Cardinal Francis Arinze is suggesting that good Catholics should take legal action against The Da Vinci Code (via Volokh).
In the latest Vatican broadside against “The Da Vinci Code”, a leading cardinal says Christians should respond to the book and film with legal action because both offend Christ and the Church he founded. Cardinal Francis Arinze, a Nigerian who was considered a candidate for pope last year, made his strong comments in a documentary called “The Da Vinci Code — A Masterful Deception.” …
“Christians must not just sit back and say it is enough for us to forgive and to forget,” Arinze said in the documentary made by Rome film maker Mario Biasetti for Rome Reports, a Catholic film agency specializing in religious affairs.
“Sometimes it is our duty to do something practical. So it is not I who will tell all Christians what to do but some know legal means which can be taken in order to get the other person to respect the rights of others,” Arinze said.
I like the bit about how Christians shouldn’t just forgive and forget. I’m no expert, but aren’t there some religions that preach otherwise?
No word as to whether Pope Benedict is considering issuing a fatwa against Dan Brown.
Christian,
That is correct; the priorities here are completely straight. The publication of a crap book is an everyday occurrence and hardly anything to be concerned about. On the other hand the fact that representatives of one of the world’s largest religions are calling for the book to be surpressed because it conflicts with their ideology is something to be extremely concerned about, regardless of whether the book has any value.
Michael,
sorry – I meant this ironically (the book is bad, though). Which wasn’t clear, apparently.
Christian – OK understood; thanks. I still think I ought to read the book though, to understand what the fuss is really about.
Dear Jim Harrison,
the Gospels are written by eye-witness of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth and they are for written for transmitting the hope to the reader.
This book by Dan Brown is just a product to make money, by inventing conspiracies. But the dangerous thing is that some people may take it seriously, especially those who do not have the culture to distinguish between fiction and history. That’s why somebody should take a legal action against this.
Dear arnold,
One can only believe that the Gospels were written by eyewitnesses through a willing suspension of disbelief. I have no quarrel with that. From an anthropological point of view, religious faith is definable as a claimed belief in things that are obviously false. If you want to go that route, be my guest. I was addressing people interested in realities, including the philological reality that the Gospels are inconsistent with one another and full of anachronisms and the physical reality that dead people stay dead and that the universe is not haunted. I do object to the assumption that those who opt out of the religious business have some obligation to give any credit to ideas that even many Christian theologians admit are completely absurd. I’m just taking Tertullian at his word.
No Christian thinks that the resurrection is absurd.
Or better: despite being so surpising, yet a Christian believes that it is true.
If resurrection is not true there is no point in being Christian, it would just be an illusion.
Your claim that things written in the gospel are “obviously false” is your opinion.I trust those people who were there and who saw those facts, for many reasons: basically the fact that the message is so good and always relevant for any man that it cannot be false, and I do not see any reason for the first Christians to lie in order to start a religion (that lead most of them to being killed, moreover), and many other reasons, including the experience of meeting a person(Jesus Christ) in the prayer etc…
The fact that the Gospels have a few anachronisms (they are not “full of them”and they are not “inconsistent”) reflects the fact that they were written after some 50 years form those facts by different witnesses.And, even more, they were written not for historians but for transmitting a hope and a person (so in this respect the chronological details were not so relevant).
Jim Harrison – You make a number of very strong and insightful points! Thanks for sharing them!
arnold,
There is absolutely no reason to believe that the Gospels were written by eye-witnesses. The earliest (known) writings about Jesus were by Paul, and they make no references to many of the details of Jesus’ life: No mention of Mary being the mother of Jesus, no mention of Joseph being the father of Jesus, no mention of Judas betraying Jesus. I think that the explanation for this is that these details were made up after Paul’s writings.
I would love to know where Paul got the story of Jesus from, but it was not from any eye-witnesses.
Henry Lincoln? :http://www.merling.dk/
Co-authored the :Blood and the Holy Grail.
http://www.merling.dk/
Sorry should be links here:
http://www.renneslechateau.co.uk/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Lincoln
Anyone who has read the Henry Lincoln co-authored book:The Blood and the Holt Grail, would have to conclude that there is a suppression of the Facts!
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It’s Spooky Paul, in regards to the geometry of site linked above.
Reminds me of those “Ley lines,” that coveted the English landscape, and connected all those ancient sites?
Prof.dr R.H. Dijkgraaf, or Durer? Would the “real” geometric artist, please stand up? 🙂
More on name.
Here are a few interesting articles, if you’re willing to read them.
These ones are about the Galileo affair (the first one’s better, but longer):
http://www.catholicleague.org/research/galileo.html
http://fmmh.ycdsb.ca/teachers/fmmh_mcmanaman/pages/galileomedia.html
This one’s about the Inquisition:
http://www.catholicleague.org/research/inquisition.html
These ones are about the MYTH of “Hitler’s Pope”:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/woods/woods48.html
http://fmmh.ycdsb.ca/teachers/fmmh_mcmanaman/pages/piusxii.html
This one’s about the flat earth myth:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/woods/woods46.html
This one’s about how the Catholic Church built western civilization:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/woods/woods40.html
Whoa! Seven Star Hand is such a Weirdo!
Enjoy!
To really understand what the Vatican is worried about, I suggest you investigate the dichotomy between literalism and gnosticism as presented by Freke and Gandy in The Laughing Jesus or The Jesus Mysteries.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0722536763/102-2006985-2752939?v=glance&n=283155
“The holy blood and the holy grail” is junk. It turned out that the Priory of Zion stuff was fabricated by some French artists who wanted a laugh, and one of them admitted it later.
As for Jesus being married, I understand that marriage was virtually de riguere for such people as Jesus is purported to be, and a reasonable case can be made for the suppression of this by the Church and others. But that is a long way away from confirming that there is a secret organisation based around people descended from jesus.
Thank God we live in country where someone is free to make a statement as ignorant and hateful as “No word yet as to whether the pope has issued a fatwa on Dan Brown.” As my form of protest, I’ll simply refuse to give this piece of garbage any of my money.
Everyone thinks that Dan Brown is doing something new by criticising the Catholic church, but Revelations in the New Testament, some 2000 years ago already criticised their doctrine.
The Pope should not be issuing a fatwa, but an arrest warrant. Galileo was arrested for far less, as was Bruno who burned to death in Rome on 17 Feb 1600.
It is just embarrassing that the Catholic administration always punished the wrong people. When you ask “what would Jesus do?” you can see where the administrators went wrong: the mindless enforcement of obsolete group-think, consensus, bureaucracy, etc. Jesus literally whipping up a riot in the Temple, driving out the animals which were being sold and overturning the tables of the bankers.
When you look at the difference between Jesus and the petty, feeble way the Roman Catholic faith has been centrally administered you can see why it hasn’t sorted out the world’s problems. Dan Brown should be face a charge of heresy. Bring back the Inquisition fast, complete with thumb screws, the pit and pendulum to deter charlatans and crackpots. Just make sure genuine useful science like M-theory, SUSY, etc., is encouraged.