How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"Right," Teabing said. "Jesus' establishment as "the Son of God" was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicaea."
"Hold on. You're saying Jesus' divinity was the result of a vote?"
"A relatively close vote at that," Teabing added. "Nonetheless, establishing Christ's divinity was critical to the further unification of the Roman empire and to the new Vatican power base. By officially endorsing Jesus as the Son of God, Constantine turned Jesus into a deity who existed beyond the scope of the human world, an entity whose power was unchallengeable. This not only precluded further pagan challenges to Christianity, but now the followers of Christ were able to redeem themselves only via the established sacred channel— the Roman Catholic Church." (55.39-41)
This kind of makes sense, doesn't it? At some point, someone had to make it official that Jesus wasn't just some regular dude. The Church just capitalized on his deification, that's all. And, it sets us up for the entire premise of this novel: that the Catholic Church has conducted a vast conspiracy to hide Jesus's mortality.
Quote #8
Teabing chuckled as he eased himself into a chair opposite Sophie. "As you can see, our professor has a far softer heart for Rome than I do. Nonetheless, he is correct about the modern clergy believing these opposing documents are false testimony. That's understandable. Constantine's Bible has been their truth for ages. Nobody is more indoctrinated than the indoctrinator."
"What he means," Langdon said, "is that we worship the gods of our fathers." (55.51-52)
Teabing is pretty vitriolic towards the Catholic Church, so we don't blame Langdon for cringing a bit. His point is that its not the Catholics' fault that their predecessors made these decisions about their faith. Nonetheless, present-day Catholics will believe what they were taught to believe, and that goes doubly for those who have dedicated their lives to the church.
Quote #9
"I should add," Teabing chimed, "that this concept of woman as life-bringer was the foundation of ancient religion. Childbirth was mystical and powerful. Sadly, Christian philosophy decided to embezzle the female's creative power by ignoring biological truth and making man the Creator. Genesis tells us that Eve was created from Adam's rib. Woman became an offshoot of man. And a sinful one at that. Genesis was the beginning of the end for the goddess."
"The Grail," Langdon said, "is symbolic of the lost goddess. When Christianity came along, the old pagan religions did not die easily. Legends of chivalric quests for the lost Grail were in fact stories of forbidden quests to find the lost sacred feminine. Knights who claimed to be "searching for the chalice" were speaking in code as a way to protect themselves from a Church that had subjugated women, banished the Goddess, burned nonbelievers, and forbidden the pagan reverence for the sacred feminine." (56.19-20)
Even the fictional pope in this book chastises Opus Dei for their treatment of women as some kind of second-class citizen—a problematic behavior that persists in many religions today.