A little too ironic
I'm busy preparing for my class on Church History tomorrow and am trying to find a picture to use of the book The Da Vinci Code to use in a slide as a demonstration that Arianism is still alive and well. While doing this, I was searching through Amazon and found The Da Vinci Code (although not a usable pic) bundled with Babylon Rising as a special deal.
This, in a theologically geeky sort of way, is rather ironic. The Da Vinci Code is a pretty radical denial of the major tenets of orthodox Christianity, whereas Tim Lahaye is an orthodox author writing in the orthodox tradition (in the sense that he is not denying any of the tenets of the Nicene Council). The two authors are approaching the topic of Christianity from completely opposite starting points.
At the same time, it could be argued that the end result is the same: hugely speculative fiction. Both of them are propounding statements that are divergent from historical Christianity: Brown by denying the deity of Christ, Lahaye by indulging in a-historical, sensationalistic, unfounded, scripturally myopic interpretations of the book of Revelation.
Still, the question remains as to how the two became grouped together. Did an unknowing editor at Amazon see that both were fictional, popular, and "Christian" and thus decide the two should be packaged together? Or are many of the same people buying one also buying the other? If the answer is the former, then its not a big deal. If the answer is the second, then its a sad commentary on the theological common sense of Christians today.
November 8, 2003 10:46 AM