As Hollywood with all its lights, camera and action descended on the normally tranquil Rosslyn Chapel, in Midlothian, Scotland, on Monday to begin filming scenes for the film version of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, critics have been voicing their disapproval of the Chapel for allowing shooting of the film on its premises.
The small chapel founded in 1446 is the latest of Christian buildings to come under fire, after Lincoln Cathedral found itself in the rather awkward position of having to remove a protesting nun from its steps in order to let in a Hollywood posse of crew and actors last month.
According to the Sunday Herald, the chapel has been denounced by religious groups and scholars who accuse chapel trustees of “selling out” by joining in the production of a film which they say will further the myths of the Da Vinci Code, which charts the journey of a Harvard academic attempting to track down the Holy Grail using clues left by Leonardo Da Vinci.
Although most serious scholars dismiss the novel as nothing more than a clever thriller that does not warrant any deeper scholarly consideration, the ensuing debate that has arisen from the book as well as its phenomenal popularity (one in 11 people in the UK own a copy of the Da Vinci Code) has put both the Catholic Church and numerous academics on the defensive.
“Brown has rallied against people like me pointing out the lies and untruths in his work by claiming it is fiction and he can’t help what people read into it. But at other times he has said he is factual and correct. It is corrupting,” says Dr Andrew Sinclair, a historian and novelist, and himself a genuine Harvard professor.
Dr Sinclair does not hold back in utterly deriding the book: “It is rubbish. Old lies are taken as truth by millions of people as a result of this book, in a really terrible confusion of fact and fiction.
“The main character is supposed to be a Harvard professor – he is more akin to a professor of Sodom and Gomorrah. John Harvard would be turning in his grave.”
Professor Ian Campell, an expert in popular literature and the Bible at Edinburgh University, said that the difference between previous debates on Biblical matters and the Da Vinci argument is that in the past, people knew their scriptures, reported the Sunday Herald.It is rubbish. Old lies are taken as truth by millions of people as a result of this book, in a really terrible confusion of fact and fiction.
Dr Andrew Sinclair
“There have been several incidences like this, notably in the 1800s. But in those times everyone knew their Bible, they could argue their corner. Now the mass of the public have picked up isolated parts and became fascinated. It is easy to write a piece of investigative fiction, but this example has been attacked from all sides.”
