Other points of LDS interest include the role of women in the early church vs. their role today. They believe Joseph Smith "restored" Christ's original church to Earth, rather than simply "reforming" a corrupted Christian church as early Protestant leaders had done. Women do not hold the faith's priesthood, which is reserved only for worthy men.

Huntsman opened his lecture by reaffirming LDS belief in the New Testament gospels, and prefaced the rest of his remarks with the admonition that readers of "The Da Vinci Code" must keep in mind the difference between the historical figures who actually lived and the literary figures, which Mary Magdalene in particular has become in Brown's book.

He noted there is no solid historical basis for the assertion that Mary was anything other than a close friend and disciple of Christ. While Latter-day Saints and most Christians consider the New Testament a reliable historical and spiritual document, the same can't be said for the Gnostic texts, Huntsman said, which were written after the first century B.C. and are not generally believed to have been authored by the disciples whose names they bear.

That's where much of the fact/fiction arises for readers.

In a foreword to the book, Brown claims that "all descriptions of documents and secret rituals are accurate," and he lists reference works of renowned religion scholars, including Elaine Pagels, a professor of religious studies at Princeton. Pagels visited BYU and presented a forum lecture a few years ago on the "Gnostic Gospels." She authored a book by the same name.

Pagels and another renowned religion scholar, Karen King of Harvard Divinity School, have both written and lectured extensively on the extrabiblical texts and their implications for wider understanding of the role that Mary and other women may have played in the early Christian church. King released a book last year titled "The Gospel of Mary of Magdala." The role of the "sacred feminine" and its subjugation throughout Christian history has emerged as a growing area of scholarship, in part through their efforts. Such theories form a major plot within "The Da Vinci Code."

Interpretations of early documents on Christianity are always subject to the "biases and agendas and objectives" of those who are writing about them, Huntsman said. Ultraconservative Bible scholars would consider them "heresy" or ideas "the early church fathers just made up." Moderates examine the traditions reflected in such works, including that which mirrors what is found in the New Testament, noting that some "plain and precious things have (had) a tendency to slip out" of sacred texts over time.