Product Description

The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown’s best selling novel, purports to be more than fiction: it claims to be based on fact and scholarly research. Brown wants his readers to believe that he is revealing the long-concealed truth about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and early Christianity, a truth that he says has been suppressed by the malevolent and conspiratorial forces of the Catholic Church. The novel alleges that there has been throughout history a secret group of true followers of a Gnostic Jesus and his wife, Mary Magdalene, the true "Holy Grail". Almost everything most Christians and non-Christians think they know about Jesus, according to Dan Brown, is completely wrong, the result of Catholic propaganda designed to hide the truth from the world.

But are The Da Vinci Code’s claims fact or just plain fiction? Is the novel well-researched as claimed? What is the truth about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and the early Church? Has the Catholic Church distorted the real Jesus? Why is the novel so popular? What about the anti-Catholic, anti-Christian agenda behind the novel?

Best selling author Carl Olson and journalist Sandra Miesel answer these and other important questions. Their painstaking research into The Da Vinci Code and its sources reveals some surprising truths. No one who has read or heard about The Da Vinci Code should miss this provocative and illuminating new book.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #255365 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 329 pages

Review
"A clearly-written antidote." -- Marvin Olasky, editor of World Magazine

"The definitive debunking." -- Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago

"Unlike the original Code, The Da Vinci Hoax is a delight to read." -- Philip Jenkins, Distinguished Professor of History and Religious Studies, Pennsylvania State University

About the Author
Carl E. Olson is the editor of Envoy magazine. Raised in a Fundamentalist home, he attended an Evangelical Bible college. Carl entered the Catholic Church in 1997 and holds an MTS from the University of Dallas. A well-respected author, he has written for First Things, This Rock, Envoy, Crisis, National Review Online, Our Sunday Visitor, and National Catholic Register. His bestselling book, Will Catholic Be "Left Behind"? (Ignatius, 2003) was selected by the Associated Press as one of the best religious titles of 2003. Carl lives with his wife and daughter in Eugene, Oregon.

Sandra Miesel holds masters’ degrees in biochemistry and medieval history from the University of Illinois. Since 1983, she has written hundreds of articles for the Catholic press, chiefly on history, art, and hagiography. She regularly appears in Crisis magazine and is a columnist for the diocesan paper of Norwich, Connecticut. Sandra has spoken at religious and academic conferences, appeared on EWTN, and given numerous radio interviews. Outside the Catholic sphere, she has also written, analyzed, and edited fiction. Sandra and her husband John have raised three children.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
FOREWORD

The title of this book by Carl Olson and Sandra Miesel says it all. The novel, The Da Vinci Code, is engaging and intriguing. It is a thriller presented as an historical novel. It is fiction, yet it seeks to convince the reader that it is based on fact. It pushes an attack on the Catholic Church and claims to do so in the name of historical authenticity and sound scholarship. The claim is preposterous, but persuasive for many.

The authors of The Da Vinci Hoax deserve our gratitude for exposing in considerable detail and with sure touch the fabrications of Dan Brown’s book. Theirs is the definitive debunking. In the end, the fallacy of Brown’s book is a common one. It approaches the Christian faith as though its contents were to be found in words and documents rather than in the witness and collective memory of the community Christ himself left behind, His Church.

There have been such writings before and, no doubt, will be again. Why single out this novel? I read it because so many people who read it kept asking me questions about it. It has had a remarkably large and credulous readership, reminding me of the dictum that those who have lost or don’t know the faith are likely to believe anything. It matters what we read, what films and television we watch. If we feed our minds on error, we risk losing touch with the truth about who we are and how we ought to live.

We find salvation through self-surrender in faith to Christ, not from personal ideas or inspirations. Once the anchor of the Church’s authentic witness and teaching is abandoned, gnostic or other false theories inevitably appear. Antagonism to the Church and her teaching ultimately entails some kind of rejection of Jesus Christ as he has revealed himself in history. His truth is always a challenge to every egocentric vision of reality and to an unbounded will for human autonomy. Besides, does anyone really think that all those martyrs went to their deaths to protect the secret that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married?

—Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I.
Archbishop of Chicago

Customer Reviews

Best of the DVC Debunkers
I've read quite a few books of the Holy Blood, Holy Grail (HBHG) genre over the last two decades, and generally enjoyed them -- not as history, but as a fun, pseudo-historical modern mythos. I enjoyed that aspect of The Da Vinci Code (DVC) as well, (although the book had flimsy caricatures in place of characters, logical errors and a weak story). However, with his great success and his absurd insistence that the HBHG background material is factual, Dan Brown has popularized the HBHG bunk as real history, and done so on a huge scale. So when DVC generated a shelf-load of rebuttals, I was interested in them too. The Da Vinci Hoax appears to be the best of the lot.

