The DiVine Code - May-June, 2006
Do You Know the Code?
Ron Clark
06/15/2006 - "Yet I hear from other Christians a question that is asked every time we attempt to address movies and novels about religion: “Why should we be interested? Don’t these stories only create doubt?” As with Oliver Stone, Dan Brown presents a conspiracy story designed to cause us to question what we’ve already come to believe." Know the CultureDo you remember the controversy over the movie The Last Temptation of Christ? This movie was taken from a book that also suggested that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, and for a brief moment during his crucifixion he dreamed of abandoning the cross and retiring with Mary to raise a family. I saw the movie years later and felt it was one of the worst quality movies ever made. ...


A Response from the Co-Author of The DaVinci Codebreaker
Dr. Timothy Paul Jones
06/11/2006 - Managing Editor Greg Taylor wrote a letter of inquiry to the authors of The DaVinci Codebreaker, with questions like "Is there a way to enter the conversation without immediately claiming we know answers to all these difficult and complex text critical issues?" - and received this candid reply from one of them ...


The Sacred Feminine
Keith Brenton
06/09/2006 - One of the elements of The DaVinci Code book/movie phenomenon that has caused a lot of controversy is an allusion to "the Sacred Feminine." Other religions have gods and goddesses; a few - like some of the Gnostic writings - actually elevate the feminine as superior to the masculine in deity as well as humanity. But Christianity does not, this work tells us; it's a men-only leadership club that doesn't recognize the human feminine, let alone the Sacred Feminine.


Sites with Complete Texts of Gnostic Works
New Wineskins Staff
06/06/2006 - Here is a listing of Web sites, as of this date, which contain the complete texts of known Gnostic works falling outside of the Christian biblical canon. You will not have to read very many before discovering that there is little consistency among them - but there is a great deal of literary creativity!


Book Review: Breaking The DaVinci Code
Genstacia Bull
05/30/2006 - What will you do if your faith is challenged at work based on the ‘facts’ in The DaVinci Code? Would you be able to hold your ground and decipher fact from fiction? Breaking The DaVinci Code will put you in a better position to defend your faith or make you distinguish between fictitious entertainment and historical elements of the Christian faith...


Leaven - The Christian Response?
Jackie Halstead
05/27/2006 - The DaVinci Code is creating a stir in the Christian community. The book initiated the discussion, but the movie is certainly bringing it to a climax. What is the Christian response? Or is it even necessary? ...


Quotes about The DaVinci Code
New Wineskins
05/21/2006 - Some of the criticisms of the movie and book versions of Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code are just bashfests. Others are well-pondered and wisely-defended tomes. And a few of them are just plain hilarious. We've picked a few choice ones we've been hearing on the grapevine ...


Not Magically from the Clouds, Nor by Fax
Keith Huey
05/21/2006 - The DaVinci Code exposes a truth that Christians must acknowledge: our doctrine has a history. Moreover, the book is correct to suggest that our history might be complicated, and could reveal some stories we didn’t want to hear. None of these revelations can truly threaten the Christian faith, but they will surely challenge some of our traditional assumptions. My purpose, here, is to describe the shape of that challenge, because it can’t be debunked as easily as the rest of Dan Brown’s story....


Approaching The DaVinci Code
Lee Strobel
05/20/2006 - I’ll be honest: my first reaction to Dan Brown’s huge bestseller was unmitigated anger. At its core, The DaVinci Code’s message is that Jesus is not the Son of God and that Christianity is a fraud...


Book Review: The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren
Wade Hodges
05/17/2006 - In the introduction to his newest book, The Secret Message of Jesus, McLaren asks an important question about this phenomenon: “Why is the vision of Jesus hinted at in Dan Brown's book more interesting, more attractive, and more intriguing than the standard version they hear about from most churches?”


New Issue: Cracking The DiVine Code
Greg Taylor
05/15/2006 - Why is Dan Brown's vision of Jesus in The Da Vinci Code more intriguing to millions of people than the version they hear in most churches today? That’s the question Brian McLaren asks in his newest book, The Secret Message of Jesus.


Debunking The DaVinci Code
Allen Black
05/15/2006 - "The book is, of course, a novel, a work of fiction. But page one has a bold heading "F A C T :" and at the bottom of the page says "All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate." ... This is the crux of the problem. Brown passes off as fact many clearly fictional elements about doctrine, our understanding of the deity of Jesus, and how the canon developed. Nearly every piece of fiction has just the opposite statement, that the writing is the creation of the author’s imagination."


An Interview With Donald Miller
Greg Taylor
05/09/2006 - Donald Miller’s conversation with New Wineskins was his last in a recent round of interviews about his new memoir of life without a father, To Own a Dragon. John Murray is one of the friends in Miller’s life who came along and showed him what good fathers are like. Miller’s father had abandoned him before he could remember, and though we sense no guile in Miller and no bitterness toward his father, he admits he still carries the “father wound” (John Eldredge’s term) and wants to meet his father someday. During the interview we learned something amazing that Miller hadn’t told any other magazine up to that point. His mother had made an incredible discovery....


Tracking Rabbit Trails with Donald Miller
Greg Taylor
05/08/2006 - If you enjoyed the Interview, you'll love running up and down a few rabbit trails with New Wineskins Managing Editor Greg Taylor and Donald Miller ...


The DaVinci Code ... and Beyond
Rubel Shelly
02/06/2006 - A fictional novel has in fact hurt the faith of people because of its skillful weaving of false information into an engaging story; it does so with such subtlety that people who do not know history and Scripture are taken aback and their heads sent reeling." ... This scholarly and insightful series of three articles published in recent issues of the Christian Standard details the milieu of disbelief that pseudointellectual interpretation of scripture seeks to create ...