STEVEN FINE "Decries 'DaVinci Codification' of Culture" on the BAS website:

The public, and the scholarly world, is faced on an almost monthly basis with “discoveries” by either non-academics or lone academics that fly in the face of the kinds of careful scholarly research for which the academy prides itself. The “DaVinci Codification” of the public imagination is—to a very disturbing degree—affecting our cultural agenda.

While each outburst of new discoveries is truly a “teaching moment” for scholars and clergy and even an opportunity for reflection, my overall sense is that academic scholarship—and with it, our culture—is being damaged by this developing—and for some highly lucrative—discourse.

I think that depends on how willing scholars are to seize those teachable moments and divert them into something constructive.

(Heads-up, Evy Nelson.)