A Christian Response to The Da Vinci Code

Nashotah House Theological Seminary, 2006

 

Lecture 6 (7 March 2006):  Dr. Michel Barnes, Marquette University

 

Did Constantine “Rig” the Council of Nicaea?

 

1.   The fundamental issue with The Da Vinci Code is not that it gets its facts and theology wrong, but why it is so popular.

  1. In popular culture, attacks on established doctrine and institutions are accepted without the authority for these attacks being questioned.

§         For example, in the 2004 feature film King Arthur, the British monk Pelagius is executed in Rome, by the pope himself.

o       Pelagius died of old age, unmolested, in North Africa.

  1. In The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown attempts to locate a conspiracy in the 4th century, around the development of Trinitarian doctrine (see pp. 231–35).

§         The First Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325) is depicted as a political tool of the emperor Constantine, designed to solidify his reign under an imperial cult of a divine Jesus.

§         It is alleged that prior to Nicaea, Jesus was never considered divine.

o       This ignores both the consistent testimony of Scripture, and of earlier secular and hostile sources (e.g., Flavius Josephus, ca. A.D. 90, and Pliny the Younger, ca. A.D. 112).

 

2.   The Da Vinci Code alleges (p. 231) that “more than eighty gospels” were considered for the New Testament.

a.       No evidence exists for the existence of more than two dozen non-canonical gospels in the first four centuries of Church history.

 

3.   The Da Vinci Code reflects an incorrect view of Judaism of the era of Jesus (Second Temple Judaism).

a.       Apocalypticism and the presence of figures from heaven were a feature of the religious landscape in which Jesus appeared.

 

4.   The First Council of Nicaea did not decide on the canon of Scripture, either with or without the influence of Constantine.

a.       The “Nicene Creed” recited by most Christians is actually the “Nicaeno-Constantino- politan Creed” agreed at the First Council of Constantinople (A.D. 381).

b.      The Creed agreed at Nicaea was formulated with the sole purpose of refuting the claims of the monk Arius, who argued that Jesus was a creature, not a person of the uncreated Godhead.

§         For much of the fourth century the Imperial court was Arian in belief.

§         From A.D. 325 to 341, the Creed of Nicaea is not mentioned in contemporary documents.

o       St. Hilary of Poitiers, writing is A.D.  356, was unfamiliar with the Creed of Nicaea.

o       St. Athanasius, writing in A.D. 357, had to restate the Creed to his readers, because they were unfamiliar with it.

o       The Creed (of A.D. 381) did not gain juridical force until the 5th century.

 

5.   Dan Brown is just dead wrong in his historical details of the 4th century, and regarding the development of Christian doctrine.  The question is, what is the appeal of the book?

a.       The book promotes a pagan faith, clothed under the cover of pluralism.

b.      Under this pagan faith, people can pretty much do as they please, looking “inward” for “guidance”.

c.       Since the rise of pluralism is popular culture, the Church has done a very bad job of teaching the truth, not wanting to be accused of being “narrow” or “doctrinaire”.

§         It is not “narrow” to testify to the truth.

§         It is not “narrow” to testify that truth is not subjective and experiential–it is objective, as the Truth once revealed.