The Emperor's New Clothes, Part 2 (as worn by Dan Brown)

I think when I speak about God's nature to that Bible class next week I'll read the kids an excerpt from Dan Brown's other book...the prequel to The daVinci Code...called Angels & Demons.

One thing about that book makes it hard to read...and I mean literally hard to read. It is at least 1 full inch narrower than any other narrow paperback book I own, making my hands cramp as I try to hold it open wide enough to read the words on the pages. My first thought was: were we wanting something that had a pretensiously large appearance to it, hence lots of itty bitty pages, or did we just want people to look awkward as they read it? (I saw someone reading it at the doctor's office the other day, and he was obviously having the same trouble I am.) But this is not the point to raise with the Bible class.

I think I'll read them an excerpt from Chapter 61 (I just set a brick on the book to hold it open so I can reference the text here.) In this chapter, we are given a flashback to a lecture the main character, Dr. Langdon, aka Tom Hanks, is giving about religious symbology. In this lecture, Brown has Langdon "debating" Christian symbolism with a few Christian students who are less informed about Christianity than most Buddhists are. He is full of knowing smiles and higher knowledge as he connects Christian purpose and symbolism to the singular driving force of some underlying previous religion.

Early Christians wanted to be buried facing east, as a nod to former tribal sun worship (none of his Christian students noted that maybe they wanted to be facing the direction from which Christ would return to earth.) As for halos, "...Halos, like much of Christian symbology, were borrowed from the ancient Egyptian religion of sun worship." He says this because they appear to look like sun discs in Egyptian art. (None of his New Age students piped in that halos are actually representative of the fact that the spiritual energy--aura, if you will--of these ones touched by God is so high it is physically visible.) Christmas? It is in December rather than March when it should be celebrated because it is a replacement for sol invictus celebrations, a holiday recognizing the change from increasing darkness to increasing light. (Personally, I like using that former symbol as a date to mark the celebration of Christmas since we don't know the actual date. Although I may have been unwittingly privy to it...see former blog about the mysterious sprouting of Christmas out of time; I posted it in March.)

After all his examples, he chalks it all up to transmutation or god substitution in an already established worship routine. One girl in his class gets offended on behalf of God, how sweet, and asks whether anything in Christianity is original. He responds that very little is original in any religion. He notes that something planted the ideas of communion and a Christ-figure in the minds of the Aztecs as well. Langdon believes that as mankind grows more civilized, he grows knowledgeable enough that he no longer needs any of these symbols.

So why is Dan Brown an emperor unknowingly in the buff through this passage? All the while this lecture is going on he (He) has Langdon doing something very telling, very tongue-in-cheek funny. Oh, I don't think he (Brown) realized the "symbolic" connection of having Langdon do this. He probably saw Donald Sutherland playing a college professor in a movie doing this and thought he looked cool, so he borrowed the image. All through this lecture that takes place in Chapter 61 --which if you "add it all up" gives you 7: a "symbolic" number representing God's completeness and sovereignty over all things created...another connection between this particular text and God that Brown probably didn't intend--all through it Langdon is munching on an apple.

Let me see now, I think I remember one of the most "original" symbols in the Bible having something to do with apple-eating. Now what did that symbol stand for again? Hmmm...oh, yes. When we saw that in scripture we were watching someone buy into the idea of having a claim on the power needed to appropriate knowledge comparable to God's knowledge. I'm surprised He didn't prompt Brown to have a snake slither out the door when the bell rang, but that would have been too obvious. Even Brown would have caught that. (smile)