Da Vinci Code: Take Two

Yesterday, during the online chat with Bishop William Skylstad, a reader asked his views on the book The Da Vinci Code, a novel by Dan Brown that explores the church's suppression of women's stories, including the story of Mary Magdalene, a woman the book says was married to Jesus.

The bishop had some good insights, which you can see if you read the chat, but the question reminded me that I've been meaning to blog on an article titled: ``Reissuing Venturini" published in 1994 in the Italian journal Gregorianum. My buddy and book collaborator, Daniel Kendall S.J., a Univeristy of San Francisco theologian, wrote the article with well-known theologian Gerald O'Collins, S.J.

In it, they look at nine articles and books, written between 1916 and 1987, that take the Jesus story in some interesting directions, directions the two theologians say the story couldn't possibly have gone, including Jesus marrying Mary Magdalene.

For instance, they point out Donovan Joyce, in the 1973 book The Jesus Scroll, says that "Jesus was married to Mary Magadalene...Jesus was taken down from the cross while still living, and was buried in the tomb of a close relative...Once out of the tomb he was discovered by his wife, Mary Magdalene."

The 1982 book Holy Blood, Holy Grail, has the general theme that "Jesus was the bridegroom at the marriage feast of Cana, the bride being Mary Magdalene. They subsequently had a number of children...Mary Magdalene was married comes from the fact that unmarried women did not travel unaccompanied; therefore she must have been married to Jesus."

The two theologians wrote their article long before the popularity of The Da Vinci Code, but they probably aren't surprised that the book is doing so well. At the end of the article, Kendall and O'Collins write: "Given venal publishers and a gullible public, there is nothing to stop this cultural and commercial phenomenon."