I just started reading ‘The Lost Symbol’ by Dan Brown last night. I am nary at the middle of the fascinating novel and have already taken several pages of notes…
This is reminiscent of when I read ‘The Da Vinci Code’ while attending the University of Texas at El Paso. I was so enamored and inspired by it’s themes that I decided to make it part of my semester-long project for an English course I was taking.
Writing something like this from my Pagan point of view was so self-fulfilling.
The below is an excerpt of my essay. To read the entire thing, click HERE.
Mary Magdalene and the Da Vinci Code: How Brown Interprets Feminine Leadership in Religion
One of the most recent controversies that have graced television and the covers of newspapers is the topic of Dan Brown’s newest novel, The Da Vinci Code. What makes this book so controversial is that Brown weaves a story about a museum curator with a secret life, a historian and how the church has been on a bloody rampage for several years trying to cover up the “truth” about Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. Much like other mystery novels before its time, The Da Vinci Code peppers evidence leading to the discovery of the perpetrator in various areas amongst the text and invites the reader to consciously thread the pieces together in the end with help from the author’s fictional extensions; the characters. Along with Mary Magdalene’s untimely historical death, Brown also incorporates the “homicide” of the concept of feminine divinity. Brown ties all these concepts together, much like a detective would, and likens these two separate, but similar, murders to one killer: the Church. Although Mary Magdalene’s role in the known Bible is relatively short compared to other characters, Mary Magdalene plays a critical role in the book The Da Vinci Code. Dan Brown shows how Mary Magdalene’s role in the Bible was deliberately downplayed and cast in a negative light. Brown also uses the written history of Mary Magdalene to represent the feminine leadership that was lost after Christianity took over the masses.
Also important to note is that although The Da Vinci Code is categorized as a fictional novel, Dan Brown posts this disclaimer before the story starts: “All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate”(1). This statement is important because it establishes and reinforces the fact that The Da Vinci Code is still largely a work of fiction, but any references or descriptions made to historical texts, quotations, rituals, etc. are not fictional. The disclaimer assures the reader that the story behind the story, per se, is legitimate.
In The Da Vinci Code, Brown uses the Gnostic Gospels to suggest that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. However, for the scope of this article, sexuality is not something that would be emphasized. The relationship between Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene may very well have been of a sexual nature, but because this is textually difficult to attest, the strong spiritual bond will be emphasized. “By focusing on Mary Magdalene’s sexuality, Brown has perpetuated the tradition in which her sexuality takes precedence over her apostleship” (Calvert-Koyzis p46) and portraying Mary Magdalene in a negative light is something that is beyond the range of this work.
The Gnostic Gospels are considered an apocrypha of the New Testament and were found largely in 1945 at the foot of the Jabel al-Tarif, a cliff near the town of Nag Hammadi in the Middle Egypt area (Letting Mary Magdalene Speak p3), although there were other important codices found in other parts of Egypt and other various parts. A large part of the controversy is that the texts of which are being referred to in these claims is a text that has never been accepted by Christianity. The Gnostic Gospels reveal many controversial ideas…
I’m thinking that this new novel will have me expanding my mind quite a bit. I visited the official site today and was pleased to find that there are discussion questions posted there. The questions are admittedly a bit banal, but a good starting point for expansive discussion.
Follow me @crysticouture on Twitter to get my book impressions as I continue reading tonight.