Angels, demons, Hanks & God<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"To hear Tom Hanks describe him, the hero who broke "The Da Vinci Code" is an academic superman whose knowledge of art, religion, history and philosophy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/03\/angels-demons-hanks-god\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Angels, demons, Hanks & God\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"To hear Tom Hanks describe him, the hero who broke "The Da Vinci Code" is an academic superman whose knowledge of art, religion, history and philosophy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/03\/angels-demons-hanks-god\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Terry Mattingly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-03-30T09:00:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/03\/angels-demons-hanks-god\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/03\/angels-demons-hanks-god\/\",\"name\":\"Angels, demons, Hanks & God\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-03-30T09:00:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-03-30T09:00:51+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\"},\"description\":\"To hear Tom Hanks describe him, the hero who broke \\\"The Da Vinci Code\\\" is an academic superman whose knowledge of art, religion, history and philosophy\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/03\/angels-demons-hanks-god\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/03\/angels-demons-hanks-god\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/03\/angels-demons-hanks-god\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Angels, demons, Hanks & God\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\",\"name\":\"Terry Mattingly\",\"description\":\"On Religion\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\",\"name\":\"tmatt\",\"description\":\"Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. 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{"id":1589,"date":"2009-03-30T05:00:51","date_gmt":"2009-03-30T09:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tmatt.net\/?p=1589"},"modified":"2009-03-30T05:00:51","modified_gmt":"2009-03-30T09:00:51","slug":"angels-demons-hanks-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2009\/03\/angels-demons-hanks-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Angels, demons, Hanks & God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

To hear Tom Hanks describe him, the hero who broke \u201cThe Da Vinci Code\u201d is an academic superman whose knowledge of art, religion, history and philosophy can handle anything.<\/p>\n

But in his next movie adventure, a Vatican official catches Harvard professor Robert Langdon off guard with this eternal question: \u201cDo you believe in God?\u201d<\/p>\n

As a scholar, he says that he will never be able to answer that question. The papal aide then asks what his heart says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt tells me that I\u2019m not meant to,\u201d says Langdon.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Hanks does believe in God and, during early press events for the upcoming movie \u201cAngels & Demons,\u201d he stressed that he isn\u2019t a believer when it comes to conspiracy theories. This puts the superstar in an interesting position since he\u2019s playing the hero in a franchise built on the unorthodox visions of novelist Dan Brown<\/a> \u2014 who is on his way to creating a Universal Unified Field Theory of Vatican Conspiracies.<\/p>\n

\u201cConspiracy theories, I think, are \u2026 conjured up by people who can then sell their books about conspiracy theories,\u201d said Hanks, with a shrug. \u201cAnytime someone says, \u2018You know how they did that? You know what that\u2019s about? You know what the conspiracy is?\u2019, I automatically tune that person out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, looming over the May 15 release of this film is the global firestorm created by Brown\u2019s \u201cThe Da Vinci Code,\u201d which opened with the infamous claim: \u201cAll descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.\u201d The novelist then spun a tale about a charismatic and ultimately human Jesus who married, had a child and tried to create a feminist, sexually liberated faith two millennia before Woodstock.<\/p>\n

Brown wrote \u201cAngels & Demons\u201d before \u201cThe Da Vinci Code,\u201d which became a movie from director Ron Howard. The new film is framed as a sequel, with a tweaked plot that opens with humbled Roman Catholic leaders turning to Langdon for help in unraveling another ancient conspiracy. This time, a shadowy network of freethinkers \u2014 the \u201cIlluminati\u201d \u2014 are seeking revenge by blowing up the Vatican.<\/p>\n

Rome wasn\u2019t amused by \u201cThe Da Vinci Code\u201d and didn\u2019t embrace Howard and crew this time, either. The director was denied permission to enter the Holy See or to film key scenes inside the churches of Santa Maria del Popolo and Santa Maria della Vittoria. As a church spokesman told the Daily Telegraph: \u201cUsually we read the script but in this case it wasn\u2019t necessary. Just the name Dan Brown was enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Howard stressed that his new film includes good Catholic believers as well as bad and that Langdon\u2019s character is forced to develop a \u201cmore complex view of the church.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel that the good and bad believers have to do with the good and bad in their deeds,\u201d said Howard. \u201cBelief is personal and to be respected. But behavior and actions taken on behalf of those beliefs, well that\u2019s something that society has to react to when it\u2019s bad and applaud when it\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, Hanks quoted key lines in which the Swiss Guard commander aims this shot at the hero: \u201cMy church feeds the hungry and takes care of the needs of the poor. What has your church done? Oh, that\u2019s right, Mr. Langdon, you don\u2019t have one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is true,\u201d noted Hanks, whose complex family history included doses of Catholicism, Mormonism<\/a>, the Church of the Nazarene and several years as a Bible-toting evangelical teen-ager. \u201cThe church does feed the poor. It does take care of the hungry. It heals the sick. I think that the grace of God seems to be not only in the eye of the believer, but also in the hands of the believer.\u201d<\/p>\n

These days, he said, he still ponders the big questions, while raising a family with his Greek Orthodox wife, actress Rita Wilson. Miracles are everywhere in daily life, he said, and it\u2019s the \u201cmystery of it all\u201d that continues to haunt him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI must say that when I go to church \u2014 and I do go to church \u2014 I ponder the mystery,\u201d he said. \u201cI meditate on the, \u2018why?\u2019 of \u2018Why people are as they are,\u2019 and \u2018Why bad things happen to good people,\u2019 and \u2018Why good things happen to bad people.\u2019 \u2026 The mystery is what I think is, almost, the grand unifying theory of all mankind.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"