To quote:

At its finest, the Church embraces science and reason. It tolerates differences of opinion. It nurtures debate, criticism and reflection. It can even simply enjoy a book or a movie. Such sobriety comes with maturity.

The laity no longer comprises unschooled serfs to be shielded from confusing information. Modern Christians know that faith is best tempered and strengthened by critical thinking.

We are a nation that has for a national hero an incendiary novelist who exposed the corruption of the Church in Spanish Philippines. Today, the Philippine Catholic Church owes a huge debt of gratitude to Jose Rizal for the Church run for and by Filipinos. [MT]

Well said bushing Rome! Well said.

The reason I hesitated buying AAD was, ironically, because of an earlier Dan Brown book, Digital Fortress. Around the time I finished TDVC I picked Digital Fortress up in National Bookstore Metropoint and browsed through the first chapters.

I was dissappointed with Digital Fortress. Accustomed to Tom Clancy’s uber-detailed style of espionage thrillers (I have all 13 of Clancy’s novels), I found Dan Brown’s writeup of a high tech cloak-and-dagger style US government techno-thriller lacking. The same was true with Angels and Demons.

When I finished AAD I’m glad I didn’t buy the book. Like Digital Fortress, I found the detail in AAD lacking. The plotline was rather simplistic, almost to the point of exhuding a soap-opera type of simplicity. Finally, the emergence of the villain and the novel’s conclusion almost convinced me Brown has some sort of grudge against the Catholic Church.

Another impression I had was that the writing style screenplay-like. It was almost as if Dan Brown actually wrote the novel with a movie version in mind. I had the same impression with TDVC — though I think Dan Brown hired a better editor for Da Vinci Code than for Angels and Demons.

It is with these observations when it finally dawned upon me why Dan Brown’s books held so much appeal and, consequently, why he has become so infamous amongst conservative Christian groups who are all out in debunking his theories (so much so that a documentary debunking TDVC remains in the top spot in Tower Records for at least three months straight).

When I was reading AAD I felt like I was transported back to fourth grade. It was during this time when I first got hold of The Hardy Boys. With simple though winding plotlines and language unpolluted by jargon, The Hardy Boys was one of the most borrowed book series’ in my elementary days. Although the logic and physics in the stories were questionable, the presentation was so rationally convincing you would actually believe that the deus ex machina-type resolutions to many of the stories were actually possible.

The same is true with TDVC and AAD. While many of the facts are genuinely questionable, Dan Brown is able to present them simplistically enough to sound matter-of-factly. That the details of the facts are debatable is beside the point — the delivery of the idea in clear and succinct manner allows the most ordinary of readers to believe they are learning scholarly accurate information.

Add that simplicity to arrogantly blatantly challenging an institution which was for generations vaunted as infallible and you’ve got yourself a sureshot bestseller.

I believe that the different Christian churches should take a hint from Dan Brown’s success, and start discussing in similarly clear and succinct language vital subjects like the early Christian movement, the Great Schism, which explains the division of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches, the First Council of Nicaea, where the divinity of Jesus as God was decided, and most importantly, the Council of Laodicea, which decided the content of the current Christian Bible.

I believe that educating the Christian flock regarding these issues alongside the Gospels will not only better inform Christians, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, but also strengthen the faith of succeeding generations of Christians who would not like to be as clueless as their ancestors regarding the history of their faith.