The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has (as others) vehemently denounced the growing fascination exerted by the theories formulated by bestsellers like Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code and by the recently published manuscript of the “Gospel of Judas”. He did so in his Easter Day sermon in Canterbury Cathedral on Sunday 16 April. The head of the Anglican Church criticised the way in which modern society celebrates the great Christian festivities by removing the Christian foundations of these commemorations and the historical bases on which the Christian faith rests. “So it was no huge surprise – said Williams, who is not only head of the Anglican Communion and also one of the most distinguished theologians in England – to see a fair bit of coverage given a couple of weeks ago to the discovery of a ‘Gospel of Judas’, which was (naturally) going to shake the foundations of traditional belief by giving an alternative version of the story of the passion and resurrection”. In the manuscript to which the archbishop refers, Judas appears not as a traitor but as an initiate who denounced Jesus to the Romans, though at Christ’s own request and for the redemption of the world. The success this theory has enjoyed – said Williams – reminds us of “the saturation coverage of the Da Vinci Code literature. We are instantly fascinated by the suggestion of conspiracies and cover-ups; this has become so much the stuff of our imagination these days that it is only natural, it seems, to expect it when we turn to ancient texts, especially biblical texts. We treat them as if they were unconvincing press releases from some official source, whose intention is to conceal the real story”. But the New Testament, stressed Williams, is not about cover-ups or secret agendas.
