The former abbot of the Skete of the Forerunner [Mount Athos], Fr. Petroniu Tanase, talks about Christians reading harmful books like ‘The Da Vinci Code’.
He states that a genuine Christian should be interested in reading the Bible and not heretical books (as Holy Fathers also said), because in doing so he harms himself by introducing deleterious impressions into his mind.
Fr. Petroniu the Athonite:
“Why should I take harmful things if I don’t need them? I want to be healthy… Why to harm myself? It’s of no use for you…
Man, do you buy from the pharmacy a medicine that harms you? Without prescription? No… because it harms you… Then why to take dirty and foreign things? Take good thing that brings you spiritual benefit…”