FILM
Hollywood translates The Da Vinci Code

IN THE NORTHEAST
• Catherine Clark Kroeger teaches at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, specializing in women, sexuality and the Bible. She is familiar with the novel and is teaching a course on gnosticism. Contact 508-896-1963, ckroeger@world.std.com.
• Franco Mormando chairs the department of Romance languages and literature at Boston College and has a master's in divinity and church history and a doctorate in Italian literature. Art history is one of his specialties, and he has written about the historical use of Mary Magdalene's image. He says there is much in church history omitted from the official record. Contact 617-552-6346, mormando@bc.edu.
• Ross S. Kraemer teaches religious studies at Brown University in Providence, R.I., and specializes in women's religions in antiquity. Contact 401-863-3104 (department).
• Mark S. Burrows teaches the history of Christianity at Andover Newton Theological School near Boston and wrote "Gospel Fantasy: Dismantling The DaVinci Code" in the June 1, 2004, Christian Century magazine. He says the novel is based on "manifestly bad history." Contact 617-964-1100 ext. 235, mburrows@ants.edu.

IN THE EAST
• Katherine L. Jansen teaches history at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. A specialist in Mary Magdalene, her publications include The Making of the Magdalen: Preaching and Popular Devotion in the Late Middle Ages (Princeton University Press, 2001). She says Brown has created interest in early Christianity. Contact 202-319-5484, jansen@cua.edu.
• Deirdre Good teaches at General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in New York. She has written about early writing outside the accepted body of Christian texts. Contact 212-243-5150, good@gts.edu.
• James H. Charlesworth is a professor of New Testament language and literature at Princeton Theological Seminary. He has written extensively about early Christian texts. Contact 609-497-7920, james.charlesworth@ptsem.edu.
• Philip Jenkins is a professor of history and religious studies at Penn State University and the author of The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice (Oxford University Press, 2003) and Hidden Gospels: How the Search for Jesus Lost Its Way (Oxford University Press, 2002). He says the book is popular because it reflects a suspicion of traditional authority and orthodoxy. Contact 814-863-8946, jpj1@psu.edu.
• Anne McGuire teaches religion at Haverford College. She specializes in research on the Nag Hammadi ancient Christian texts and has taught courses on gnosticism, women in early Christianity and Mary Magdalene. Contact 610-896-1028, amcguire@haverford.edu.
• Diane Apostolos-Cappadona is a professor of religious art and cultural history at Georgetown University who curated the exhibit "In Search of Mary Magdalene: Images and Traditions." She has been interviewed about The Da Vinci Code for a documentary and has written about it on Beliefnet. Contact 202-687-0289, apostold@georgetown.edu.

IN THE SOUTHEAST
• Leo Sandon is professor emeritus of religion and American studies at Florida State University and is a co-author of Religion in America (Prentice Hall, 1982). He says that the novel, which mixes fact and legend, allows readers to participate in debate about religious history. Contact lsandon@garnet.acns.fsu.edu.
• Teresa Berger teaches ecumenical theology at the Divinity School of Duke University, Durham, N.C. She is a Catholic interested in feminist theology and women's role in Christianity. Contact 919-660-3464, tberger@div.duke.edu.
• H. Gregory Snyder is an assistant professor of religion, specializing in early Christianity, at Davidson College in Davidson, N.C. He says that the book has serious historical difficulties and that Brown's claim of accuracy invites challenge from anyone who cares about truth. Contact 704-894-2260, grsnyder@davidson.edu.
• Greg Jones is rector of St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Raleigh, N.C., and author of Beyond Da Vinci (Seabury Books, 2004), a response the theological andhistorical inaccuracies he sees in Dan Brown's book. Contact 919-782-0731, holyrector@yahoo.com.

IN THE SOUTH
• Hundreds of people showed up for discussions in 2003 of The Da Vinci Code at St. John's Episcopal Church, Memphis. Church Rector John Sewel says that people's interest in the book means they are asking what to believe. Contact 901-323-8597, jsewell@stjohnsmemphis.org.
• R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., said in a review in the weblog section of crosswalk.com that the book was engaging but heretical. Contact 502-897-4121, mohler@sbts.edu.
• Amy-Jill Levine is a New Testament scholar at Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville who concentrates on early Christianity and questions of gender. She says The DaVinci Code is fiction and that is how it should be viewed, that Jesus was not married to Mary Magdalene or anyone and was most likely celibate. Contact 615-343-3967, amy-jill.levine@vanderbilt.edu.

