Wasted energy over Da Vinci

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awfulthings9

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It seems that, as Catholics, we are spending a lot of useless energy trying to defend our faith against revelations from the Gnostic Gospels, as promoted by Dan Brown’s book. So many Catholics don’t realize that, since our Church has the authority to loosen and bind, guided by the Holy Spirit, God himself chose to reject the teachings and writings of the Gnostics, not Catholic conspirators, such as Brown suggests. Protestants who reject the church as the pillar and foundation of the truth have a harder time with this and must resort to serious and painful sole searching about their faiths since many now question whether the New Testament really comprises the only truly inspired writings. I’m so glad we don’t need to fall into the same trap (though many Catholics, less versed on our the authority of their own church, do).
 
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awfulthings9:
It seems that, as Catholics, we are spending a lot of useless energy trying to defend our faith against revelations from the Gnostic Gospels, as promoted by Dan Brown’s book. So many Catholics don’t realize that, since our Church has the authority to loosen and bind, guided by the Holy Spirit, God himself chose to reject the teachings and writings of the Gnostics, not Catholic conspirators, such as Brown suggests. Protestants who reject the church as the pillar and foundation of the truth have a harder time with this and must resort to serious and painful sole searching about their faiths since many now question whether the New Testament really comprises the only truly inspired writings. I’m so glad we don’t need to fall into the same trap (though many Catholics, less versed on our the authority of their own church, do).
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I promise you one thing for sure my friend… it is not a waste of time. Lies told often and for a long time have a way of finding their own source of truth for a lot of people… hence the protestant reformation… no one thought anyone could believe a heritic…

Nazi Germany is the most recent example…
Adolf told lies and continued to tell lies for a long time… no one took him too seriously, then all of a sudden people were being incinerated because he found enough weak minded and cowardly people to buy into his propaganda…

Don’t ever take the defense of the Catholic Faith anyway but very seriously… 👍
 
Thanks Spaceghosts,
I agree. I guess my frustration is with Catholics trying to defend their faith against their own doubts from this book, not against others, but I didn’t say this so clearly. No, we should always take the faith seriously, but there are too many Catholics who read this ridiculous book and ask, “What if it’s all true?” As Catholics, that is the one question we should never have to ask ourselves.
Best,
Spencer
 
but what if it IS true? I’m not saying that it is, but to doubt what you know to be true is the only way to truth.
 
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dredgtone:
but what if it IS true? I’m not saying that it is, but to doubt what you know to be true is the only way to truth.
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Doubt is never a way to truth. However, questioning what we know to be true can bring us to a deeper understanding of it.
 
Questioning is a good thing, but not when it’s done strictly for its own sake - or when it’s done based on deeply flawed and half-baked “research” as purported in this book. We American Catholics have had something of an inferiority complex for a long time, & it’s been only worsened by the events of the past few years. The author really capitalized on this in terms of his timing: it’s no accident that the book was published & became a best-seller on the heels of the abuse scandals and the resulting tidal wave of anti-Catholic sentiment (sadly often within our own midst). While anti-Catholic prejudice is nothing new in this country, it has taken on a very public dimension and, what is worse, a truly vicious character. As the other poster said, this is not the time to be doubting ourselves or what we know to be true.
 
but what if it IS true? I’m not saying that it is, but to doubt what you know to be true is the only way to truth.
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So what if it is? Jesus is still the same Jesus, his teachings still remain the same, and the world won’t change because of this. It doesn’t matter if it is true or not, or at least I don’t see how it could change anything. I can imagine it would if the book stated that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were just having sex and not married, that would definitley change things, but the books claims they were married. If Jesus happened to be married and had a child, i wouldn’t think any less of him, why would you, he still practiced what he preached.

Now, with all that said, that book was pure fiction, I doubt any of it was true. It is a story. I’ve read the book more than once, and the author doesn’t seem the least bit scholarly to me. Just another mystery writer. I take his work at face value, it’s just a book. I don’t believe that Jesus was married, because if he was, it would say so in the bible. Why would they leave out something that important? To me it’s just a good work of fiction.
 
Has the Church ever formally declared that Jesus never married? If not, what’s the beef? If it’s an important matter, the Vatican is free to act on it.
 
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Ken:
Has the Church ever formally declared that Jesus never married? If not, what’s the beef? If it’s an important matter, the Vatican is free to act on it.
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It has been formally declared that the Bride of Chirst is His Church, and no one else.
 
Dr. Colossus:
It has been formally declared that the Bride of Chirst is His Church, and no one else.
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Is the Church female?

