EVERYBODY LOVES A SECRET

By RAY WADDLE


With remarkable stamina and intensity, Nashville churches these days are discussing history, heresy and other religious high-jinx from the 90s -- not the 1990s, but 90 AD.

They’re hearing detailed presentations on how the Bible was compiled, how Jesus was declared divine and how likely it is that he was messiah AND husband.

Credit The Da Vinci Code ... novel, movie, unstoppable phenomenon.

“It raises questions about the historical Jesus and how people of faith understand him today,” says Carol Bumbalough, associate director of discipleship at Brentwood United Methodist Church.

“I don’t think it’s anything to fear. But if you have questions, you ought to be able to go to church and get answers.”

Bumbalough’s congregation sponsored a scholarly panel this week and is devoting weekly discussion to the book through June.

By now, everybody has heard the fuss: Written as a fast-paced thriller, The Da Vinci Code asserts Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a family that was raised in secrecy in France. Further, Jesus was mortal, not divine, but the early church covered up the truth -- and a network of rogue Catholic bishops is willing to kill to keep it secret even now.

It’s outlandish fiction, but the novel awoke a nest of sleeping doubts about official religious teachings. Commercially, the book’s 2003 release stirred a perfect storm: it was embraced by a nation ever fascinated with conspiracy theories, suspicious of institutions, newly intrigued by feminist ideas of the divine and bent on an appetite for spirituality, if not organized religion.

Are there lessons here? Consider seven (a divine number):

1. Despite grumbling by commentators who smell culture decline, this intricate novel proved people are interested in ambitious books about big ideas.

2. It poises history’s biggest question: Did monotheism rescue the world from darkness, or usher in a nightmarish era of bloodshed in the solemn name of religion?

3. More than 40 million read the book, but a Barna Poll says only 5 percent of readers claim it changed their beliefs.

4. The book proved it’s still possible to make millions from anti-Catholic plot points.

5. The book exploited the new conventional orthodoxy in biblical research, which says Christianity’s earliest days were marked by great diversity of notions about Jesus, his message and divine status.

6. Interest in gnosticism, a mysterious collection of mystical Christian heresies, is now mainstream. Scholars define it in technical ways; lay people tend to refer to it as a benign term for spiritual liberation unencumbered by institutional dogma.

7. The book infuses the tired, familiar world with mythic, bigger-than-life meaning and potential. It’s a bid to re-enchant 21st century life.
Note to churches: Combat Di Vinci nonsense by sharing solid gospel information, but don’t forget the poetry too.

(Local columnist Ray Waddle can be contacted at ray@raywaddle.com.)