In the late months of 2004, Frank Warren had a thought. Why not distribute thousands of postcards to random people, asking them to write down a secret they had never told anyone. They would then mail the cards back to him anonymously. The response was overwhelming. Cards began to pour in from all over the globe. Warren, so impressed with the response, began posting a sampling of the cards every week online. It became apparent, though, that this was an opportunity for the world to see the world. Therefore, Warren took a large chunk of the postcards and filled a 300-page book with them. In this book, the pages are stuffed with color photographs of the postcards. These postcards are sometimes humorous: “I love to pee when I’m swimming”; sometimes simple: “shoplift”; but mostly they let us see into the darkest corners of human life. It is here that issues of denial, fear, hatred, and regret run rampant. Many of the postcards are as profound as anything I’ve ever seen on any billboard. The common theme throughout the majority of the postcards is one of disillusionment. A lot of the postcards also deal with atheistic questions. Therefore, this book is not the cheeriest read, but it is quite informative as to what the world is at its core. It turns out that the things we think make us so different from one another are actually the ties the bind all of humanity. Everyone questions things, everyone regrets, everyone wonders. It’s what we do with those questions that matters.

-- Peter

Goodkind transports the reader to a fantasy world inhabited by wizards, sorceresses, dragons, and other magical life forms.  He weaves together a brilliant saga spanning nations and millennia and bringing together personalities of every sort.

The story centers on Richard Rahl.  Though raised in a small town by a simple woodsman, Richard is a war wizard, one of the most powerful types of wizards, and the first war wizard to be born in 3000 years.  His story is one of discovery and revolution as he learns who he is and how to use his “gift” or what we would call magic.

Early on in the story, Richard meets Kahlan Amnell, the Mother Confessor of the Midlands .  Though not a wizard of a sorceress, Kahlan also possesses a magic so powerful that she and others like her are feared and hated wherever they are known.  Her power released on a man or woman will cause them to suddenly develop and unnatural and absolute loyalty to her.

Together, the war wizard and the mother confessor embark on an extravagant adventure that will completely transform each other them as well as the world they live in.

Spiritual themes play a large part in the world of the story.  Underlying motivations for people’s actions are determined by whether they serve the Creator or the Keeper.  The Creator brings life and the Keeper seeks to consume it.  These two are similar to God and Satan except that they are portrayed as equals, perpetually balancing each other out.  Furthermore, they are portrayed as being distant and uninterested except for when they must use people as agents to accomplish their own ends.

 In addition to the Creator and the Keeper, the good spirits play a prominent role.  These are the spirits of the ancestors who now dwell in the underworld.  They are inaccessible except through special ceremonies, yet the characters frequently pray for the blessings and protection of the good spirits.

Goodkind’s story relies heavily on magic.  In the world that he creates, magic is a gift that certain people are born with.  Those with the gift learn how to access and control their “han” or life force or internal energy.  Their han is an extension of themselves by which they can exert power over the natural world.

 With an incredible myriad of characters and over three thousand years of fictional history, this series of books cannot be neatly labeled with one worldview.  Rather, there are several that intertwine together.

The worldview of western spiritualism is the essential perspective presented throughout the book, as seen in a number of factors, including the spirits of the ancestors and the life energy of the wizards which play such a large part. However, in keeping with the eclectic nature of western spiritualism, elements from other worldviews are infused in the storyline: Deism is seen in that there is a god figure, but he remains mostly detached from creation, as well as humanism, because even though there is a god, the characters act as if they are their own gods.  The characters determine for themselves what they will do and how they will act and only pray to the Creator when they need help.

The books by R.A. Salvatore are a great compilation of fantasy novels that are action packed with a minimum of sexual vulgarity and crude language they make a wonderful read.  The protagonist of the series is an elf by the name of Drizzt Do’Urden.  This unique dark elf is one of a kind, literally.  He is a descendant of a race of evil elves that are the epitome of everything that is wrong with life.  R.A. Salvatore uses this elf’s life experience to pose questions for society of today.  Mostly the issues that are dealt with are those of racism and religion.  The primary view that is portrayed by Salvatore would mostly fall into a category of new age pantheism.  There are many gods and some are good and others are bad, however if one serves a good god then they are a blessing.  The service one gives to a god however is very unlike contemporary religions.  The god one serves is dependent upon the spirit that resides with in a man.  Serving a god is not a choice necessarily. According to Salvatore one must find what god we are orientated with and then carry on life being true to ourselves and in that way we are being true to our god.  There are many references to self empowerment and meditation and of course being a fantasy novel magic.  