IN THE MIDWEST
• Joseph F. Kelly is chairman of the department of religious studies at John Carroll University in the Cleveland area. He has lectured to groups about the book and its claims. He says the book is a work of fiction that has been effective in raising interest in early Christianity, that it rightfully points to the significant role played by women at the time, and that the earliest existing sources of information about Mary Magdalene contain no information about marriage or children. Contact 216-397-4713, kelly@jcu.edu.
• Charles W. Hedrick is an emeritus professor of religious studies at Southwest Missouri State University and has written extensively on early Christianity and ancient texts. His books include When History and Faith Collide: Studying Jesus (Hendrickson Publishers, 1999). He has read The Da Vinci Code. Contact charles@charleshedrick.com.
• Wes Bergen teaches religion at Wichita State University in Wichita, Kan., is the religion chairman for the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association and is also a pastor. He is familiar with Da Vinci. Contact 316-283-0369, wesley.bergen@wichita.edu.
• Margaret M. Mitchell teaches New Testament at the University of Chicago Divinity School. In the Sept. 24, 2003, web-based column Sightings, she called the novel a "good airplane book" that contains historical accuracies as well as falsehoods and misleading statements. Contact 773-702-8236, mmmitche@midway.uchicago.edu.
• Pamela Thimmes is an associate professor of religious studies at the University of Dayton. She has written about trends in research on Mary Magdalene. Contact 937-229-4650, Pamela.Thimmes@notes.udayton.edu.
• Mary Rose D'Angelo teaches theology at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind. She has written extensively about early Christianity and women in Scripture and specifically about Mary Magdalene's identity. Contact 574-631-7040, DAngelo.2@nd.edu.

IN THE SOUTHWEST
• John Martin is a professor of history at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, and the representative for church history for the Renaissance Society of America. He has said the book is entertaining but not historical. Contact 210-999-7624, jmartin@trinity.edu.
• Roy Heller is a professor of Old Testament at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He has spoken at Dallas churches about the novel. He says the religion elements are an interesting sidelight of the plot and its history a mix of accurate and inaccurate. Contact 214-768-2096, rheller@mail.smu.edu.
• Laura Hobgood-Oster teaches religion and philosophy at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. She has written about Mary Magdalene and gnosticism and esoteric Christianity. She says Dan Brown's speculation makes for good fiction and Magdalene's significance has been underestimated, but no documentary evidence supports the idea Jesus and Mary were married. Contact 512-863-1669, hoboster@southwestern.edu.
• Dennis E. Smith teaches New Testament at Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa, Okla., and is a fellow of the Westar Institute, which studies Jesus and early Christianity. Contact 918-610-8303, dennis.smith@ptstulsa.edu.
• Susan J. White is the Alberta H. and Harold L. Lunger Professor of Spiritual Resources and Disciplines at Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. She is also author of A History of Women in Christian Worship (Pilgrim Press, 2003). Contact 817-257-7599, S.J.White@tcu.edu.

IN THE WEST/NORTHWEST
• Margaret Starbird has written extensively about Mary Magdalene and the sacred feminine, including The Woman With the Alabaster Jar: Mary Magdalen and the Holy Grail (Bear & Co., 1993), which is selling as a result of interest prompted by The Da Vinci Code. She lives in the Seattle area. Contact starbird@wa.net.
• Marvin Meyer teaches religious studies and is director of the Albert Schweitzer Institute at Chapman University in Orange, Calif. He has written extensively on early Christianity and ancient texts and practices, most recently The Gospels of Mary: The Secret Tradition of Mary Magdalene, the Companion of Jesus (HarperSanFrancisco, 2004). He plans to see the film and says that interest in Da Vinci means that people are hungry for a new way of seeing tradition and that "we all like a conspiracy theory." Contact 714-997-6602, meyer@chapman.edu.
• Michael Allen Williams, an adjunct religions professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, has written on gnosticism, ancient texts and religious secrecy. Contact maw@u.washington.edu.
• James M. Robinson is the former director of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity at the school of religion at Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, Calif., and a professor emeritus at the school. He is the general editor of The Nag Hammadi Library in English (Harper SanFrancisco, 1990), a compilation of ancient texts that includes The Gospel of Mary. Contact james.robinson@cgu.edu.
• Karen Torjesen teaches the early history of Christianity and women and early Christianity and is dean at the school of religion at Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, Calif. Contact 909-607-9592, karen.torjesen@cgu.edu.