Recommend Book On DVC?

Someone told me that "one of the few good things that came out of the whole Da Vinci Code matter is that it has caused many Christians to realize how little we know about the history of our faith and how it has triggered the desire in us to know more..."

If this is a fair description of how u feel, there is a small cottage industry spawning books on the DVC at the moment so if u like recommendations, I have come across the following books in KL bookstores...

Da Vinci Deception by Erwin Lutzer
(Simple to read, cover the major issues involved with a pastoral heart, I highly recommend it if one wants enuff facts to be engaging and yet something that is edifying as well) Available in MPH and maybe SUFES.

Cracking Da Vinci's Code: You've Read the Fiction, Now Read the Facts
Jones, Peter / Garlow, James L
(Short and price is less than RM30, but I havent read it so can't comment much... Available at Popular Jaya supermarket)

Breaking the Da Vinci Code: Answers to the Questions Everybody's Asking
Bock, Darrell L.
(A scholarly contribution, more detailed than the two books above but unless you have some background in biblical studies, may be a bit slow-moving... but good if u need solid stuffs) Available MPH or SUFES

Da Vinci Hoax: Exposing the Errors in the Da Vinci Code
Miesel, Sandra / Olson, Carl E. (MPH is good bet)
(written by Catholic authors, the most thorough treatment of DVC which also covers areas not too relevant to the evangelical authors above like the templar knights, priory of sion, Opus Dei and those sorts of stuffs)

The Gospel Code: Novel Claims about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Da Vinci
Witherington, Ben
(Available in SUFES... Good stuffs, discuss some of the 'real theories' behind the fiction... again, at certain sections may require a bit of perseverance...)

PS: There will be another Da Vinci Code forum held in May 2006 :)

Comments

David BC Tan said…
Witherington's book needs a bit of plowing thru but it was the first I got.
on a more popular level, how about Paul L. Maier/ Hank Hanegraaff's "the da vinci code:fact or fiction" - 90 odd pages - for quick facts you can digest on the run...
Dave said…
Great stuffs, bro...

Havent seen the book yet, should be helpful to those on the run hehehe... :)

I felt BW III came out quite strongly in Gospel Code heehehe...
Ignatius said…
Of the 5 books listed, I have read Ben Witherington's The Gospel Code: Novel Claims about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Da Vinci. However, I found the discussions to be clear & well-articulated. The book is divided into 3 parts. In part one, Dr. Witherington pointed out 7 historical errors of the bk Da VInci Code.For eg, top on the list of errors, is the claim made by Dan Brown that the canonical Gospels are not the earliest Gospels; rather the earliest are the Gnostic Gospels (such as the Gospel of Philip). But Dr. Witherington pointed out, "Since Gnostic thought only came to the fore in the middle and later parts of the second century", how could the Gnostic Gospels have the earlier than our canonical Gospels (p. 21-22).

Par ttwo of the bk touches on Mary Magdalene & the gospel of Thomas. Part three defends the canon of scripture.

Dr. Witherington, a Methodist,a New Testament Scholar & an expert on the Historical Jesus, having also written numerous excellent bks (such as his socio-rhetorical commentary on on 1 and 2 Corinthians), this bk of his sure clear many of our doubts!
Dave said…
ya, i like the way BW iii engages the real ideas behind the fiction ie discussions w Elaine Pagels, Marcus Borg, Karen King etc.

Luv the idea...

Just that I'd prefer NT Wright's approach of handling Borg in "The Meaning of Jesus" or these revisionists in "Who Was Jesus?"

To be fair though, BW iii can't find it too much in one chapter