Angles and Demons by Dan Brown Essay

Angles and Demons by Dan Brown was a reading choice out of curiosity rather than real interest because of the Da Vinci Code by the same author. I wanted to see what other works of fiction Dan Brown came up with before his controversial book. This book had me raising my eyebrows more than a few times with story line but that did not stop me from turning the pages until I got to the end. Angels and Demons basically follows the same formula as the Da Vinci Code. It begins with a murder which only Robert Langdon seems capable of solving with his knowledge of religious iconology and history; a strong female character, Vittoria Vetra, daughter to the murder victim Leonardo Vetra, assists Langdon in his â€Å"quest†; a hired assassin who is delusional, a fanatic and has unquestionable loyalty to his belief carries out an unforeseen but well-crafted plan; an ancient secret society, the Illuminati, is out to get revenge on the Church; finally, an unexpected mastermind who calls himself as Janus, works behind the curtains. An anti-matter canister was stolen from CERN when Leonardo Vetra was murdered and this is assumed to have a life span of 24 hours before the batteries die and it explodes. Brown remains true to using archaic bits of knowledge to leave a trail for Robert Langdon and Vittoria Vetra to follow from Switzerland to the Vatican City in order to find the missing anti-matter canister and find the murderer of Leonardo Vetra. The plot thickens when the anti-matter canister bomb threatens the Vatican and the conclave in the process of choosing the new Pope. The book ends dramatically with a seemingly miraculous event followed by the declaration of a new Pope. Though I enjoyed the chase more from Angels and Demons rather than the Da Vinci Code, I must say that, as a priest, Brown seems have some issues with the Church to come up with troubling concepts for his books. First you have Leonardo Vetra, a priest who turns away from the Church. He becomes a leading physicist of CERN and, together with his adopted daughter, tries to find God through science and research. They seem to be successful with the development of the anti-matter, which was stolen when Vetra was murdered. You also have a Pope who sired a child with a nun, though through artificial means. The child later becomes his camerlengo, the Pope’s Chamberlain. The camerlengo, Carlo Ventresca, unaware of his paternal parentage, murders the Pope upon knowing his dark secret with the belief that he is both cleansing and protecting the Church. Though the book is admittedly a work of fiction, it borders on tarnishing how Catholics and non-Catholics may view the Church and its priests. Brown puts into question the honesty and loyalty of priests to the Mother Church and their commitment to the vow of celibacy, as seen with the Pope. It is appalling to think that Jesus’ surrogates on Earth would be the first ones to violate their vows. Brown also pits religion versus science. Leonardo Ventra is murdered for his research on anti-matter which can supposedly prove the beginning of life, that science can prove God’s existence. I’d like to think that religion is a matter of faith and science is a matter of fact, the two just can’t mix when it comes to explaining God. Then you have the camerlengo who is himself delusional and a fanatic in his belief that the Church, and not science, is the saving power of the world with himself at the wheel of salvation. He goes to great lengths to get the world’s attention, discredit Science and put the Church on a pedestal for the world to see. Angels and Demons made me uncomfortable with the image of the Church that it created – a divided, secretive, vindictive and vulnerable body. Readers, both Catholics and non-Catholics should be discriminating of the events in this book, lest they forget that this is only a work of fiction.