Speaking to a group filling the Sun Room of the Memorial Union, David Hunter, professor of religious studies, discussed reactions to Dan Brown’s book “The Da Vinci Code.”

Many in the audience said they enjoyed reading the book.

“I ended up reading it,” said John Homer, of Ames . “It’s a fictional book, and I enjoyed reading it. But, it was in an anti-Catholic sense, and it wasn’t meant to be taken too seriously.”

Many people do not consider the book to be completely historically accurate. Brown interweaves fact and fiction throughout the book, making it difficult to differentiate between the two at times, said John DeWyze, junior in English.

“As a fiction it’s really good,” DeWyze said.

Some in the audience said they thought Brown wrote the book to intentionally meld fact and fiction.

“I think Dan Brown believed much of the stuff he put in there,” said Roland Weigel, of Ames. “He’s not a Catholic.”

The overall audience sentiment toward Brown was skeptical.

“I figured the answer [to the book] in the first couple of chapters,” said John Donaghy, campus minister at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, 2210 Lincoln Way. “There are so many things that aren’t correct, and it’s interesting that it’s taken off.”

He said there were three aspects that made “The Da Vinci Code” a success: sex, violence and religion.

“It’s not going away,” said Nikki Bado-Fralick, assistant professor of religious studies. “It’s still on the top-10 list.”

Bado-Fralick said she is teaching an honors class that is covering “The Da Vinci Code.” Brown’s book places a woman, specifically Mary Magdalene, as a wife of Jesus Christ.

“I think people today are thirsty for the divine feminine,” she said.

For a long time, Mary Magdalene was considered a prostitute. The Vatican denounced this idea in the mid-20th century, Bado-Fralic said.

Society is still taught a woman must be “a mother, a wife or a hooker,” she said.

She believes there is a better feminine position to place Magdalene rather than Jesus’ wife.