A new survey by The Barna Group touches on the influence of Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code, one of the best-selling fictional books in U.S. history. The film adaptation of Brown's book is set to release Friday.

According to the Barna research, The Da Vinci Code has been read by roughly 45 million adults in the U.S.-one out of every five adults-making it the most widely read book with a spiritual theme, other than the Bible, to have penetrated American homes.

Despite critical comments and warnings from the Catholic Church, American Catholics are more likely than Protestants to have read the novel (24% versus 15%, respectively). Among Protestants, those associated with a mainline church are almost three times more likely than those associated with non-mainline Protestant congregations to have read the book, The Barna Group found.

Individuals labeled “upscale-such as those with a college degree or a household income exceeding $60,000 annually-are nearly four times more likely to have read the book than are their “downscale” counterparts-such as those without a college degree or whose household income is $30,000 or less annually.

Among surveyed adults who have read the entire book, Barna Group reported one out of every four (24%) said the book was either “extremely,” “very” or “somewhat” helpful in relation to their “personal spiritual growth or understanding,” translating to about 11 million adults who consider The Da Vinci Code to have been a helpful spiritual document.

To place that figure in context, the Barna study revealed that another recently published popular novel about Jesus Christ, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne Rice, was deemed to be spiritually helpful by 72% of its readers-three times the proportion who lauded Brown's book.

The study also explored whether or not The Da Vinci Code caused people to change some of their religious beliefs. Among the 45 million who have read The Da Vinci Code, Barna found that only 5%, about two million adults, said they changed any of the beliefs or religious perspectives because of the book's content.

“The book generates controversy and discussions, but it has not revolutionized the way that Americans think about Jesus, the Church or the Bible,” said George Barna, founder of The Barna Group.

“On the other hand, any book that alters one or more theological views among 2 million people is not to be dismissed lightly,” Barna said. “That's more people than will change any of their beliefs as a result of exposure to the teaching offered at all of the nation's Christian churches combined during a typical week.”

Barna found the people most likely to have altered their religious views in response to the book's content were Hispanics (17% of those who read the book), women (three times more likely than male readers to do so) and liberals (twice as likely as conservatives).

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