While many reputable scholars have responded to Dan Brown's novel, I would like to acknowledge the work of two in particular whose work has helped me to more adequately express key problems in the arguments put forward by the characters in the book.
Author	Title
Bart Ehrman	Truth and Fiction in the Da Vinci Code: A Historian Reveals What We Really Know about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Constantine  ($13.60)
	Bart Ehrman is a well known author who has published several infuential works on Early Christianity. He teaches in the Religion Department at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Margaret M. Mitchell	"Cracking the Da Vinci Code," Sightings, September 24, 2003 (Free online)
	Margaret Mitchell is Associate Professor of New Testament and Early Christian Literature in the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. She also serves in the Department of New Testament and Early Christian Literature.
Here are a few more works that address the cultural/religious context of early Christianity:
Author	Title
Bart Ehrman	Lost Christianities: The Battle for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew ($19.80)
	Lost Scriptures: Books That Did Not Make It into the New Testament ($12.00)
	Bart Ehrman is a well known author who has published several infuential works on Early Christianity. He teaches in the Religion Department at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza	In Memory of Her: A Feminist Reconstruction of Christian Origins  ($27.50)
	Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza is the Krister Stendahl Professor of Scripture and Interpretation in the Divinity School at Harvard University. She has contributed enourmously to scholarship on Early Christianity.
Karen L. King	The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle  ($17.00)
	Karen King is Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the Divinity School at Harvard University.
Ramsay MacMullen	Paganism in the Roman Empire  ($19.00)
	Ramsay MacMullen teaches in the Department of History at Yale University. He is a widely recognized expert on the social, economic, administrative and religious history of the Roman empire.
Marvin W. Meyer, ed.	The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook (Sacred Texts of the Mystery Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean World)  ($14.93)
Marvin Meyer	The Gospels of Mary : The Secret Tradition of Mary Magdalene, the Companion of Jesus  ($12.21)
	Marvin Meyer teaches at Chapman University and is the author of many books and articles on the Greco-Roman context of Early Christianity.
Karen J. Torjesen	When Women Were Priests: Women's Leadership in the Early Church and the Scandal of Their Subordination in the Rise of Christianity  ($10.17)
	Karen Torjesen teaches at Clairmont Graduate University and has published significant work on the roles of women in Early Christianity.
Here are three other documents available on the web that offer responses to the arguments put forward by characters in The Da Vinci Code:
Richard Bernier	"A Brief Response to Some Claims of The  Da Vinci Code" (a Catholic perspective available free online)
	Richard  Bernier is associate director and assistant to the chaplain at the Newman Centre of McGill University.
Collin Hansen	"Breaking the Da Vinci Code," Christian History and Biography at ChristianityToday.com
	Collin Hansen is Editorial Resident for Christian History magazine.
Craig Keener	"The Da Vinci Code, Corrected: Why the 'lost gospels' were really lost" Christian History, Spring 2004
	Craig Keener holds a Ph.D. from Duke University, and currently serves as Professor of New Testament Studies at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary. His article focusses on the issue of canonization of the biblical literature.
To read Dan Brown's response to criticisms of the history discussed in his novel, see Dan Brown's own web page. He gives a very reasonable assessment of the goals of his work.
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