--Joshua R-Y

The DaVinci Code, written by Dan Brown, is a fascinating thriller based on the age-old mystery of the Holy Grail and Jesus the Nazarene.  Spiritually controversial and masterfully written, this book has received a lot of attention and has been followed by numerous books approving, disproving and discussing the ideas and myths presented in this novel.  As thrilling as any murder mystery, the ultimate riddles and giftedness of the author make it a good read for anyone. 

     The story begins with a murder, and we see that a secret is about to be lost.  The story then follows a symbologist and a cryptographer as they run to save their lives, as well as a secret that has been left for them to find.  As pieces fall into place, the story takes an unexpected turn.  The more that is revealed, the stranger the novel becomes.  Yet the believability of the secret is given more ground as the history of people and events is told in a new and convincing way.  The secret of the DaVinci Code is hidden in Leonardo DaVinci’s art, sketches and coded writings.  In DaVinci’s day this information would have been pronounced heresy, and he could have lost his life, so he transmitted his secrets across the centuries through hidden messages.

     The amount of symbology, metaphors, hidden clues and history—whether true or not—builds toward a powerful novel.  So why do Christians seem so worried about it?  The answer is in the impact that it’s having today.  Having just come out in 2003, it exploded on the ratings within weeks and is still at the top of the charts with more than eight million copies in print.  This is a religious novel, and its impact continues to reverberate most loudly in the religious sector. 

     One sect/cult that has a large part in the novel is Opus Dei, an actual sect of Catholicism, which is a subject of controversy because of reports of brain-washing, coercion, and “corporal mortification”.  One of the men chasing this book’s hero and heroine is a member of this sect, and as this assassin gets closer and closer, we see more of “The Way.” One of the most astonishing of its practices, called “The Discipline”, is a form of penance for sin, and is willingly self-administered by the Opus Dei members when a sin has been committed.  They believe that it brings healing and cleansing for wrongs that have been done, using “the end justifies the means” rationale.  This cult is always portrayed in a demeaning way in the story, and the members of it are hypocritical, power-hungry, and misled, using murder and deception to find the grail. 

     Another cult that plays a large role in the story is the Priory of Sion.  It, too, is an actrual society, started by Godefroi Boullion, a French king who conquered Jerusalem in 1099.  Legend has it that his family had kept a secret since the time of Christ.  No one knows exactly what that secret is, but it supposedly includes the Holy Grail and secret documents that reveal the true nature of the grail.  The location of these documents and the truth of the Holy Grail are known only by the top four members of the Priory to this day.

     The trail of clues that Robert Langdon and Sophie follow lead from questioning the holiness of the Bible, the deity of Christ, and the fundamental beliefs of the church, to proposing that Jesus was married and had a child, beginning a bloodline that continues to this day.   These and other issues surrounding the book were brought up on an edition of 20/20 this summer with some interesting comments made by theologians and the author himself.  Dan Brown stated that he started out as a skeptic, but through research was convinced of the accuracy and truthfulness of this alternative history. 

     The story of the life of Christ as told by Robert Langdon and Professor Teabing is very different from the account we find in the Bible.  As Robert Langdon states, the theory presented in this novel is as confirmable as the Bible. 

The Sangreal Documents (part of the DaVinci secret) simply tell the other side of the Christ story.  In the end which side of the story you believe becomes a matter of faith and personal exploration, but at least the information has survived.

     So what worldview is this novel portraying?  There is some theism (Opus Dei), and the secret of the Holy Grail is following the life of Christ, so it looks like it could be a Christian novel.  Even though it stems from the life of Jesus and the writings of the Bible and other books of the apostles, it is different from the beliefs of Christianity in some major areas. The Priory of Sion and the alternate story of Jesus that this cult supports is emphasized throughout the book.  Almost all of the characters agree with its beliefs and that this cult has the truth about how Christianity began.  The cult itself is spiritualist because of its belief in dual godship (bi-theism) between the male and female gods, and finding harmony in nature and among humans by expressing the harmony between male and female in the sacred sexual act (yin and yang, etc.).  It may to try to pass off as a “Christian” novel, but don’t be fooled.  The themes of the “alternate” gospels are decidedly against the Bible, and lay the foundation for the Priory and its spiritualistic beliefs. 

     Overall, The DaVinci Code is a thrilling and thought-provoking novel that is worth reading because it forces the reader to consider what s/he believes because it is all about faith.

--Liz