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Summary: Dear Mr. Christian Criticizer,
Review: In response to your review below, I would like to say that your pesimistic view on christians may have many supporting reasons. However, this does not mean ALL christians are radical extremists as you describe them to be. It seems you have a notion that all christians should be wonderful people like the BIBLE says so, and those who are not just go to show what a hypocritical religion it is.
The truth is that Christianity is not about judgemental hypocritical saints out to get you and your family to belive by accusing you of faults and demand your repentence like Hollywood portrays, but rather a revealing of a harsh truth:
that everyone is NOT perfect( and yes, MR Christian Criticizer, that includes christians) and some faults no matter how much you try, can never be self-cured without God. Thus, we are all sinners and need redemption in order to restablish our relationship with the perfect God. That is why radical christians go around spewing these judgemental sayings "you are a sinner, REPENT!" although it sounds like an accusatory statement said from a person who Hollywood portrays " as holy/self-rightious" it is actually just said to show you a new perspective/ meaning in life.
Its not about gaining materialistic possesions (money, wealth, power) because that never stops and can never be satiated (look at Bill Gates, the richest yet not the happiest and still strives to get more money), its about admittance to something you know is true but by admitting it would show fault; thus, it is easier not to belive and defend agianst those "christians" and go on with your meanignless life.
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Summary: Small enough to fit in your pocket...
Review: **** The latest game to sweept the nation is not played on a computer screen, an athletic court, or card table. It does not involve dice or score cards. It's the Jesus game, inventing your own version of Jesus and making it sell. So far, Dan Brown seems to have racked up more points than most, dollar wise. However, when the Bible Answer Man and Paul Maier get done with dismantalling and dissecting the runaway best seller, it has more holes than a yard of lace. It turns out that he not only got Jesus and His story wrong, but pretty much everything else, from history to Disney. If as a Christian, you have had to answer the questions raised by Da Vinci and need some facts to back up your beliefs, this book will take care of you. It's also small enough to fit in even a small purse or hip pocket. ****Amanda Killgore for Huntress Reviews.
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Summary: Not a convincing argument
Review: Although Hanegraaff and Maier make some good points, their overall arguments seem pety and unsubstantial. For instance, they spend time picking apart small details that have nothing to do with the major points that Brown introduces. They also spend a chapter presenting evidence that Jesus really existed. This argument seems ridiculous because the whole foundation of the Mary Magdalen/ Merovingian conspiracy is based on the premise that Jesus existed. I finished this book very unsatisfied because its main argument seemed to be, "Because the Bible says so." I later bought Dan Burstein's "Secrets of the Code" and recommend it to anyone wanting a thorough, intelligent presentation of topics related to "The Da Vinci Code."
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Summary: How Many Pages to Debunk A BestSelling Hoax?
Review: Answer: 81 concise and decisive pages. Maier is a pre-eminent history scholar of the times of the apostles and Jesus and Hannigraf is an accomplished apologist in theology.
They from the beginning of Brown's bestseller debunk it as a hoax starting with his opening assumption: assume as a fact that the Priory of Sion exists as Brown's novel writes about it!
Factual or fictional assumption? Fictional. This is quickly unloaded as being an unresearched, unchecked bit of writing. Maier quickly shows that an ex-con Anti-Semite had planted these falsified documents at the Bibliotechque in Paris and that this has been authenticated. See his footnote on this fact by NY Times Book Review Laura Miller who checked this all out and shows that this is all one big hoax!
Next, is what Brown writes about Constantine true: that he was the one who made Jesus into a superdeity, that he collated the Bible and other devious, manipulative schemes to make Christianity thrive? Fact or fiction? Fiction. There is not one shred of valid historical evidence to support Brown's wild speculations. Thus his plot quickly falls to ruins.
Or, did the Council of Nicea when voting on the deity of Christ have an extremely close vote as Brown's novel suggest it did? Fact or fiction? Fiction: the vote was 300 to 2!
Need to go on? I don't, but some of you who are moved by anything even suspicious as disproving history and deconstructing it will likely not be impressed by this or this book or any significant, tested and accepted by all evidence.
We believe what we want to. As the authors so wisely and correctly point out: why all the rankor about Christianity and no attempts at debunking any of the other world religions? Why does Allah and Muhammed and Buddah not enjoy this same treatment?
Fact or Fiction? Check it out. You should be disturbed by what you find. Calling fact "fiction" and fiction "fact" is becoming a true sport and artform in our culture. Our people are constantly being duped and they're buying it. Just witness the millions of copies Brown's book has sold and many believing it hook, line and sinker.
