Saw the movie tonight and there were a few surprises! I’ve written a fairly detailed review - read here

Thanks for the review, Craig. Certainly sounds that ‘faith’ in general gets a better rap in the movie. Did this include the French detective? My recollection of the book is that he was a more positive example of Christian commitment.

Yeah, the French detective is a devout member of Opus Dei in the movie.

Here are a few good, biting, comments from this review in The Age. It also makes a point similar to Peter Jensen’s Boyer Lectures last year.

It’s a long time since Jung said that if you throw religion out the door it will come in through the window. But it does seem prophetic of our own Buffy-watching world, which can also, in the most massive way, find time for something as intrinsically silly as the Da Vinci Code.

Christianity provides a potent and beautiful mythology that has sustained nine-tenths of the great art and literature we have: the Sistine Chapel, the music of Bach, the plays of Shakespeare and the novels of Dostoevsky. Our Judaeo-Christian ethical traditions, together with the classical inheritance from Greece and Rome, continue to underpin whatever civilisation we have, however agnostically we apprehend it.

But the cartoon image of our present position on these matters can be all too pressing. Large numbers of left-liberal atheists spit at a benign and implicit expression of Christianity like the recent Narnia film, while not objecting to the pseudo-science and pseudo-theology of the Da Vinci Code.

DaVinci Code Movie Screenings??

Hi there,

Would anyone know if there are any churches or groups out there planning on showing the DaVinci Code Movie with an expert panel or some kind of talk/presentation afterwards? I want to take a relative along who loved the book and so I thought seeing the movie with some debunking would be a good opportunity to talk about its contents.

I know some churches have already held these but last weekend was kind of bad for me.

I am in (North) Western Sydney but am happy to do some driving if need be.

Thanks,
Graeme.

The following is aimed at those who have already read the book and/or seen the movie, so you would need to catch the movie at a cinema yourself, but Holy Trinity PANANIA ( 4-6 Lambeth Street - near Tower St end ) have this talk etc on tomorrow night ( FRIDAY 26 May ):

“ CHALLENGING Da Vinci -

Following the release of the Da Vinci Code movie, Rob Smith will be giving a public talk. He will expose the historic inaccuracies from Dan Brown’s best seller and reveal the relieability of the historical biblical accounts. This after-dinner event will be at the church - 7.45pm for 8.00pm with a $5 donation - invite a friend. “

The Vatican obviously didn’t like the the first film :

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23876589-5001028,00.html

Churches shut to Da Vinci Code prequel
Article from: Reuters

From correspondents in Rome
June 17, 2008 05:05am
THE Italian Catholic church has refused to let a new movie based on a Dan Brown novel be filmed in churches in Rome after the author’s The Da Vinci Code novel and film outraged the Vatican.

“Angels and Demons”, starring Tom Hanks and Ewan McGregor, is the prequel to Brown’s best-selling novel. The book is set mostly in Rome and the Vatican.

Filming began this month at some of the capital’s most famous sights including Piazza Navona and Piazza del Popolo, but entry was denied to the churches of Santa Maria del Popolo and Santa Maria della Vittoria.

The two famous Rome churches are among about 700 places of worship owned by the Italian interior ministry and run by Italy’s church.

Archdiocese spokesman Reverend Marco Fibbi said the interior ministry had received a request from the film’s producers to use the churches. The interior ministry asked the archdiocese for its opinion and it was negative.

“I don’t think they would have asked us directly because they knew what the answer would be,” Rev Fibbi said.

The Da Vinci Code outraged the Vatican and some Catholics because of its storyline that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children, creating a royal blood line church officials kept secret for centuries.

Christians are taught Jesus never married, was crucified and rose from the dead.

Santa Maria del Popolo is home of two masterpieces by Caravaggio - The Crucifixion of St Peter and The Conversion of St Paul.

Rev Fibbi said permission to film in Italian churches was granted in exceptional circumstances and usually if the production was compatible with religious sentiment or if it was a documentary about religion or art.

“Angels and Demons” is due for release on 14 May 2009.

Rev Fibbi.

Does anyone else just love that name?

Chris Little - 17 June 2008 11:59 AM

Rev Fibbi.

Does anyone else just love that name?

I think Cardinal Sin from Singapore does.

Cardinal Jaime Sin was the RC Archbishop of Manila in the Philippines from 1974 to 2003

I love this section in his wikipedia entry

His name should not be confused with “cardinal sin”, which is synonymous for the seven deadly sins, and it has also been the source of many jokes in the Philippines revolving around him such as “The greatest sin of all...Cardinal Sin” or “Welcome to the house of Sin” referring to his Church. (it was also an item in “Ripley’s Believe It or Not").