Is it Worth Believing? The spiritual challenge of 'The Da Vinci Code'

Review: Challenge, June 2006
According to the Gospels, according to the Church, according to Christians, Jesus Christ is the Son of God who lived, died and lived again in order to make amends to God for our sin so that whoever believes in him will be rescued from God's judgment and given eternal life. If this view of Jesus is right, if Dan Brown's view of Jesus is wrong, then matters of life and death are at stake.

This is why Greg Clarke has written: Is It Worth Believing?

Clarke is the Director of the Centre for Apologetic Scholarship and Education at New College, University of New South Wales, and he brings considerable scholarship to his book. Yet he writes in an accessible and appealing way, with an easy style and a courteous tone.

In addition to considering whether or not the claims of The Da Vinci Code are worth believing, Clarke considers why and how we come to believe what we believe about Christianity. Is It Worth Believing? is not just a reply to The Da Vinci Code: it is also a treatise on how to think clearly in an age when emotion and cynicism and superstition seem to hold sway.

The book is suitable for all readers—fans and critics, Christians and non-Christians, alike. This is not to say that Clarke vacillates in his views, having "a bob each way", in an effort to cater to the views of everyone. On the contrary, he pursues a distinctly Christian line of thought. However, his research and reasoning is expressed in such an open and considerate way that the reader feels enticed to follow him through the paragraphs and pages.

Clarke even caters for "cave dwellers" who have not read the novel by giving a succinct summary of its plot. He is aware that people do not have to read the novel to be confronted with and affected by the sorts of notions and "facts" that the novel puts forward.

Reviewed by Andrew Lansdown.