Dan Brown's controversial novel has made him unpopular in some religious circles, but there's no doubt that The Da Vinci Code has got people debating the Bible, as well as giving the Catholic church a platform from which to stimulate interest in Christianity.

Eighteen million people worldwide have read The Da Vinci Code, which contends that Jesus survived crucifixion, married Mary Magdalene and fathered a succession of French kings.

The claims have sent the Catholic Church into a spin. One of its most senior figures, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone - the Archbishop of Genoa - has dismissed the novel's assertion that Christ's bloodline survives, and that the church has been trying to cover it up for more than 2,000 years.

Canon Robin Gamble of Manchester Cathedral thinks the furore is excessive. This week, he attracted 400 Brown disciples to a Da Vinci Code night at the cathedral. Four experts were on hand to help separate fact from fiction.

"I think the people who try to distance the church from the book are being stupid," said Canon Gamble. "Look how many people are here tonight. For too long Old Trafford has been the cathedral of Manchester. If we can get people in the church to talk about Jesus, and to discuss religion and spirituality, that can only be a good thing."

So was the whole evening just a recruitment drive for the church, disguised as a book club? "No," he insists. "We're just getting people talking about the real Easter story, and giving them the opportunity to talk to our experts. Then they can make up their own minds."

First up was Reverend Dr Frankie Ward, who has campaigned for sexual equality in the Catholic church. "There's no doubt that Brown's portrayal of women within the Catholic church has a large basis in fact," she said.

"Women have been squeezed out of the mainstream church in the past, and this is exemplified in its portrayal of Mary Magdalene as an almost demonic figure. I think it's missing the point to debate whether or not Jesus had a sexual relationship with her. His real message was one of equality."

This statement clearly irritated Therese Gergeli, a pensioner from Manchester, who says the mere idea of Jesus letting Mary sit next to him at the Last Supper is blasphemous. "Jesus wasn't a man, he was God. To say that he may have had a sexual relationship with a human woman is utter rubbish."

One of the church's main gripes at Brown's retelling of Christian history concerns the Gnostic Gospels, which the book says tell an alternative version to that recorded by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. That much is true, says Dr Sean Winter, who teaches the New Testament at the Partnership for Theological Education in Manchester, but there the similarities end.

"I'd no more use this book for an insight into early Christian history than I'd use Carry On Cleo for an insight into the early Roman Republic," he said. "Brown obviously did his research but he's been selective with his facts. For example, the book claims the Gnostic Gospels were left aside because they showed too much of Jesus' humanity. In fact, it's completely the other way around. The Gnostics actually portray Jesus at his most divine."

But what the book has done, says Dr Winter, is show that there are inconsistencies in the Gospels, and in what various academics and scholars believe. "In Luke's Gospel there are two Holy Grails, because Jesus has communion before and after the Last Supper. So there may be two of them out there to look for," he said.

The most contentious assertion in the book for many Christians is that Jesus was not resurrected because he did not die on the cross. So did he pull off history's greatest illusion by faking his death on the cross? Reverend Daniel Clark, author of a forthcoming book on the Easter story, thinks not.

"If Jesus didn't die and rise again, then my whole world would come tumbling down," he said. "Everything I've ever lived for would be taken away. And, of course, I'd be out of a job."

Mr Clark does not think The Da Vinci Code has damaged the church. Far from it, he says. "It's done something that the church has failed to do for 2,000 years, much to its discredit, and that is to engage people with the story of Jesus.

"The danger lies when people take everything they read as the truth, but I don't think that's happened, or we wouldn't be talking about it here tonight."

Canon Gamble said the night had been a huge success because, in Dan Brown's own words: "Everyone loves a conspiracy."