Some years ago I read Umberto Eco's book, Foucault's Pendulum. This is a 600 page tour de force. Focault's Pendulum is about three editors who cook up a hoax involving the Knights Templar, Stonehenge, the Kabbalah, the Rosicruicians and Brazilian voodoo -among other things - that suddenly becomes all too real. I got to the end and wondered what it was all about. The only conclusion I could come to was that it was a satire about the occult and the conspiracy-type theories they breed. But after all these years, I think I may have Eco's own answer to my question of what it is all about. It is here in a simple article which speaks to our current spiritual condition. And in all this, Eco still builds the Christmas crib with his grandson.As a postscript, I should add that I have not bothered to read the Da Vinci Code. Having read Focault's Pendulum and Holy Blood Holy Grail (whose authors are suing Dan Brown) and having a theological understanding of gnosticism I didn't feel so inclined.
