Ban Da vinci Code in God fearing nations

June 10, 2006

The Da Vinci Code movie presents as the historical Jesus someone who is not recognisable in the Biblical record.

In essence, it is attempting to undermine the authenticity of that very record, and the judgement of those who received it. Remarkably, the Graeco-Roman dominant Church of that day elected to view itself as descended from the 'barbarian' heritage of Israel rather than from its own European heritage.

Just as Marcion sought to establish a Euro-centric canon of Scripture by excluding texts which he saw as full of 'barbarian' (non-European/Hebrew) influences, so the Da Vinci Code is a neo-Marcionite attempt to promote the Euro-centric (Hellenist rather than Hebrew) neo-Gnosticism that is always fashionable among those who consider themselves the children of Athens rather than of Jerusalem.

The true message of the canonical Gospels is that Jesus Christ is at once God and Man, eternal and temporal. A Gnostic faith may indeed deny the significance of the temporal in order to excuse deeds done in history that orthodoxy would label as sins. St. Paul addresses this matter in Romans chapters 5 through 8.

It seems as though the Western world is seeking some kind of metaphysical ground for what it has already accepted in practice: freedom from the bounds of the moral wisdom that has been promoted in the church for centuries.