Rating: 
Summary: Excellent rebuttal by a gifted writer
Review: Mrs. Welborn has written an excellent rebuttal to 'The Da Vinci Code'. The novel itself was rather bad and despite its proclamation to be factual, was anything but -- consequently, it doesn't take Ms. Welborn more than a hundred or so pages to engage in a point by point refutation of the various claims; a quick, but substantial, read. The study questions at the end of each chapter, and the recommendations for further reading, make this an ideal text for use by any youth minister or teacher wishing to discuss the novel with his class.
Rating:
Summary: Hmmm...
Review: The reviewer from Huntsville evidently skipped the portions of this book in which Welborn clearly explains why she wrote her book. "The Da Vinci Code" is a novel, she writes, but the author (Dan Brown) makes claims both in the novel and on his website that the historical assertions he's making are sound. They're not. Ask any historian of any type about Jesus, Mary Magadalene and the Priory of Sion and they'll tell you it's bunk. No, Welborn makes clear that her book is for those who don't seem to understand that the Da Vinci Code is, in fact, fiction. And there are people like that - read the reader reviews for the novel if you doubt. The point is...if you read the Da Vinci Code as a novel and enjoyed it at that novel, great. But if you left it wondering if what Dan Brown says about early Christianity was true or not - and he makes some pretty radical claims, like early Christians didn't believe Jesus was divine - then you need to pick up this great book which answers those questions clearly and succintly and gives good suggestions for deeper study.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't look for facts here.
Review: This book reads like the churches answer to The Da Vinci Code. Much like The Da Vinci Code is filled with assumptions of history, so is this, without the preface of 'fiction'. If your looking to delve further into 'true' history of Da Vinci, don't buy this book. I've always been one to treasure literature, but this book I literally tossed into the garbage after reading the first 50 pages.
Rating:
Summary: Self-Confessed Lack of Credibility
Review: To understand the book, we have to understand the author - here it comes, from her web site - www.amywelborn.com/aboutme.html:
"I have a BA in Honors History from the University of Tennessee and an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt Divinity School. The majority of my professional life - well, all of it, to tell the truth - has been spent working for the Church in some form or other."
This is a book targeted to hard-line catholics who have read the Da Vinci Code and felt confused. She ferociously exorcises all demons possibly raised by the book to let faithful souls rest in peace. Otherwise, why have in the end of each chapter questions for group discussions? Who really reads in groups else than people in gospel-reading groups?
I do not feel in a position to discuss content - I am no expert in theology, art or history - there are different books in the market giving authoritative arguments both ways - I doubt anyone can really prove the truth, one way or the other - therefore, whoever is too opinionated, certainly holds a hidden agenda, and such is Ms. Welborn's case - although I have to concede that in her case, a strong agenda it is, but hidden, taking from her own bio, certainly it is not.
The tone is passionate, desperate at times. There is not a single issue when she takes a neutral stands - a mere page is devoted to the Opus Dei, for instance, in order not to put herself in a too uncomfortable position. She concedes that people may have gone too far in some cases, that some phisical self-punishment actually happens, but ends up dismissing its importance by asking which religion has not inflicted some type of self punishment while using fasting in several religions as an example, a ridiculous comparation.
In a nutshell, I can't really judge the arguments of the author, but certainly the tone is passionate, furious, and unilateral, and the credibility, as she herself suggests in her autobiography, is zero.
Rating:
Summary: Thank you, Amy Welborn!
Review: Unlike "DaVinci's Code", this book is coherent, interesting, and well-reseaarched. The only mystery in "DaVinci's Code" is how so many can be so gullible!
Rating:
Summary: Answered My Questions
Review: Were Jesus and Mary Magdalene married?
Did Jesus designate Mary Magadalene as the head of the church?
Was there competition between the followers of Mary Magdalene and Peter?
Did Constantine invent Jesus' divinity?
Was Leonardo da Vinci a member of the Priory of Sion?
Did the Priory of Sion even exist? This book gives great, succint, solidly researched answers to those questions and more. Listen. I heard a guy with a Ph.D. in Renaissance art on the radio the other day who said that Dan Brown got nothing right in this book about art. He presents himself as a great expert, but he's not. On art, religion or history. And sure, it's fiction, but some people aren't taking it as fiction, plus Brown himself, on the first page of the novel, makes a big deal about the factual basis of the book. A book like this, that dissects Brown's claims, is a great thing to have and give to friends with questions.
Rating:
Summary: Anything but this.
Review: with a title like "the facts behind the fiction" i expected an unbiased explaination of the facts.all this book does is shows the authors extreme views on catholicism, no REAL facts here just a blaitant attack on browns book and on any other for that matter,questioning the exact teachings of the new testament. disappointing to say the least.
|
