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A Recommended Book List A Recommended Book List On The Da Vinci Code Darrell L. Bock, Breaking the Da Vinci Code: Questions Everyone’s Asking. Thomas Nelson. Comprehensive treatment by a professor from Dallas Theological Seminary. Bart D. Ehrman, Truth and Fiction in the Da Vinci Code, Oxford, 2004. A respected ‘liberal’ scholar gives the facts from the perspective of a mainstream academic consensus—and exposes the lack of scholarly support for the claims of the DVC. Greg Jones, Beyond Da Vinci. Seabury Books, 2004. An articulate and informed critique of the DVC by a moderate to liberal Episcopal priest who encourages readers to explore elements of the “sacred feminine” in the canonical scriptures and Christian tradition. Carl E. Olson & Sandra Meisal, The Da Vinci Hoax: Exposing the Errors in the Da Vinci Code. Ignatius Press, 2004. Written by two Roman Catholic journalists with some academic background. It is thorough, well-researched, and culturally savvy. Amy Welborn, De-Coding Da Vinci: The Facts Behind the Da Vinci Code. Our Sunday Visitor, 2004. An accessible, concise but thorough analysis of the DVC by a Roman Catholic journalist. Ben Witherington III, The Gospel Code: Novel Claims About Jesus, Mary Magdalene and Da Vinci. Intervarsity, 2004. A much published author and respected evangelical scholar who teaches New Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky, Witherington focuses on the historical, biblical and theological issues behind the DVC. Dan Brown’s Sources Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh & Henry Lincoln, Holy Blood, Holy Grail, 1982. The basis for the DVC. A work of pseudo-history that is the first book to bring to the English speaking world an elaborate hoax concocted in France during the mid-twentieth century by Noel Corbu and Pierre Plantard. Lynn Pickett & Clive Prince, The Templar Revelation, Touchstone, 1997. More along the line of Holy Blood, Holy Grail with some novel features—Jesus taught a form of Egyptian magic in which Mary Magdalene embodied the Goddess Isis and functioned as his sacred consort. Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels. Unlike the other authors to whom Brown refers, Pagels is legitimate scholar who offers a sympathetic (and somewhat anachronistic) reading of the Gnostic literature. While not all will agree with Pagel’s interpretation, this is respectable study of the Gnostic writings without the glaring historical errors of the authors listed immediately above. Background Information Bart D. Ehrman, Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew, Oxford University Press, 2003. While the author’s claim that “the Early Christian Church was a chaos of contending beliefs” is overstated, this book is a sober and articulate study of early Christian texts with lots of information. Giovanni Filoramo, A History of Gnosticism, Blackwell Press, 1990. A serious and sober study of Gnosticism that does not try to score points on one side or another of the contemporary religious culture war. Philip Jenkins, Hidden Gospels, How the Search for the Jesus Lost Its Way, Oxford University Press, 2001. Philip Jenkins writes about the point of intersection between Christian thought and practice, and the developments in today’s culture. Written before the Da Vinci Code, Jenkins book provides both the historical background as well as an analysis of modern scholarship, media and cultural currents that are invaluable in any assessment of the DVC. Luke Timothy Johnson, The Real Jesus, Harper, 1996. An incisive critique of the Jesus Seminar and others who set their versions of the “historical” Jesus over against the Jesus of scripture and creed. .
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  • Mormonism's Sacred Bloodline Jesse D
    BYU Studies Quarterly Volume 48 | Issue 2 Article 11 4-2009 Dynasty of the Holy Grail: Mormonism's Sacred Bloodline Jesse D. Hurlbut Vern G. Swanson Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq Recommended Citation Hurlbut, Jesse D. and Swanson, Vern G. (2009) "Dynasty of the Holy Grail: Mormonism's Sacred Bloodline," BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 48 : Iss. 2 , Article 11. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol48/iss2/11 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the All Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in BYU Studies Quarterly by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Hurlbut and Swanson: Dynasty of the Holy Grail: Mormonism's Sacred Bloodline Vern Grosvenor Swanson. Dynasty of the Holy Grail: Mormonism’s Sacred Bloodline. Springville, Utah: Cedar Fort, 2006 Reviewed by Jesse D. Hurlbut hat do the Virgin Mary, King Arthur, and Joseph Smith have in Wcommon? This is one of the questions that Vern Swanson attempts to answer in Dynasty of the Holy Grail: Mormonism’s Sacred Bloodline. Swanson, who has been director of the Springville Art Museum in Utah since 1980 and who has published extensively in art historical topics, applies his skills to a different body of material in this impressive, large- format volume of over five hundred pages. The author refers to his own work as a “scattershot miscellany of ran- dom thoughts” (411). While some may find in this statement a self-effacing motif, most readers will acknowledge that the phrase provides a fair assess- ment of this unusual project.
