Cracking Da Vinci's Code: You've Read the Fiction, Now Read the Facts [Abridged] (Paperback)

The foreword states "the intention of this book is not to unravel Da Vinci's code" - it is a great pity the title isn't so honest. Indeed, items one would expect to be discussed in various chapters are declared within those chapters as being outside the scope of the book.

The front cover states "you've read the fiction, now read the facts"; the back cover states that the book is "helping you separate fact from fiction", yet in chapter one we are told "we are going to reveal to you not only *what* the [Holy] Grail is, but *where it is today*". Balderdash. As you would no doubt expect from such a publication it is declared as the usual intangible thing; "a multi-ethnic, global, spiritual fellowship made up of all kinds of forgiven sinners. The real church...is the spiritual Holy Grail". Absolutely no originality there, and absolutely no "fact".

The book is written almost as a Sunday school educational text, complete with a sub-story that is both patronizing and extreme (touching on drugs, cults, etc - the sort of thing that the authors evidently expect any reader of Brown's book would no doubt get involved with). The story features a character going through religious doubts after reading Brown's Da Vinci Code, and is patently designed to elicit empathy from the confused Christian reader, panicking them into feeling "alone" and "left out" of the "Divine Arc" (this of course being touted as the real "truth").

The authors seem to want to emphasize that Brown claims his book is "fact". Brown states at the start of his book what the facts are and this does not include the *fictional* story, as anyone with a jot of rationality would realize. There are copious amounts of Biblical references, most of which provide no useful observations on Brown's work. The cynic would say that the authors simply cannot provide a balanced assessment of the Da Vinci Code content since they have a vested interest in bolstering the organizations and institutions they view as being eroded by it (as an aside one author claims in the book to have been "a close boyhood friend of John Lennon" - what relevance this has is anyone's guess, particularly when Lennon himself once declared the Beatles to be more popular than Jesus and that Christianity might disappear before rock'n'roll). Any reader seeking facts and impartiality would be better off with "Cracking the Da Vinci Code: The Facts Behind the Fiction" by Simon Cox.

Summary : Anyone simply looking for facts without religious spin should steer clear, but troubled Christians might get something out of it.

Rating this review : I would respectfully request that you rate this review on the understanding that it is a critique of a book that purports to provide *facts* on ideas raised within another book, in which case it misrepresents itself since it merely provides the opinions and rhetoric of people that find these ideas unpalatable. It is ultimately as guilty of propaganda, spin and mis-presentation of "fact" as the authors assert is the bestseller it was marketed off the back of.

Garlow and Jones write in the style of two fundamentalists who feel threatened by a New Age heresy. They see a connection between the ideas expressed by THE DAVINCI CODE and the work of some of the scholars from The Jesus Seminar such as Elaine Pagels. Ultimately they predict the world will be divided into only two religious groups - pagan monism and biblical theism. The latter places God outside the circle of creation instead of in it as in pagan monism. In biblical theism God has a special place as creator apart from his creatures. In their view THE DAVINCI CODE preaches a form of pagan monism with God seen as an impersonal force of nature. Garlow and Jones stand firmly opposed to this view since they are on the side of the biblical theists.

I don't think that Dan Brown is motivated by much more than a strong desire to tell a good story and sell a lot of books. Garlow and Jones act more like they are on a crusade but they also want to sell books. I feel certain that more books on the subject of the DaVinci Code and related matters are definitely on the way.

The position adopted by Garlow and Jones, whilst valid, is in a different paradigm to the 'alternative histories' which they look to dispute. There is so much of a gulf between the two positions that engaging debate between them is impossible. For example, Garlow and Jones try to undermine the theories behind the cult of the sacred female on the grounds that not all humans were created by woman: Adam and Eve were the result of a divine hand.

If you are looking for help in restoring your faith having read THE DA VINCI CODE, you may find what you are looking for here. If you are looking for a rational contribution to the Holy Grail/Magdalene/Da Vinci debate, don't bother.