Thanks to Maier and Hannagraf who put down their facts so they can be checked out. If one does this with Brown, you'll come up with the same conclusions this excellent little book does: The Da Vinci Code? It's fiction!
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Summary: One must consider the source...
Review: As the title of my review says, one must first consider the source of the information before you judge the information itself. Non of the writers of the Davinci Code nor the sources Dan Brown cites to back up his theories have the credentials of Paul Maier, one of the authors of this small book. A Harvard graduate, A PHD From Basel where he graduated Summa cum Laude. A history professor at Michigan University. This guy knows what he is talking about and has the credentials to be considered an expert in the subject. This being said, I can say that Paul Maier really does a grand amount of damage to all the theories presented by Dan Brown. And even exposes some outright lies on the part of the DaVinci Code author.
Thats the first half of the book. The second half of the book is about Christianity specifically, and is more evangelical in nature. Hank Hanegraaff wrote this half of the book and doesn't seem to have as impressive credentials as his partner. This part may turn off many readers. But I don't feel it ruins the great research done by Paul Maier in the other half of the book.
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Summary: Not bad, but...
Review: Hanegraaff is the "Bible Answer Man", the evangelical version of the Pope for some people. As a result, he will never point out what Kellmeyer points out in "Fact and Fiction in the Da Vinci Code" - Dan Brown's book is simply a twist on a story that many fundamentalist Christians have been promulgating for years: the idea that the Catholic Church and Constantine suppressed "true Christianity." All Dan Brown did was substitute the contents of what was being suppressed - fundamentalists claim Catholics suppressed THEIR church, Brown claims Catholics suppressed goddess worship. Other than that, the two are identical and identically absurd. Kellmeyer's book goes into a lot of details like this that Hanegraaff simply doesn't. All in all, Kellmeyer's "Fact and Fiction" is a better investment.
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Summary: No ax to grind
Review: I read The Da Vinci Code and had a few problems with it but was able to mostly suspend disbelief and enjoy the novel. But imagine if you were watching Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark and all of the Nazis were Black. It is still a very good movie, but it isn't very historically accurate...and it can make it tough to suspend your disbelief and truly enjoy the show.
That was my problem with Dan Brown's book. I knew too much of the history of Christianity. So when he would come up with a good conspiracy and give a date, I would know that there were plenty of things that happened prior to that to invalidate the theory. But I didn't know it all, and that is why this was a decent book. It went over other things that I didn't know were untrue. The best way to use this book is to then let it show you other things to investigate as it is all interesting stuff.
But don't read this to keep your faith in Christ. If a book by Dan Brown made your faith shaky, you never really checked out why you have faith to begin with. So do that first (and maybe this book is a part of that).
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Summary: To Go A Step Beyond
Review: If you loved DaVinci Code or if you hated it, you must admit it did get a reaction from you....which in itself is one definition of a successful novel. Many readers have found themselves more interested in the information detailed in Dan Brown's books, and if so, this book is a good choice to begin to learn about the amazing history of the Christian Church.
Especially Gnosticism and the early Christian Church, and especially the creation of the New Testament Bible. For a different review....here is my review of books that build on these interests, especially the "lost" books of the New Testament Bible and the concepts of Gnosticism.
Nearly all knowledgeable Biblical scholars realize there have been a wide range of writings attributed to Jesus and his Apostles..... and that some of these were selected for compilation into the book that became known as the Bible.....and that some books have been removed from some versions of the Bible and others have been re-discovered in modern times.
The attention focused on Gnosticism by Dan Brown's DaVinci Code may be debatable, but the fact is that increased attention on academics tends to be predominately positive, so I welcome those with first-time or renewed interest. At least first-timers to Gnosticism are not pursuing the oh-so-popular legends of the Holy Grail, Bloodline of Christ, and Mary Magdalene.
This is great......I seldom quote other reviewers, but there is one reviewer of Pagels' books who confided that he had been a Jesuit candidate and had been required to study a wide range of texts but was never was told about the Nag Hamadi texts. He said:
"Now I know why. The Gospel of Thomas lays waste to the notion that Jesus was `the only begotten Son of God' and obviates the need for a formalized church when he says, `When your leaders tell you that God is in heaven, say rather, God is within you, and without you.' No wonder they suppressed this stuff! The Roman Catholic Church hasn't maintained itself as the oldest institution in the world by allowing individuals to have a clear channel to see the divinity within all of us: they need to put God in a bottle, label the bottle, put that bottle on an altar, build a church around that altar, put a sign over the door, and create rubricks and rituals to keep out the dis-believing riff-raff. Real `Us' versus `them' stuff, the polar opposite from `God is within You.' `My God is bigger than your God' the church(s)seem to say. And you can only get there through "my" door/denomination. But Jesus according to Thomas had it right: just keep it simple, and discover the indwelling Divinity `within you and without you.'"
