June 9, 2006

Romancing the 'Code'

By TIMOTHY K. BEAL

I first realized that The Da Vinci Code had become a pop-culture phenomenon in the religious-studies classroom when a bright sophomore slipped into my office, closed the door behind him, and explained to me, in hushed tones, that he wanted to leave his bioengineering major and pursue the study of "religious symbology."

"I take it you've been reading Dan Brown's novel?" His countenance fell as I told him that the only professor of "religious symbology" I'd ever heard of, at Harvard or

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