Angels and Demons: A Religious Review

I read the book Angels and Demons by Dan Brown several years ago and was very excited about seeing the movie.  I was able to convince JeanPaul to shell out the $9.00/ticket to see it at the cinema – a very rare event for us.   If you haven’t seen it, please do so.  It is designed for the big screen and is a fascinating combination of history and fiction.

This whole Dan Brown phenomenon is fascinating to me because it combines history with mythology with philosophy.  His books expose some of the most important historical discoveries of the 20th century.  In particular, the Nag Hammadi scrolls.  Also known as the Gnostic Gospels, translations of these texts influenced the creation of the popular musical Jesus Christ Superstar as well as illuminated the diversity of the early Christian experience.  I tripped over them in a bookstore (quite literally, I almost hurt myself) when I was in my early 20s.  They also served as the plot for Dan Brown’s other bestselling novel “The DaVinci Code” and the theory that the Magdelena was the wife of Jesus.

I was raised Catholic. My parents are what I call “old school” Catholics.   Their Catholicism could be summed up in two sentences which they often recited;  “I don’t care what the nuns say, if you are a good person you will go to heaven, if there is one” and “when the priest puts food on the table, he can tell me what to do”.

My parents taught us to think for ourselves and allowed us to question things.  Of course, that doesn’t usually go over too well in parochial school – nuns aren’t particularly fond of being questioned.  They tended to interpret it as wise cracking.  Once, I was taken out of math class and brought to the principle’s office. Now, Sister Mary was a woman you didn’t mess with.  She was monolithic in stature and seemed born into the role of stern head nun, despite her fondness for wearing bright floral dresses when out socially.  She was quite concerned about the questions I was asking in class and wanted to know who was filling my head with silliness.  Now, I should tell you my questions seemed pretty logical to me and I thought I was asking what all the other kids were wondering, too.  I wanted to know: if Adam and Eve were the only two humans and they had two sons, and there was nobody else…  Well, you see the conundrum.

Years later, in college, I studied art and by extension, the histories of civilizations and the gods they worshipped.  As my studies peeled away the layers of my religious beliefs, I found myself moving further away from my religion.  It began slowly.  I found myself reciting less than the previous Sunday as histories I was learning in school threw shadows of doubt on what I was reciting in mass.  Eventually, I stopped going all together.

Even though I couldn’t reconcile history and my faith, I continued to study it and grew to appreciate the complexity and beauty of its theology.  I also read about occidental and oriental belief systems and saw the beauty in many of them as well.  I had friends from all religious backgrounds and attended their services; Unitarian Universalism, AME, Buddhist, Lutheran – it is a long list.   I wasn’t looking for a new religion, I was a tourist in the world of faiths, fascinated by the multitude of ways people pray.

I am going to sound shallow so it might be a good time for you to get a cup of coffee and skip this part.  I have come to accept a rather shallow part of myself; that ambiance is everything to me.  Even if the food is overpriced and not too good, if the ambiance of the restaurant is lovely, I will have enjoyed the meal.  Same thing for religion, it seems.  The more soaring the ceiling, the more ornate the interior, the better I like the service.  It is the special preserve of the Church to have incredibly impressive buildings and lots of sparkly baubles. I’m sorry to say that I am a sucker for it.

Since our trip to Rome, beautiful Catholic churches have become like a siren song to me.  The interiors seduce me and I am drawn into the service.  This is where my real story begins.  For some odd reason that I can’t yet define, I am attending mass again.  As a matter of fact, this unexpected situation keeps me awake at night.   Do I have a right to enjoy Catholic services while keeping separate in my mind the history from the fiction?  Can I pray to the universe while all those around me pray to their personal god?  Is it okay to attend mass for the beauty of the baubles, the precision of the rituals and the majestic quality of the music?  Is it fair for me to be guided by the scriptures while believing them to be inaccurate histories and well-written fiction?

If all this seems ridiculous – go see the movie Angels and Demons.  It may shed some light on this battle.  At the very end of the film the main character, played by Tom Hanks, seems to be grappling with the same questions.  I have no idea where all this will lead, but I am a little relieved that I’m not alone.  Glad to have you in my slightly illuminated but still murky corner, Dan.