tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5561923483541812971.post6399095288306464622..comments2023-07-07T04:21:56.577-07:00Comments on azizhp: Da Vinci Code: anti-Passion?Aziz P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11825546047253660903noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5561923483541812971.post-31508414988140028182004-11-17T21:02:00.000-08:002004-11-17T21:02:00.000-08:00With the important caveat that I Am Not An Art His...With the important caveat that I Am Not An Art Historian, I looked for a while at the close-up, and all I could see was a wrist bent back. It could possibly be a hand gripping a disembodied hand, but I wasn't able to see it. But then, I actually know rather little about Da Vinci. It's entirely possible that he had some ideas that were not exactly orthodox (there were all kinds of fun and zany ideas floating around early-modern Europe), but I'm having a hard time seeing it.<br><br>Something else to bear in mind is that _The Last Supper_ has been through a *lot* of damage and restoration, so figuring out anything from a really close observation is going to be problematic at best.Andrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12587613331207098579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5561923483541812971.post-11177902832873957432004-11-16T18:32:00.000-08:002004-11-16T18:32:00.000-08:00Oh, and one other thing. The pro-life coalition i...Oh, and one other thing. The pro-life coalition is right now a coalition of Evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics. While Rome may preach that birth control is a no-no, most evangelical Churches do not. Given that a great many of your more devoted foot-soldiers to the pro-life movement are Evangelical Protestanst, legislation against birth control is a non-starter.Andrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12587613331207098579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5561923483541812971.post-56107500381392180312004-11-16T18:28:00.000-08:002004-11-16T18:28:00.000-08:00Ack. Not _The Da Vinci Code_. Please, if you'...Ack. Not _The Da Vinci Code_. Please, if you're looking for a critique of Christianity, say that it blasphemes God to say that He would beget, say that the Bible has contradictions, say that it is an absurd offshoot of neo-Platonism. Don't use _The Da Vinci Code_.<br><br>Because the idea of a "secret truth supressed by the Catholic Church" is bunk. Such thinking misunderstands the way texts transmit, the nature of the early Church, and how the Church on down through the centuries dealt with heresy.<br><br>To start with, the Church had many approaches to heresy, but the one approach that it did not take was to try to suppress all knowledge of a heresy because it was "too dangerous." Even if none of the Gnostic Gospels had been recovered in Egypt, we could still do a plausible job of reconstructing gnostic belief. Why? Well, Paul writes that believers should shun certain beliefs. Irenaeus in arguing against the Gnostics <a href="http://www.blogger.com/r?http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newadvent.org%2Ffathers%2F0103.htm" rel="nofollow">lays out</a> what Gnostic beliefs are. Likewise, we know very well what the Arian beliefs were because Athanasius wrote against them.<br><br>And that it's based on _Holy Blood, Holy Grail_ should seal the point. HBHG is predicated on the notion of a secret society spanning the centuries. Secret societies that span centuries make for fun thriller reading, but they don't happen. A secret society that hands down a carefully held belief on through the centuries is really, really implausible. Why? Well, open societies with far more access to information, texts, etc. don't cary their beliefs very far without serious modification. A secret society would be even worse.<br><br>Let me give an example. Carlo Ginsburg, author of _The Cheese and the Worms_ did some investigations of some local practices that had led to a witch trial. What evidence he put together based on extensive research in the inquisitorial records showed some long decayed traces of some sort of practices that may have been holdovers from an animistic religion. Fine. That makes perfect sense. These women themselves really had no clue as to what was going on in the rituals--if you were to posit a secret Pagan cult that had flourished on down through the centuries kept carefully secret, well, then you'd be in the territory of nonsense.<br><br>Okay, I'm going to stop because I'm just going to get further worked up. The bottom line is that _The Da Vinci Cod_ is bad history.Andrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12587613331207098579noreply@blogger.com