There are several areas of HBHG lore with which I have more than a little familiarity, so I use those as checkpoints. In those areas, Olson and Miesel cite good sources and say all the right things. Having now checked some of their sources with which I wasn't previously familiar, they too seem reliable. My only criticism is that a few of the early discussions in their book have some Christian apologetics thrown in. It is certainly understandable that many of the people motivated to debunk HBHG and related anti-Catholic materials (like DVC) are themselves devout Christians, as are many who would purchase such debunking books. However, such pro-Christian side arguments tend to obscure main issue, the historical problems with the HBHG lore, making it seem as if the debate were between committed Christians and neo-Gnostic Magdalene-bloodline true believers. However, that is a minor criticism directed to only a few passages, (as opposed to some of the other DVC debunking books, which are swamped by Christian apologetics).

Despite the number of other DVC rebuttals on the shelves, this book was very much needed. It provides a serious and documented analysis of all the main historical points of Brown's misleading bestseller, with useful and reliable references.

The best of the lot
Up till now, I thought Darrell Bock's Breaking the Da Vinci Code was the best book on exposing the errors of Dan Brown's multi-million selling foolishness. This new book is slightly better, primarily because it's more comprehensive.

For one thing, it extensively quotes not only the main characters in Brown's book as they relate their version of "history," it also has quite a few quotes from the author himself from various interviews. These quotes are then examined for accuracy in relation to a wide variety of expert opinion. In every case, the quotes Brown has his characters utter, as well as his own quotes, are shown to be either simply false or the opinions of a tiny minority of authors whose views have been found wanting at the bar of history and scholarship. This book, which is about twice as long as Bock's book (which is limited pretty much to the time before Constantine and the Council of Nicea), also covers a good deal more ground. Topics addressed include Holy Grail myths, the real Templars, the Priory of Sion silliness, and errors in interpreting not only Leonardo's Last Supper but his take on art, the occult, and Christianity in general.

If you think The Da Vinci Code--the foundations of which are a synthesis of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, The Templar Revelation, The Chalice and the Blade, Drawing Down the Moon, and the works of Margaret Starbird and other marginalized and/or discredited books--accurately depicts what really went on in Western history (which no serious person does who has any familiarity with the available materials), then you will not like any of the books debunking Dan Brown's ridiculous book, least of all this one. But if you want to find out what really happened, this gives as complete an accounting as you'll find anywhere.

In sum, this critique is extensive, even exhaustive, and in the end entirely persuasive.

Solid Refutation - Pity about the bias
Olsen and Miesel have put together a solid refutation of the many and various silly claims made in *The Da Vinci Code* and (despite the fact the novel is a work of fiction) believed by a remarkable number of readers and by the novel's author. Dan Brown has made his belief that the plagarised conspiracy theory he wraps in his fiction is actual historical fact very clear in interviews. And for evidence that some of his readers are ignorant enough to agree with him, see the one star reviews of this book below.

An acquaintance of mine recently discovered I studied ancient and medieval history. She asked (in hushed and reverent tones) 'Have you read *The Da Vinci Code*?' When I replied that I had and that it was about the worst novel I'd ever read, she became perturbed. 'But you have to admit, he's onto something.' she said. I told her that I had never come across any book, fiction or non-fiction, that managed to get just about every point of history or religion it touched on so completely wrong.

After detailing some of Brown's many howlers and why an intelligent 12 year old with a decent encyclopaedia could have done better research, she countered by saying 'Well, you would say that - you're obviously a Catholic.' She was startled to then be told that I'm an atheist. 'I don't care at all about the Catholic Church or Christianity,' I replied, 'But I do care about people distorting history with silly New Age fantasies.'

Olsen and Miesel are, on the other hand, obviously Catholic. Olsen is a writer for *Envoy* magazine - a fairly traditionalist and hardline Catholic publication. Both writers seem to have had a Catholic audience in mind when they wrote this book and, as a result, while the information given is solid and well supported, the tone is insular and self-congratulatory. In many places the book seems to be sneering 'THEY think they're right but WE know they're wrong.'

This book may convince a Catholic or fundamentalist Christian that the DVC is a load of rubbish, but it is highly unlikely to convince the average DVC reader. Firstly, the sneering tone is likely to be off-putting. Secondly, the use of Catholic doctrinal terms like 'the Eucharist' or even 'the Incarnation' is unlikely to mean much to the general reader. And thirdly - (er, how can I put this?) many DVC fans aren't the most sophisticated readers in the world. It's pretty likely that many of C&M's more detailed arguements are going to go over many DVC fans' heads.

This is a book that I am happy to use as a reference when countering the more fanatical fans of Brown's very silly book, but I wonder if C&M ever worked out who their audience actually was.