The Right Rev. Carolyn Tanner Irish, bishop of Utah's Episcopal Diocese, said she read the book "as a novel. I don't understand it to be any authoritative part of church history. Some people dislike and are suspicious of the church, and it probably feeds more suspicion. Frankly, people enjoy a conspiracy theory. It's amazing how they feed the whole cultural thing that's going on right now more than anything truthful."

While she said the book was a "good read," she doesn't plan to see the movie, and is surprised by the story line's staying power.

Ron Huggins, professor of early Christian history at the Salt Lake Theological Seminary, is offering a four-session class to discuss the historical claims made in the book. Christian scholars across the spectrum have refuted the book's claims, he said, though recent discussion he dubbed "PBS lite religion" among some liberal Christian scholars about the Gnostic gospels has helped fuel the book's claims, he said.

"You have this group of talking heads that show up on documentaries and PBS stuff and claim the Gnostic gospels are as early or significant as the canonical ones," in the New Testament. "It's not so much that they are rewriting Christian history," as some critics have claimed. "They're looking at it from a different perspective. When a traditional Christian looks at the Bible and its claims, they see it as what the historical Jesus was like."

Some scholars put extra-biblical texts, like the recently touted Gospel of Judas, on par with scripture, he said, and see "spirituality more as the aspiration of the human spirit. They see those claims in the New Testament that don't seem true and maybe the claims of Gnostics are not true either, but they argue they should be given equal footing." Most such texts claim Jesus was mortal, rather than divine. "Da Vinci" author Brown used translations of some parts of the Gnostic texts — which supposedly contain "gnosis" or secret knowledge kept from the church at large — as the basis for assertions of conspiracy and coverup.

Huggins believes the publication of the Gospel of Judas just weeks before Easter and the upcoming "Code" film "was quite intentional," citing other Christian authors who have speculated as much.

Unlike some who have railed against both the Gnostic gospels and the upcoming film, he believes both may encourage people to "look a little harder" at early Christian history "and maybe actually read some of the Gnostic texts and some of the less sensational things about them."

Many may do just that, according to a recent poll of 1,200 adults commissioned by the Southern Baptist Convention. Reported this week by Baptist Press, it showed 44 percent "were more likely to seek the truth by studying the Bible" as a result of the book, while 23 percent of Americans had read the novel and 43 percent are familiar with its content.

Among those who had read the book, "more than 60 percent believed that the Bible is closer to the truth, while only 10 percent" believed the novel is more truthful.

---

E-mail: carrie@desnews.com