Off the Record

mismatch By Diogenes | September 14, 2009 11:13 AM

 Give Dan Brown credit for this much: the author of The Da Vinci Code has an amazing knack for publicity. Over the past several years he has managed to convince dozens of gullible American reporters that he is locked in a ferocious struggle with the Vatican-- despite the fact that Vatican officials treat Brown like a mosquito, occasionally swatting at him but mostly recognizing that he's a minor annoyance and hoping that he'll go away.

Anyone who has spent more than about 15 minutes in a serious study of theology or Church history recognizes Brown's fictional works as preposterous. So the typical Vatican official regards the novels as laughable. But the typical American reporter-- who hasn't yet buckled down to those 15 minutes of study-- swallows the notion that this pop novelist has grasped the logical flaws that St. Thomas Aquinas and Cardinal Newman missed, and so Brown's theories strike at the foundation of Catholic thought. Thus the New York Daily News is all excited about the appearance of a new Dan Brown oeuvre:

Certainly Pope Benedict XVI is no fan. His first book as pontiff was "Jesus of Nazareth" and was seen as a corrective to Brown's heretical depiction of the savior.

Right. Pope Benedict wrote a book to rebut The Da Vinci Code. It's obvious, isn't it? There's no other conceivable reason why the Pope would write about Jesus.

 

 

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Sound Off! Comments

• Posted by: opraem - Sep. 14, 2009 7:18 PM ET USA

  dan brown's selling his books, so any controversy is a plus for him. like opposing quarterbacks who supposedly 'hate' each other, it is a way to stir enthusiasm for the contest and sell tickets (books). the books are fiction and labeled as such.

• Posted by: Wild Bill - Sep. 14, 2009 1:51 PM ET USA

  Unfortunately, a half-dozen others found it necessary to write book length rebuttals, which only lent the rebutters' prestige to Brown's silly book. That a Catholic organization would demand the producers of the movie to "disclose" that the work is fiction compounds the offense. The Vatican's approach is the right one; ignore the trolls and they will go back under their bridge.