St. Andrew Presbyterian Church

Tue, 23 May 2006 12:00:00 +0100

After a 14 week Wednesday night study at St. Andrew that used the controversial claims of Brown as a jumping off point to teach about early church, Constantine, and the formation of the Testament, I kept hearing that in the preface, Dan Brown says the documents, societies and rituals, etc.... are true. Even a church produced documentary we watched claimed that in the preface, he declares these facts. It was very confusing for members and I kept reminding them it was a work of fiction. Over 14 weeks, this issue was raised over and over again.

I saved my insight for the last class gathering. I reminded the class how they kept saying Brown's preface declared certain facts. I asked the class to turn to the preface of the book. Everyone turned to the page. I asked, how do books normally number preface and introduction pages? Roman numerals, of course came the answer. I said, "Are there any roman numerals here?" "No, then it's not a preface." I asked the class to turn to the page to where regular page numbers start. They did and it was page four. I indicated how interesting it is that the novel begins on page four. Don't novels usually start on page one? Isn't that were the work of fiction begins? I asked the class to count back to page one of the novel. They did and page one, to our surprise, was the page entitled 'Fact".

So the novel actually begins with "Fact" or in other words, Dan Brown's fact is really fiction! There was a audible moan and the sound of covers slamming shut concluded our 14 week adventure with the early church.

Thought it was a neat thing to share.

- Rev. Dr. Keith M. Curran

The Da Vinci Code: Fact or fiction?

St. Andrew Presbyterian Church