Here are quickie reviews of what is being bought these days on the Gnostic Gospels and the lost books of the Bible in general:
The Lost Books of the Bible (0517277956) includes 26 apocryphal books from the first 400 years that were not included in the New Testament.
Marvin Meyers' The Secret Teachings of Jesus : Four Gnostic Gospels (0394744330 ) is a new translation without commentary of The Secret Book of James, The Gospel of Thomas, The Book of Thomas, and The Secret Book of John.
James M. Robinson's The Nag Hammadi Library in English : Revised Edition (0060669357) has been around 25 years now and is in 2nd edition. It has introductions to each of the 13 Nag Hammadi Codices and the Papyrus Berioinensis 8502.
The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (0140278079) by Geza Vermes has selected works....a complete work is more difficult to achieve than the publisher's marketing concept indicates. His commentary generates strong reactions.
Elaine Pagels has 2 books (The Gnostic Gospels 0679724532 and Beyond Belief : The Secret Gospel of Thomas 0375501568) that have received considerable attention lately. For many, her work is controversial in that it is written for popular consumption and there is a strong modern interpretation. She does attempt to reinterpret ancient gender relationships in the light of modern feminist thinking. While this is a useful (and entertaining) aspect of college women's studies programs, it is not as unethical as some critics claim. As hard as they may try, all historians interpret the past in the context of the present. Obviously there is value in our attempts to re-interpret the past in the light of our own time.
If you want the full scholarly work it is W. Schneemelcher's 2 volume New Testament Apocrypha.
Also, to understand the Cathars......try Barbara Tuckman's Distant Mirror for an incredible historical commentary on how the Christian Church has handled other points of view
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Summary: The Truth
Review: It's amazing that people don't want to believe the truth even when it's presented to them with amazing historical evidence. They would rather believe the fictional account in a novel.
Truth is not "relative" or "what's right for you", the truth is the truth, whether you believe it or not.
Paul Maier Ph.D. is a extremely knowledgable Professor of Anchient History at Western Michigan University and has written several books on anchient history and the early church. His knowledge of the subject makes him uniquely qualified to rebut the statements of history made in the Brown's book, most notibly is the "Priory of Sion" which is not an anchient organization started by the french king Godefroi de Bouillon, but a concoction of a frenchman in 1956. For more information see: (...)
Many of the other "Facts" presented in the book are shown to be of questionable origin, or outright fabrications. Dr. Maier does a good job of presenting the truth.
The second half of the book written by one of todays most knowledgable students of the historical christian faith, Hank Hannegraff. He does a good job of defending the Manuscript Evidence, the Massive Archaeological Evidence and the Messianic Prophecies that prove the Bible is of Divine origin rather than human origin.
All in all, the book does a good job of presenting the truth of history and defends the Christian Faith and its origins. If you are interested in the Truth, read this book after reading "The Da Vinci Code"
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Summary: Great Book for Sepearating Fact From Fiction
Review: My wife recently completed reading "Angels and Demons" and started immediately into "The DaVinci Code". Even though she knew that it was pseudo-religious fiction, she nonetheless came away from the book with an impression about the church that was founded by the context of what was contained in these books. The danger inherent in that is there are many people who, like my wife, are intelligent people who enjoy fiction, but may not have the familiarity or background to really distinguish what is factual from what is the fabrication of fact for the purposes of telling a story. As the title suggests, the book really does fact from fiction. The book is divided into two sections. The first, titled "The DaVinci Deception, was written by Paul L. Maier who is a professor of ancient history at Wester Michigan University. He examines the many claims in the book, such as the prospect that Jesus was married, and, using facts passed down through text and documentation that spans the centuries to debunk the fictional claims made in the novel. The second section, called "But What Is Truth?" is written by Hank Hanegraaff, who is the host of the popular Bible Answer Man radio program. He takes the "dogma" of DaVinci Code, and, using scripture, educates the reader on the real history from which the fiction in DaVinci Code was derived. This book is a great companion for the novel "The DaVinci Code" by Dan Brown. It does not attempt to criticize Brown's writing, nor does it discourage readers from engaging in the book as a piece of fiction, but rather it allows the reader a fuller understanding of what they are reading--what is really based on history/religion, and what is based on the fabrications of an author whose story has been hailed one of the great pieces of religious fiction. A good, quick read, packed full of information. -Scott Kolecki
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