The Catholic Response

Many books are available to Catholics looking for facts regarding the Church and “The Da Vinci Code.” Here is a short list for your convenience. These titles are also available at the Kino Institute Library at the Diocesan Pastoral Center.

-- “De-coding Da Vinci: The Facts Behind the Fiction of the Da Vinci Code,” by Amy Welborn. Our Sunday Visitor, Inc. (Huntington, Indiana, 2004). 124 pp, $9.95.

-- “The Da Vinci Hoax: Exposing the Errors in The Da Vinci Code,” by Carl E. Olson and Sandra Miesel. Ignatius Press (San Francisco, 2004). 329 pp.

This book is a carefully researched, popularly written critique of the best selling novel, “The Da Vinci Code.” The novel claims to be based on facts and solid scholarship. “The Da Vinci Hoax” explodes these claims, demonstrating how Brown uses unsubstantiated research and far-fetched hypotheses to bolster his thesis that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and established a sacred bloodline, and that traditional Christianity has conspired throughout history to suppress this truth. With a foreword by Cardinal Francis George of Chicago and an introduction by Historian James Hitchcock of St. Louis University.

Related Resources

-- “Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time: the Historical Jesus & the Heart of Contemporary Faith,” by Marcus J. Borg. HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, 1994). 150 pp., $16.00.

-- “A History of God: the 4000-year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam,” by Karen Armstrong. Ballantine Books (New York, 1994). 460 pp.

-- “The Gospel Code: Novel Claims About Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Da Vinci,” by Ben Witherington III. InterVarsity Press (Downers Grove, Ill, 2004). 208 pp.