Althea M. (althea) reviewed on 9/11/2008 + 774 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

This is definitely in a sub-genre that I like - mystery-thriller with secret societies and links to the past - lots of references to art and architecture, etc...
And it was a reasonably well-written, quite entertaining book.

However, before reading it, I expected to be able to dismiss all the (mainly Christian) uproar about the book, much as I dismissed the uproar around The Last Temptation of Christ (which I never got around to seeing, actually...so I can't discuss that.) But instead, I did understand (at least part of the reasons) why people have become upset. Brown has a disturbing tendency to jump from historical fact, to well-known theories debated by scholars, to complete conspiracy-theory baloney, without any transition between the types of material.
His bibliography is a strange mix of respected works and completely discredited ones, again without any division made. I have to conclude that Brown is really incapable of reading critically for his source material.

No BIG SPOILERS ahead, but you might not want to read if you're planning on reading the book soon...










Brown's main theory is that the early church actively suppressed the idea of the "sacred feminine," eliminating goddess worship. There is a great deal of truth to this. When picking "one god," Christianity (and Islam and Judaism) picked a male god. In the past, most cultures had both male and female deities. Today, most have a singular, specifically male god. This is fact. To his credit, Brown doesn't go as far as some modern non-scholarly authors in asserting the existence of some kind of feminist goddess-worshipping paradise before Christianity. However, he then jumps to theories that medieval notions of chivalry and symbols traditionally used for the feminine (and the culture of medieval Europe WAS very intensely into such symbology) are all evidence of a secret goddess-worshipping cult which has survived down the ages to the present day, complete with sex-rituals, etc... This is simply NOT true - but Brown just jumps from one to the other, as if it follows logically.

In another part of the book, Brown talks about Constantine's conflation of older religious holidays and observances with the new, Christian ones. Again, true. But he jumps right from that to an assertion that the Dead Sea Scrolls are books of the Bible that Constantine attempted to destroy for their "humanist" representation of Jesus, and Jesus' relationship with Mary Magdalene. THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS DO NOT HAVE THIS CONTENT! Argh! This is just misinformation! But it's mixed right in the with the information that, in contradiction with Christian "myth," Biblical writings do NOT ever identify Mary Magalene as a prostitute. Which is true, and freely stated by Catholics.
However, Brown jumps on to say that Jesus actually intended Mary Magdalene to take over his ministry after his death, and that Peter just kinda jumped in and took over against Jesus' wishes. Knowing what I do about the culture of the ancient Middle East, I find this to be a highly unlikely theory. A woman just would not have had that kind of authority - and there's no sort of evidence in support of this.

I could go on, but I'm sure many web pages have done so in much more detail... and I don't want to give away some of the fun parts! Overall, I enjoyed the book a lot, but I think it's quite possible to invent secret societies, plots and conspiracies WITHOUT contradicting known historical facts, and I wish Brown had made more of an effort to do so in this book....

Back to all reviews by this member
Back to all reviews of this book
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details