Da Vinci code provokes debate in traditional Philippines
-20/04/06
Dan Brown’s bestse
Da Vinci code provokes debate in traditional Philippines
-20/04/06
Dan Brown’s bestselling Da Vinci Code and the gnostic Gospel of Judas have triggered debates in a predominantly Roman Catholic country where some faithful are controversially nailed to crosses on Good Friday ñ writes Maurice Malanes from Manila, Philippines, for Ecumenical News International.
ìAuthoritarian religion which has held sway in this country since the colonial period is bound to be affected profoundly by Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code,î wrote commentator Carmen Pedrosa in the Philippine Star newspaper.
She continued: ìThis is not such a bad thing … Religious questioning carries far-reaching implications for a country held down by dogmatism.î
For Pedrosa, the current debate over Brown’s best-selling novel may yet usher in an intellectual enlightenment, which, she hopes, can help Filipinos get over what she calls their ìbackwardnessî.
But Catholic priest and biblical expert Regino Cortes has warned the faithful that Brown’s novel is ìmisleadingî, and he has published The Da Vinci Code: An Exegetical Review, a 131-page book that seeks to correct ìapparent inaccuraciesî in Brown’s best-seller.
The recently-published Gospel of Judas, which portrayed the disciple who betrayed Christ as a confidante of Jesus, also invited commentaries from both clergy and lay Christians.
ìWhatever hype this ëdiscoveryí has rendered the believers and unbelievers alike, the fact remains that Jesus was betrayed and he was sentenced as a criminal was a result of a sinful meeting of sinful men who condemned him to death,î said the Rev David Tabo-oy of the Episcopal Church of the Philippines.
Meanwhile, seven Filipinos were unmindful of the debate over the Da Vinci Code and the Gospel of Judas that heated up during the Lenten period preceding Easter.
As in previous years, they let themselves be nailed on wooden crosses in a village in Pampanga province on Good Friday to atone for their sins and to thank Christ for his blessings.
With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches.
Ekklesia adds: the practice of deliberate, devotional self-harm is widely disapproved of within and beyond the Catholic Church.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has also recently contrasted the radical person and message of Jesus with what he calls elitist ëmystery cultsí.
In his Easter Sermon Dr Williams wrote: ìA few days ago, I finally got my copy of the Gospel of Judas that people have been talking about. And no, in case youíre wondering, it didnít make me tear up the New Testament and start looking for a new job.
ìItís actually a fairly conventional book of its kind ó and there were dozens like it around in the early centuries of the Church. People who werenít satisfied with the sort of thing the New Testament had to say spent quite a lot of energy trying to produce something which suited them better.
Declared the Archbishop: ìThey wanted Christian teaching to be a matter of exotic and mystical information, shared only with an in-group. So a lot of these books imagine Jesus having long conversations with various people whose names are in the Bible but who we donít know much about.î
[Also on Ekklesia: Rowan Williams contrasts radical Jesus to ‘exotic mysteries’ 18/04/06;
Archbishop of Canterbury says Gospel isn’t a cover-up for the powerful 18/04/06]
Da Vinci code provokes debate in traditional Philippines
-20/04/06
Dan Brown’s bestselling Da Vinci Code and the gnostic Gospel of Judas have triggered debates in a predominantly Roman Catholic country where some faithful are controversially nailed to crosses on Good Friday ñ writes Maurice Malanes from Manila, Philippines, for Ecumenical News International.
ìAuthoritarian religion which has held sway in this country since the colonial period is bound to be affected profoundly by Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code,î wrote commentator Carmen Pedrosa in the Philippine Star newspaper.
She continued: ìThis is not such a bad thing … Religious questioning carries far-reaching implications for a country held down by dogmatism.î
For Pedrosa, the current debate over Brown’s best-selling novel may yet usher in an intellectual enlightenment, which, she hopes, can help Filipinos get over what she calls their ìbackwardnessî.
But Catholic priest and biblical expert Regino Cortes has warned the faithful that Brown’s novel is ìmisleadingî, and he has published The Da Vinci Code: An Exegetical Review, a 131-page book that seeks to correct ìapparent inaccuraciesî in Brown’s best-seller.
The recently-published Gospel of Judas, which portrayed the disciple who betrayed Christ as a confidante of Jesus, also invited commentaries from both clergy and lay Christians.
ìWhatever hype this ëdiscoveryí has rendered the believers and unbelievers alike, the fact remains that Jesus was betrayed and he was sentenced as a criminal was a result of a sinful meeting of sinful men who condemned him to death,î said the Rev David Tabo-oy of the Episcopal Church of the Philippines.
Meanwhile, seven Filipinos were unmindful of the debate over the Da Vinci Code and the Gospel of Judas that heated up during the Lenten period preceding Easter.
As in previous years, they let themselves be nailed on wooden crosses in a village in Pampanga province on Good Friday to atone for their sins and to thank Christ for his blessings.
With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches.
Ekklesia adds: the practice of deliberate, devotional self-harm is widely disapproved of within and beyond the Catholic Church.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has also recently contrasted the radical person and message of Jesus with what he calls elitist ëmystery cultsí.
In his Easter Sermon Dr Williams wrote: ìA few days ago, I finally got my copy of the Gospel of Judas that people have been talking about. And no, in case youíre wondering, it didnít make me tear up the New Testament and start looking for a new job.
ìItís actually a fairly conventional book of its kind ó and there were dozens like it around in the early centuries of the Church. People who werenít satisfied with the sort of thing the New Testament had to say spent quite a lot of energy trying to produce something which suited them better.
Declared the Archbishop: ìThey wanted Christian teaching to be a matter of exotic and mystical information, shared only with an in-group. So a lot of these books imagine Jesus having long conversations with various people whose names are in the Bible but who we donít know much about.î
[Also on Ekklesia: Rowan Williams contrasts radical Jesus to ‘exotic mysteries’ 18/04/06;
Archbishop of Canterbury says Gospel isn’t a cover-up for the powerful 18/04/06]