This is a minor beef and I know there is a better word I could use to classify it but I don't have that word yet. My problem is with one of the characters (i.e. this is like something I would call them on to their face).
The passage:
If all went as planned tonight in Paris, Aringarosa would soon be in possession of something that would make him the most powerful man in Christendom (115).
The problem:
If there is any man who should be powerful in Christendom, it is Christ Himself. (Does that not make sense merely based on the name?) For anyone to think he could be or should be powerful (let alone the most powerful) within the realm of Christianity is outrageous, bizarre and frankly unBiblical. Jesus maintained that making less of yourself is what makes you more. (He made the least of Himself by bowing to death and was then exalted to the highest place.) Look at what He said in Mark 9:35 - "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all." In Philippians 2:5-7, Paul describes Jesus as one, "Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God somethign to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a srevant, being made in human likeness."
It made me angry to read of all the men in The DaVinci Code who were willing to kill and otherwise abuse people because they sought power. I think that the power Bishop Aringarosa sought was not among Christians exactly but with the church on Earth. In this case, I refer to the "church" as the government-recognized, stereotypical, stone buildings with Sunday morning services, not the Body of Christ on Earth. No one can be greatest in the Body because we all unquestionably and uncompromizingly need one another.
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In Matthew 23, Jesus said the following and it reminded me of Aringarosa.
"The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
"Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them 'Rabbi.'
"But you are not to be called 'Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called 'teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted" (2-12).
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