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  • Da Vinci Code Research
    The Da Vinci Code Personal Unedited Research By: Josh McDowell © 2006 Overview Josh McDowell’s personal research on The Da Vinci Code was collected in preparation for the development of several equipping resources released in March 2006. This research is available as part of Josh McDowell’s Da Vinci Pastor Resource Kit. The full kit provides you with tools to equip your people to answer the questions raised by The Da Vinci Code book and movie. We trust that these resources will help you prepare your people with a positive readiness so that they might seize this as an opportunity to open up compelling dialogue about the real and relevant Christ. Da Vinci Pastor Resource Kit This kit includes: - 3-Part Sermon Series & Notes - Multi-media Presentation - Video of Josh's 3-Session Seminar on DVD - Sound-bites & Video Clip Library - Josh McDowell's Personal Research & Notes Retail Price: $49.95 The 3-part sermon series includes a sermon outline, discussion points and sample illustrations. Each session includes references to the slide presentation should you choose to include audio-visuals with your sermon series. A library of additional sound-bites and video clips is also included. Josh McDowell's delivery of a 3-session seminar was captured on video and is included in the kit. Josh's personal research and notes are also included. This extensive research is categorized by topic with side-by-side comparison to Da Vinci claims versus historical evidence. For more information and to order Da Vinci resources by Josh McDowell, visit josh.davinciquest.org. http://www.truefoundations.com Page 2 Table of Contents Introduction: The Search for Truth..................................................................................
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  • Book Reviews
    Medieval 12,3_f13_533-553 11/20/06 7:02 PM Page 533 BOOK REVIEWS Richard Barber, The Holy Grail: Imagination and Belief. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004. xiv, 463 pp. $27.95 (cloth); $16.95 (paper). As I write this review, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, authors (along with Henry Lincoln) of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (New York: Random House, 1982), are suing Dan Brown. Brown, they claim, stole the framework for the best-selling Da Vinci Code from their book. Thus far, Brown has denied the charges, emphasizing the rigor of his own independent research and his lack of familiarity with The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. It seems likely that his story will change: at the moment, Brown’s “well-thumbed” and heavily annotated copy of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail is being examined in court (Hugh Davies, “Dan Brown and Mystery of the Well-Thumbed Paperback,” March 15, 2006; available at www.telegraph.co.uk/news). At the very least, Brown will probably have to admit that his assertions about his own research were exaggerated. The irony about Baigent and Leigh’s claims is that The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail has been dismissed as poorly researched fantasy. As Barber puts it, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail is “a text which pro- ceeds by innuendo, not by refutable scholarly debate” (p. 310). In The Holy Grail: Imagination and Belief, Barber refers to Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln’s book as the work of “imaginative amateurs” whose supposed history is “written in the style of a television programme” (p.
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  • The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail Free
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  • Andrew Wearring
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  • Rejecting the Da Vinci Code
    REJECTING THE DA VINCI CODE REJECTING THE DA VINCI CODE How a Blasphemous Novel Brutally Attacks Our Lord and the Catholic Church by TFP Committee on American Issues THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR THE DEFENSE OF TRADITION, FAMILY AND PROPERTY — TFP SPRING GROVE, PENN. 17362 Cover illustration: Painting by Carl Bloch in St. Nicholas Church in Holbaek, Denmark Dedication page illustration: Statue of the Immaculate Conception in the Piazza di Spagna, Rome. Copyright © 2005 The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property®—TFP® 1358 Jefferson Road, Spring Grove, Penn. 17362–(866) 661-0272 www.tfp.org All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property®—TFP® This book is being distributed as part of the TFP’s America Needs Fatima cam- paign. The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property®, TFP® and America Needs Fatima® are registered names of The Foundation for a Christian Civilization, Inc., a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. ISBN-13: 978-1-877905-34-6 ISBN-10: 1-877905-34-8 Library of Congress Control Number: 2005933168 Printed in Canada American TFP Archive This book is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, patroness of the United States. We implore her to hasten the triumph of her Immaculate Heart promised at Fatima. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The publication of this book was made possible through the generosity of the TFP-America Needs Fatima Protectors of the Faith donors listed below: Distinguished Members George and Theresa Marie Chouquette Honored Members Mrs.
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  • Bibliography „Prieure De Sion“ and Rennes-Le-Chateau Ca
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