Dan Brown’s books are enthralling, captivating, and suspenseful page-turners. Each one comes with a religious element mixing dogma, fact, and imagination. Much like “Angels & Demons” and the “Da Vinci Code,” the mixture has the potential to offend. To me, his books have never been anything but thought-provoking. Brown is well researched on every institution he decides to battle. For “The Lost Symbol,” the Masons are in his sights. Again, Brown doesn’t disappoint by sticking to his tried and true formula.

When I read, I search for themes that might have some applicability to my own life. There were two major themes that stood out for me here. The first is this idea that “We Are Gods.” Humans are a powerful species. We are capable of life and death, creation and destruction, invention, and innovation. We give and sustain life through childbirth and in moments of generosity, we help those we deem worthy of our regard. We also take life through war and with our blind eye to poverty, famine, and greed. We build cities and shining metropolises. We tear those same cities down with ideology, dogma, and an unending thirst for renewal. We recognize patterns and invent in an effort to improve our own lives. We innovate in hopes of prolonging human existence. While it may sound like blasphemy to say so, the idea of man’s god-like nature was a profound and thought-provoking idea proposed in this book.

Secondly, Brown seems to admit the power of religion. Our country’s founders were revolutionaries. Creating a democracy and giving birth to a new nation filled with idealism was no easy feat. Our founder’s looked to their religion for strength during those challenging days. They also relied on the power of men to push this idea into fruition. There are moments in this book where Brown seems to credit religion for the foundation from which a nation would be born.

If you decide to pick up this book, I would caution you, as I would with most books you read, to keep an open mind. Like most of Brown’s books, there will be pages, paragraphs, and passages you completely disagree with or might find offensive. Just keep in mind this is meant to be entertainment first and secondly a conversation starter. I have never finished a Dan Brown book thinking he was trying to tempt me into believing something, but the closing of each book has always left me with a smile on my face.

Thanks for entering my world,

-Nathan