Posted on Monday, April 12, 2004
The Rev. Dr. Kenneth E. Bailey is "Unlocking the Da Vinci Code" Wednesday, April 21, from 7-9 p.m. at the Wallace Memorial Chapel.
The Da Vinci Code, a recently published murder mystery that has sold more than 4, 000,000 copies, is a fictitious story placed in a supposed back drop of historical truth about the origins of the Bible and the Christian faith.
Bailey spent 40 years teaching New Testament in the Middle East in various seminaries and institutes. He has written seven books and more than 150 articles.
"To sort out historical reality from murder mystery mythology requires a careful analysis of early Christian history of the first three centuries along with an informed study of Gnosticism, the Apocryphal Gospels, the selection of the canon, the age of Constantine, and many other things," Bailey said. "In this lecture, the historical realities of the origins of the Christian movement will be presented, out of which the assumptions of this murder mystery can be appropriately understood."
Bailey, who is a son of missionary parents stationed in Egypt, has spent most of his life in the Middle East. He served 20 years as professor of the New Testament studies in the Near East School of Theology in Beirut, and founded the Institute for Middle Eastern New Testament Studies at the Tantur Ecumenical Institute for Theological Studies in Jerusalem.
The event, which is sponsored by the Westminster College Church Relations Department and the Shenango Presbytery, is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Linda Wilson at (724) 946-7362 or e-mail lwilson@westminster.edu.
