Secrets Of Angels & Demons: The Unauthorized Guide To The Bestselling Novel

by Burstein, Daniel

• ISBN13: 9781593151409
• ISBN10: 1593151403
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-12-01
• Publisher: Perseus Books Group

Summary

Presents a series of essays which critique the bestselling novel "Angels & Demons," examining various elements of the story to separate fictitious literary creations from historical facts of Christianity during the Baroque era.

Table of Contents

Editor's Note	xi
Introduction: Angels & Demons: Rough Draft for The Da Vinci Code, Road Map for Dan Brown's Next Book by Dan Burstein	1	(6)
1. The Vatican: An Insider's View	7	(64)
Conclave 101: The Past, Present, and Future of the Papal Elections by Greg Tobin	9	(13)
Angels, Demons, and the Next Pope by Amy D. Bernstein	22	(10)
Handicapping the First Papal Election of the 2lst Century	32	(9)
Who are the Papabili? by Greg Tobin	33	(3)
Papal Chase: Will the Next Pope Be Black, Hispanic, American, or a Jew? by Steven Waldman	36	(5)
Pontiffs Past, Present, and Future An Interview with Richard P. McBrien	41	(6)
Who Is Buried in St. Peter's Tomb?	47	(10)
Beyond the Grave by Tom Mueller	48	(5)
"Upon This Rock" by Deirdre Good	53	(4)
The Vatican in the Era of Galileo and Bernini An Interview with John W. O'Malley, Si	57	(7)
The Church Since Galileo: Problems Then Are Still Problems Now An Interview with John Dominic Crossan	64	(7)
2. Galileo: The Pious Heretic	71	(48)
Galileo Opened the Skies to the Mind of Man by John Castro	72	(4)
On the Copernican Trail An Interview with Owen Gingerich	76	(9)
Galileo: Right Message at the Wrong Time An Interview with Steven J. Harris	85	(12)
The Myth of Galileo An Interview with Wade Rowland	97	(10)
Blind Ambition and Sincere Piety An Interview with Marcelo Gleiser	107	(7)
Avenging Galileo by Stephan Herrera	114	(5)
3. Of Conspiracies and Conspirators: The Illuminati Illuminated	119	(46)
On the Trail of the Illuminati: A journalist's Search for the "Conspiracy That Rules the World" by George Johnson	120	(10)
The Fact-Fiction Reversal: The Illuminati, the New World Order, and Other Conspiracies An Interview with Michael Barkun	130	(10)
An Occultist's Guide to the Assassins and the Illuminati An Interview with James Wasserman	140	(10)
Secrets of the Tomb: Inside America's Most Powerful and Politically Connected-Secret Society An Interview with Alexandra Robbins	150	(7)
"I Didn't Go Looking for the Illuminati; They Came Looking for Me" An Interview with Robert Anton Wilson	157	(8)
4. Two Windows on the Same Universe? The Science vs. Religion Discussion	165	(48)
Leonardo Vetra's Bookshelf by Arne de Keijzer	166	(3)
Worshipping in the Church of Einstein, or How I Found Fischbeck's Rule by George Johnson	169	(8)
Is There a Need for a Divine Designer? by Paul Davies	177	(3)
Holy Wars by Neil deGrasse Tyson	180	(6)
Religion-the Mental Equivalent of a Computer Virus An Interview with Richard Dawkins	186	(9)
The God Gene An Interview with Dean Hamer	195	(7)
Cognitive Science Takes On Religion: A New Approach to an Age-Old Question by Hannah de Keijzer	202	(4)
Adam vs. Atom by Josh Wolfe	206	(7)
5. Robert Langdon's Rome: Art and Architecture	213	(66)
A Bernini Expert Reflects on Dan Brown's Use of the Baroque Master by Tod Marder	214	(15)
Bernini and His Angels An Interview with Mark S. Weil	229	(6)
The Magical and Mythical in Bernini's Sculpture An Interview with George Lechner	235	(9)
The Secrets of the Vatican Library	244	(9)
It Isn't So Secret After All by Michael Herrera	244	(5)
A Scholar Visits the Vatican Library by Tod Marder	249	(4)
Bernini's Symbology and Angels & Demons by Diane Apostolos-Cappadona	253	(15)
Rome: City of Angels and Demonic Imaginings by David Downie	268	(7)
"Let Angels Guide You on Your Lofty Quest" by Susan Sanders	275	(4)
6. The Science and Technology of Angels & Demons	279	(56)
Death Comes to the Cardinals: A Forensics Expert on Murder, Mayhem, and Survival An Interview with Cyril H. Wecht	280	(7)
Eyeball to Eyeball: The Use of Biometrics in Angels & Demons by James Carlisle and Jennifer Carlisle	287	(8)
The Technology Toys of Angels & Demons by David A. Shugarts	295	(10)
Science as an Evolving Narrative: From Galileo to the Big Bang An Interview with Marcelo Gleiser	305	(9)
A Day Without Yesterday: Georges Lemaitre and the Big Bang by Mark Midbon	314	(5)
Antimatter Matters by Stephan Herrera	319	(5)
Untangling Dan Brown's Entanglement Theory An Interview with Amir D. Aczel	324	(11)
7. Angels & Demons, Dan Brown, and the Art of Fictionalizing "Fact"	335	(54)
The Plot Holes and Intriguing Details of Angels & Demons by David A. Shugarts	336	(21)
What's in a Name? by David A. Shugarts	357	(5)
The Secrets of Ambigrams by David A. Shugarts and Scott Kim	362	(4)
Adverbs & Demons: Just How Good Is the Former English Teacher's English? by Geoffrey K. Pullum	366	(5)
Novelistic Metaphysics by Glenn W. Erickson	371	(6)
Vox Populi: Commentary on Angels & Demons from CultofDanBrown.com by Leigh-Ann Gerow	377	(4)
Angels & Demons and the Emerging Literary Genre of Art Fiction by Diane Apostolos-Cappadona	381	(8)
Contributors	389	(8)
Acknowledgments	397