish I had a recording or write-up of the lecture. I couldn’t go into much detail at all in order to actually refute some of Brown’s claims and arguments. Related to your comment, I think some of it is that I just didn’t want to get into arguments right away, partly because of my time constraints. However, I am ready to engage in a discussion, should the need arise. Also, I feel a bit overwhelmed by the vast amount of issues one could comment and present a Biblical view on … So, I have to choose my “battle field” wisely.
Thanks for the encouragement!
February 28th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
Hey Martin, I am somehow not surprised by this development over the book. And I agree, what can be scary about this book is it’s “backdoor techniques”. Even people who approach the book as “fiction” will start to entertain the idea of Jesus marrying and having children. Which has long reaching implications as to who you think Jesus was (and is). Brown’s publisher is also being sued right now by two other authors who claim he copied their research for his book (is there anything worse than being caught copying the wrong answers?).
I figured I should comment on here instead of just reading it (like I have been for a couple weeks).
Ross
February 28th, 2006 at 5:37 pm
Hey Ross, thanks for your comment. You’re absolutely right about the implications you mentioned. I could go on about that, but I’m just not going to right now …
I looked at your blog. Great to read that you’ve finally “arrived” in Germany and every-day life in this country! I wanted to post a comment there, but I somehow couldn’t access the comments page.
March 1st, 2006 at 10:44 am
Okay, I’m going to prove my psychic abilities and guess you’re using Safari. Safari doesn’t like the frames setup that I used to avoid having a web address of http://www.camprock.net/pblog/index.php See? Isn’t that boring? But it will play nicer with Safari. And more than everyday “life” it’s everyday relationships that are making it this way. It’s people who I connect with, not places.
Speaking of people, long time no see. There’s a Bible study in English at my church on Thursday nights at 6:30pm if you’re so interested in practicing your English and meeting some more Christians here in Dresden (people from all over the world, including Germany).
Ross
March 11th, 2006 at 6:24 pm
Hey friend, don’t give up on blogging. :-) Last post 26 Jan. What happened in you life since?
March 11th, 2006 at 8:57 pm
Thanks for the kick in the behind :^) Actually, I was going to finally write a couple of new posts when your comment appeared in my inbox. There was just so much going on recently …
As for the date of the posts: As long as I have to catch up with posts, I will use the date of the day that I had the idea for the post, not the day when I actually got around to posting it. This way I think my blog will be more like a journal and reflect the actual order of events. Still, I hope to be able to post in “real time” real soon!
March 13th, 2006 at 2:01 pm
Okay, that makes a lot more sense Martin. I just came here and all of a sudden the timeline seemed all messed up. Now I understand.
Ross