Christianity Online: Response to The Da Vinci Code as Imp ...

Chapter 1

The Da Vinci Code Controversy

My first reaction to Dan Brown’s novel, The Da Vinci Code, was: “It’s a work of fiction, a thriller, a page-turner. Everybody knows that.” I was wrong.

—Archbishop George H. Niederauer,U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops¹

Background in Popular Culture

Among the best-selling fiction works of all time, The Da Vinci Code rode a crest of controversy from its initial publication as a hardcover novel in 2003, through subsequent incarnations as a paperback “mass-market edition” in March 2006, and then a major Hollywood movie starring Tom Hanks, released weeks later.