University Professor Fascinated by Dan Brown's Appeal

Knight Ridder/Tribune

Tuesday's release of "The Lost Symbol," novelist Dan Brown's much anticipated follow-up to "The Da Vinci Code," is certain to cause a stampede at bookstores across the nation and throughout Northeast Pennsylvania.

Among those who will be clamoring to get their hands on the latest adventures of Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon will be University of Scranton theology professor Eric Plumer, Ph.D.

"I'm planning to read (the book) starting the day it comes out," he said. "I'll be very interested to see what he does this time."

Though a fan of Mr. Brown's storytelling skills, Dr. Plumer has a vested academic interest in the author's work. Recently, Dr. Plumber published "The Catholic Church and American Culture: Why the Claims of Dan Brown Strike a Chord" (University of Scranton Press), in which he examined people's fascination with the controversial themes explored by Mr. Brown in "The Da Vinci Code" and its prequel, "Angels and Demons," both of which have sold tens of millions of copies worldwide.

While those two books centered on nefarious doings by the Catholic Church, freemasons will serve as Mr. Brown's primary target in "The Lost Symbol." Nonetheless, Dr. Plumer believes there's a good chance Catholicism will figure somehow in the plot, given the Church's longtime condemnation of the Masons.

Over the past couple of years, Dr. Plumer has delivered numerous lectures separating fact from fiction in Mr. Brown's books. But he's more interested in the deeper questions posed by them.

"I do find his ideas stimulating," Dr. Plumer, who on Sept. 23 will give a talk titled "Dan Brown and the Conflict Between the Catholic Church and Science" at Albright Memorial Library. "There was a lot to think about with 'The Da Vinci Code' and 'Angels and Demons,' and I like that."

His interest in Mr. Brown came not long after the 2003 release of "The Da Vinci Code." Students kept coming up to him with questions about the book, whose labyrinthine plot eventually led to the bombshell that Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalen were husband and wife and had a child together.

"I wasn't going to read it. Then I thought, 'I'm going to have to read this to answer their questions honestly,'" he said. "I thought it was an enjoyable read, although it should have been about 100 pages shorter."

When 85 people turned out for a lecture he was giving on the book, Dr. Plumer knew it was striking a chord. It made him want to join the bandwagon of authors writing books debunking Mr. Brown's claims.

However, what he eventually realized was that people were less interested in having the book's Biblical errors pointed out -- and there were many, Dr. Plumer said -- than they were in investigating "the broad topics Dan Brown was dealing with," he said.

"I felt, gosh, nobody was asking the question, 'If there are so many errors, why is it resonating with so many people?'" he said. "Dan Brown may have missed the bull's eye in a thousand ways, but he was aiming in the right direction."

Through his research, Dr. Plumer found that there was nothing Mr. Brown's books were saying in regard to the Church that hadn't already been said by people like Thomas Jefferson and Ralph Waldo Emerson. In his book, Dr. Plumer takes a close look at the history of anti-Catholicism in America, and the many "points of tension" between the Church and contemporary American culture, be it contraception, modern science, homosexuality or the priest sex-abuse scandals.

Thanks to Mr. Brown, there's now more opportunity for people to have serious discussions about these very important issues, Dr. Plumer said.

"He did make people interested in the Bible and church history, and they could ask questions," he said. "And I think that was wonderful."

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