It would seem that even Latter-day Saint intellectuals aren't immune to the allure of Dan Brown's widely read thriller "The Da Vinci Code." Brown's best seller will be the focus of two panel discussions at the 2004 Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium, and Brown himself might be intrigued by the topic of this year's keynote address, "Reclaiming Magdalene: The Lost Bride in Christian Mythology."

The symposium, held annually since 1979, is sponsored by the independent, nonprofit Sunstone Foundation based in Salt Lake City. This year's gathering begins Wednesday and runs through Aug. 14 at the Salt Lake Sheraton City Centre.

Attendees can choose from among a variety of presentations, panels and workshops -- 90 sessions in all -- focused on social, cultural and religious themes connected to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There is no formal affiliation between the church and the Sunstone Foundation, established in the mid-1970s by students at the University of California, Berkeley.

True to its roots at the famously liberal university, the foundation -- via its principal forums, the symposium and Sunstone magazine -- gives voice to a wide range of perspectives, including those critical of church doctrine and leadership.

For that reason, many believe that a statement issued by LDS Church leadership in 1991 was intended to discourage church members from involvement with Sunstone. The statement discourages participation in unofficial "symposia" -- there is no explicit reference to Sunstone or other groups -- and recommends that believing Latter-day Saints strive "to be sensitive to those matters that are more appropriate for private conferring and correction than for public debate."

Whatever the intent of the statement, the symposium has continued.

John Hatch, one of the Sunstone Foundation's four full-time employees and the symposium coordinator, said arranging the symposium is not as complicated as might be supposed.

"We put out a call for papers and people send them in. It's a fairly simple process." Hatch, 27, said the number of submissions varies from year to year, but accumulating 90 sessions' worth of material has never been a problem in his three years' tenure with the foundation.

The Smith-Pettit Lecture, inaugurated in 2003 by Martin Luther King III, is the only event at the four-day conference that is free and open to public.

This year's lecture, slated for Wednesday at 8 p.m., will be given by Margaret Starbird, a scholar and author who has written several books -- including two cited by Brown as being pivotal to the shaping of "The Da Vinci Code" -- about "the sacred feminine in the Christian tradition."

Hatch, who currently attends the University of Utah and was an assistant manager at Deseret Book prior to joining Sunstone, said the theme of feminine divinity will be echoed in other presentations and panels. But there's a wide range of topics on tap.

Jan Shipps, an emeritus professor of religious studies and history at Indiana University-Purdue University and a widely respected authority on Mormonism, will discuss the ways that prophets and prophecy have shaped the church. The modern view of the polygamous practices of early church members will be reviewed by Kathleen Flake, an assistant professor of American religious history at Vanderbilt, and D. Michael Quinn, a historian and former professor at Brigham Young University. And former Deseret Morning News columnist Clifton Jolley tackles the paradox of having both Mormon and Jewish heritage.

Some presentations will have a casual, even lighthearted tone: Kay Gillespie, a professor of criminal justice at Weber State University is scheduled to deliver his popular "Anti-Claus" lecture, which considers the enduring link between Santa Claus and celebrating the birth of Christ.

Others will be more academic, both in scope and format: Duane Jeffery, a professor of integrative biology at BYU, will discuss the Old Testament flood and review recent research that suggests a geologic event may be the basis for both the biblical account and the flood mythology of other cultures.

Jeffery said his presentation focuses on the proposal of Columbia University researchers William Ryan and Walter Pitman -- set forth in their 2000 book "Noah's Flood" -- that a cataclysmic flood in 5600 B.C. swept away a landform occupying the present-day Bosporus strait and created the Black Sea.

The flood, Jeffery said, "has major importance in understanding the Hebrew people. But it's always been difficult to accept it as event history."

Dan Wotherspoon, executive director of the Sunstone Foundation and editor of Sunstone magazine -- the five-times yearly journal is the foundation's primary enterprise -- said that he expects to see a lot of familiar faces at this year's gathering.

Wotherspoon, 45 and a BYU graduate, assumed leadership of Sunstone in January 2001 from longtime director Elbert Peck and has been regularly attending the Salt Lake symposium for a little more than a decade. "I'd say that about 60 to 70 percent of our attendees are people who come every year."

That's one reason, as Wotherspoon sees it, the symposium's future is far from assured: The generation that founded Sunstone still forms the largest body of its adherents.

"The younger generations don't seem to be a conference-going people," Wotherspoon said. "We've had young people starting to get involved, but we're very much fighting for people."

In 2003, students were allowed to attend the Salt Lake symposium free for the first time. Donations have made it possible to extend the same courtesy again this year.

Overall attendance at the symposium (expected to be in the neighborhood of 1,000 people) is on the rebound, Wotherspoon said, though the numbers are still recovering from a plunge in the early '90s. Perhaps not surprisingly, the dropoff coincided with the '91 statement by church leadership to avoid symposia.

Hatch said he thinks the statement was a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. "It scared a lot of the more conservative element away."

Church leadership may not have named Sunstone in 1991, but it's not difficult to see why many would assume the foundation was being singled out. For example, the preliminary program for the 2004 Salt Lake symposium features a prominent ad purchased by a splinter religious movement that bills itself Reform Mormonism.

Among the tenets espoused by Reform Mormons, listed at the movement's official Web site, is the belief that God does not require obedience and the belief that all scripture and sacred writing are art and therefore not to be taken literally.

As Wotherspoon sees it, permitting dissident voices is a matter of openness: "We don't want to get a reputation for people coming in and blackballing the church. But we're very committed to having an open forum. It's kind of a balancing act."

A balancing act that may be achieving its aim -- Hatch said a survey conducted last year revealed participation from a healthy contingent of "faithful, traditional, believing Mormons." Hatch said his own experience has been that only a very few people with attitudes hostile to Mormonism turn up at the symposium.

Bill Bradshaw, a BYU microbiologist and presenter at the 2004 symposium, echoed Hatch's sentiment and said he thinks Sunstone's negative reputation is undeserved: "The symposium is a forum for discussion."

Bradshaw, who is scheduled to participate in two panel discussions in addition to presenting a paper that investigates applying standards of academic teaching to LDS Sunday School classes, said Sunstone provides an opportunity to discuss topics pertinent to his long-term research interests.

Jeffery equally enjoys participating and thinks it's important for active Latter-day Saints to be present. "When antagonistic views have been expressed, they're often quickly put into perspective by active and dedicated church members who are in attendance."

Jeffery also offered a bit of friendly advice for potential attendees: "There's a much higher level of knowledge of Mormon history and doctrine at Sunstone than is typical in Mormon congregations. Anyone who goes ought to be sure that they're well-informed if they intend to participate."

2004 Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium

Where: Salt Lake Sheraton City Centre, 150 W. 500 South, Salt Lake City

When: Sessions daily, Wednesday through Aug. 14

Cost: $75 for full advance registration ($65 for "Sunstone" magazine subscribers, $50 for first-time attendees)

Info: www.sunstoneonline.com, (801) 355-5926

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page B1.