Bookshop

Books and DVDs Analysing The Da Vinci Code

Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code Bart D. Erhman’s book is without a doubt the most scholarly, readable and unbiased analysis of the claims in The Da Vinci Code. Highly recommended.	The Da Vinci Hoax Though written from a clearly conservative Catholic perspective, Olson and Miesel’s scholarship is sound and they present a comprehensive debunking. Definitely the best of the Christian books on the DVC.	The Real History Behind The Da Vinci Code Sharan Newman gives an A-Z of relevant topics from a non-Christian medievalist’s perspective with an amusingly light tone.
The Rough Guide to The Da Vinci Code Part travel guide and part historical analysis, this small book actually packs a lot of well-researched information into its pages. Not a guide for Dan Brown fans, but an excellent pocket resource.	The Da Vinci Codebreaker Garlow is a Christian writer but his A-Z guide is packed with excellent information, especially on the relative dates of the canonical and non-canonical early Christian writings. Recommended.	The Real Da Vinci Code Unarguably the best documentary on the DVC produced so far. The BBC’s Tony Robinson takes a certain glee in debunking the DVC’s claims in a highly detailed and entertaining trip across Europe.

Books on Related Historical Topics

The New Knighthood Malcolm Barber’s definitive history of the origins, development and end of the Order of Knights Templar. A good scholarly antidote to the New Age nonsense that is often written on this subject.	The Trial of the Templars Barber’s detailed account of the reasons for the Templars’ suppression, the politics of their trial and the real history behind the fall of the Order.	The Knights Templar and their Myth Partner traces how the Knights Templar became a mainstay of conspiracy theories over the last six centuries, detailing the fantasy claims made about them by Freemasons and other secret societies.
The Holy Grail: Imagination and Belief Richard Barber’s new book traces the origins of the ‘Grail Legends’ in medieval fiction and how the Grail has remained an element in western folklore ever since.	Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew Another excellent work by Bart D. Ehrman detailing the formation of the Christian Bible and the struggles between rival forms of early Christianity	The Witch in History A scholarly survey of current research on the ‘Witch Craze’, minus some of the popular modern myths and misconceptions. Purkiss also looks at the changing image of the witch up to modern times.
The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory Eller’s unflinching critique of the feminist/New Age myth of an idyllic matriarchal Neolithic world, showing how it is based on modern ideology rather than actual evidence.	Leonardo: Flights of the Mind Proabably the most readable and well-researched biography of Leonardo in recent decades. Nicholl brings Leonardo’s world to life while sticking closely to the primary source material.	Jesus the Jew: A Historian’s Reading of the Gospels A dense and complex but quite startling reading of the evidence about Jesus which puts him back in his historical context as a First Century Jewish preacher and healer. A remarkab
Leonardo’s Incessant Last Supper Steinberg’s book analyses the real meanings and compositional techniques of Leonardo’s paintings and then looks at how The Last Supper has become an icon of western art and popular culture into the present day.	Gnosis : The Nature and History of Gnosticism A good historical introduction to the rise, development and history of Gnosticism as well as its later survivals and modern revivals. Scholarly, readable and free of fringe speculation or partisan ideology.	The Nag Hammadi Library in English This revised edition of Robinson’s translation of the Gnostic texts from Nag Hammadi remains the best resource for those who want to read these works and get an introduction to their place in the history of Christianity.
The Lost Gospel : The Book of Q and Christian Origins Burton Mack gives a reasonable reconstruction of ‘Q’ based on Matthew and Luke. His interpreation of what it can tell us about the early Jesus Sect is not quite as convincing, but this is a good perspective on the question of the origins of the gospels.	From Jesus to Christ : The Origins of the New Testament Images of Christ One of the very best recent works of scholarship on the relation between the Yeshua of history and Jesus of faith. Lucid, intelligent, closely argued and still readable, this book is recommended for anyone wanting to understand how the ‘Jesus’ of today arose.	The Making of the Magdalen: Preaching and Popular Devotion in the Later Middle Ages Jansen’s book traces why Mary Magdalene became the focus of medieval legends and folk tales and how these stories developed. A clear analysis of how a marginal Biblical figure accumulated detailed legends.
When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome An excellent recent account of the Fourth Century struggles to define the divinity of Jesus and how they intersected with Constantine’s political agenda.	The Beginnings of Western Science: The European Scientific Tradition in Philosophical, Religious, and Institutional Context, 600 B.C. to A.D. 1450 David Lindberg is the leading scholar in the field of medieval science and how it lay the foundations of the Scientific Revolution of later centuries.	The Treasure of Rennes-le-Chateau : A Mystery Solved Finally, an objective researcher debunks the myths and nonsense associated with Rennes-leChateau – the New Age ‘mystery’ which gave birth to the ‘Priory of Sion’, Holy Blood Holy Grail and The Da Vinci Code. Highly recommended.