Da Vinci Code and Feminism

Taeyon Choi

doi:10.22901/trans.2011.4.3.173

This paper discusses the feminist motive to the Da Vinci Code, an extremely popular novel by Dan Brown. His reinterpretation of historical Christianity is a radically feminist one because of four reasons: 1) the biblical God Yahweh (Jehovah) was a bisexual (hermaphroditic) God; 2) Jesus was the first “feminist” and was married to Mary Magdalene, who was intended by Jesus to be head of the Church rather than the apostle Peter; 3) the Emperor Constantine consolidated male power in the Church and collated the Bible; and 4) the Gnostic Gospels suggests a feminist origin of Christianity. I think that there is too little substance or documentation for Dan Brown’s “feminist” theory. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the biblical God does not truly have gender, although he is represented as father, king, and husband, for he is not a physical creature that has male or female gender. There is no reliable document supporting the marriage of Jesus with a woman. Furthermore, there is no reason to believe Jesus a “feminist.” in the social context of the first century. It is not true that the Roman Emperor Constantine strengthened the male-dominated church. It is historically true that Constantine invited about 300 bishops from across the Roman Empire to the Council of Nicea (325 AD). But these bishops were already male, and women did not hold such positions. A common characteristic of Gnosticism is paternalism rather than feminism. Even if Brown’s feminist critique went the wrong way, the problems of paternalism in the Church should necessarily be examined through a genuinely biblical understanding of the Christian faith.

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