What is the date of that marriage?
 
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Ken:
Is the Church female?

What is the date of that marriage?
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Check out Ephesians 5:25-27. “As the church is subordinate to Christ…even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for HER, to sanctify HER, cleansing HER by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that SHE might be holy and without blemish.”

Obviously St. Paul saw the church as the “female.”
 
"but there are too many Catholics who read this ridiculous book and ask, “What if it’s all true?”

They only need to look and see that the book is sold in the FICTION section of the book store and that the inside cover says the book is FICTION.

Fiction means it’s not true.
 
It doesn’t work, though, to dismiss the book as just fiction because Brown makes the claim that description of all documents, art, and such is accurate. And there are non-fiction books which support his fictional premise. My point is that Catholics are falling into the protestant trap of questioning whether maybe the gnostic gospels SHOULD have been part of the New Testament. Protestants have to worry about this because they reject Matthew 16:19, which gives the church the authority to bind, guided by the Holy Spiirit. We, as Catholics, know that, with that authority, the right choices were made. God chose the New Testament and Old Testament books through his inspiration, not Constantine or a bunch of fallible men.
 
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awfulthings9:
Thanks Spaceghosts,
I agree. I guess my frustration is with Catholics trying to defend their faith against their own doubts from this book, not against others, but I didn’t say this so clearly. No, we should always take the faith seriously, but there are too many Catholics who read this ridiculous book and ask, “What if it’s all true?” As Catholics, that is the one question we should never have to ask ourselves.
Best,
Spencer
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Although the book is passed off as “historical fiction,” too many readers, both educated and less than, are asking how much of it* is* true. This is should not be taken lightly. I am frustrated and offended because Catholics have enough on their hands trying to defend the Church from so many other lies, prejudices and scandals (some scandal may be serious and warranted but blown out of proportion. ) Although I am all for free speach, this is an extrememly irresponsible usage of it. If this were a book spreading inflammatory untruths about any other religion it would be considered hate propaganda by the media and academic world. My Lutheran college professor sister in law loved it and recommended I read it!
I find it hard to believe this work was not intended to inject even more untruths and prejudices into a society which values scandal as entertainment. Historical fiction is apparently a great vehicle for such an enterprise.
Think of how much antisemetic worry the historically true **The Passion of the Christ **generated, but a book which is intentionally inflammatory and injecting prejudice against a given religion is tolerated and praised as great historical fiction… what is wrong with this picture?
 
That book led my brother-in-law right out of the Church.

Now, I realize his faith must have been weak and he may have been “ripe for the picking”. But still, that book was the proximate cause.
 
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Authorkat:
Check out Ephesians 5:25-27. “As the church is subordinate to Christ…even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for HER, to sanctify HER, cleansing HER by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that SHE might be holy and without blemish.”

Obviously St. Paul saw the church as the “female.”
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That’s interesting. So, if the Church if female, then it seems logical that priests should be female. Would God choose a female Church while rejecting female priests?
 
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Ken:
That’s interesting. So, if the Church if female, then it seems logical that priests should be female. Would God choose a female Church while rejecting female priests?
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It would make sense if the priest represented the Church. However, he represents not the bride but the bridegroom, Christ. When a priest says the Mass, he acts in persona Christi, “in the person of Christ”. This is in fact one of the primary arguments against a female priesthood.
 
metal1633 said:
"but there are too many Catholics who read this ridiculous book and ask, “What if it’s all true?”

They only need to look and see that the book is sold in the FICTION section of the book store and that the inside cover says the book is FICTION.

Fiction means it’s not true.
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I agree with the above referenced post. The book is a work of fiction, so I really don’t even give it a second thought. If a book like this causes someone to turn away from their faith, then I have to wonder how strongly grounded their faith was to begin with.
 
this book is bad news. I won’t read it. Won’t spend my money on it. I have a few friends who did read it. One has serious doubts about her faith now. The other claims she doesn’t but then follows with saying there is more to Mary Magdelene than we know. that book is planting seeds and they will not reap a good harvest for sure! American Catholics on the whole are not very well formed in the faith (especially my generation). Most of them are ripe for the picking!
 
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Catholicforlife:
American Catholics on the whole are not very well formed in the faith (especially my generation). Most of them are ripe for the picking!
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I have noticed this as well. I currently have no children, but I have been thinking about what I can do when I do have children to make them as strong in their faith as possible. Given the state of the world today, it will definitely be a challenge.
 
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