The DaVinci Code, Mary Magdalene, and the Last Supper

Dan Brown (the author) has become well-known for two books in the "religious conspiracy" market: Angels and Demons, and The Da Vinci Code.

And yet we are also dealing with a religious doctrine taught through a novel. I like to think of Dan Brown in a personal way as "Pastor Dan;" so let me be quirky and call him that as I speak of him. He is preaching, after all, in his own way, through Langdon.

Brown's claim is the "mystery" of Jesus' marriage to Mary Magdelene. Well, now that he has announced it, it is mysterious no longer, and we do not have to go on a quest to find it, as Langdon and Sophie do. Or do we? The Quest for the Holy Grail is over. Centuries of seeking, and mystery, and ritual, and here it is. Or is it?

What are we to do? Are we to start allowing priests to marry? The Bible itself doesn't even prohibit it! Brown is right that the Catholic doctrine represses male sexuality; that's probably partially responsible for the cases of child molestation. But there are also a lot of sincere and good priests. Some apostles, like Peter, were married. (Matthew 8:14-15)

Or is God really a woman? Or androgynous, mixed-gender, or a balance of man and woman? We shouldn't shy away from asking these questions, and I'm grateful that Brown raises them.

Langdon suggests we can experience God in female sexual intercourse. He teaches this to college students and prison inmates, who laugh at him. Langdon himself is single and shows only passing interest in Sophie, having ended his relationship with the Italian heroine Vittoria of Angels and Demons. What he teaches must be at best some form of abstraction, although he does apparently sleep with Vittoria.