King's College London and The Da Vinci Code
King's College, part of the University of London, has a respected Religion Department that plays a role in the book The Da Vinci Code. The following article summarizes the history and features of the college, then compares what the book says about King's College to reality.
History
King's College London was founded in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV (in whose honor it is named). In 1836, King's College it became one of the two founding colleges of the University of London. Today, it is the University's largest college, with nearly 25,000 students and staff.
King's College is the main center for the teaching of theology and religion within the University of London, and the college's Department of Theology and Religious Studies celebrated its 150th anniversary in 1996. The department's Subject Benchmark Statement, adopted in 2000, includes the following statement:
The vitality and richness of the subject reflects its significance in the context of a world coming to terms with its cultural and religious diversity. The experience of studying this subject may contribute to a student's personal development, transforming horizons by engaging with cultures and societies other than their own, whether ancient or modern. It may foster a lifelong quest for wisdom, respect for one's own integrity and that of others, self-examination in terms of the beliefs and values adopted for one's own life, and not least, the challenging of prejudices. The multi-disciplinary nature of much of Theology and Religious Studies also means that students have breadth of vision and intellectual flexibility.
What to See
King's College is spread over five campuses throughout central London; the Religion Department is housed in the Strand Campus.
In chapters 92 and 95 of The Da Vinci Code, Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu are at King's College hoping to do computer research on a puzzling clue that refers to "a knight a Pope interred." The book says this about the site:
King's College, established by King George IV in 1829, houses its Department of Theology and Religious Studies adjacent to Parliament on property granted by the Crown. King's College Religion Department boasts not only 150 years' experience in teaching and research, but the 1982 establishment of the Research Institute in Systematic Theology, which possesses one of the most complete and electronically advanced religion research libraries in the world.
...The primary research room was just as Teabing had described it - a dramatic octagonal chamber dominated by an enormous round table around which King Arthur and his knights would have been comfortable were it not for the presence of twelve flat-screen computer workstations.
...[At Langdon's request to use the computers, the librarian] shifted, looking uncertain. 'Normally our services are by petition and appointment only, unless of course you're the guest of someone at the college?'
The librarian eventually allows them to use a computer, and helps them with their search. As they get started, the narration continues:
Over the past two decades, King's College Research Institute in Systematic Theology had used optical character recognition software in unison with linguistic translation devices to digitize and catalogue an enormous collection of texts - encyclopedias of religion, religious biographies, sacred scriptures in dozens of languages, histories, Vatican letters, diaries of clerics, anythinig at all that qualified as writings on human spirituality. Because the massive collection was now in the form of bits and bytes rather than physical pages, the data were infinitely more accessible.
King's College was not used in filming for the novel's screen adaptation.
The setting for the scene in The Da Vinci Code, though not named, is the Reading Room of the Maughan Library on the Strand campus. The reading room is indeed octagonal, with a round table set up with computers.
The Department of Religion and the Maughan Library are located in the college's Strand Campus, north of the Thames near Covent Garden and not far from the Da-Vinci-Code-featured Temple Church. It is not, as The Da Vinci Code states, next to parliament. (St. Thomas' Campus is the one located next to parliament.)
There is also a King's College Research Institute in Systematic Theology. The Department of Religion describes it as follows:
The primary aim of the Research Institute in Systematic Theology is to provide a framework within which postgraduate theological research can be pursued. It holds weekly seminars for staff and postgraduate students, regular day conferences on chosen topics and extended conferences which take place every second year.
The weekly seminars provide students with the opportunity to hear and discuss papers presented by visitors, staff and students.
The conferences, which provide further opportunity for selected postgraduates to present papers, enable students to discuss matters of mutual interest with others engaged in theological research. Recent conference titles were: 'The Doctrine of the Atonement', 'The Doctrine of God and Theological Ethics', 'Theology and Gender', and 'The Theology of Reconciliation'.
A theological publisher, T & T Clark, is publishing as a series the edited papers from these conferences and the following are titles of recent books: Persons, Divine and Human, God and Freedom, Trinitarian Theology Today and The Doctrine of Creation.
The official website of King's College does not seem to mention any recent digitization project as described in The Da Vinci Code; this may be a fictional addition. However, King's College does pride itself on the use of new technology to faciliate learning, and Oxford University is currently cooperating with Google to digitize its extensive library collections.
Quick Facts
| Location: | London, north of the Thames River near Covent Garden |
| Address: | King's College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS |
| Contact: | 020 7836 5454 (Strand campus); 020 7848 2073 (Religion Department) |
| Tube: | Temple, Charing Cross, Embankment |
| Bus: | 6, 7, 13, 23, 76, 521, RV1 |
Sources
- King's College London, Department of Religion - "Research Institutes" (second one down)
- King's College London, Department of Religion - "Departmental Brochure"
- King's College London - "Information Services & Systems"
- King's College London - "Library and Computing Facilities"
- King's College London - "Strand Campus"
- Wikipedia - "King's College London"
