A YORK vicar has spoken of his concerns about Philip Pullman's best-selling trilogy His Dark Materials, claiming the books have deeply anti-Christian overtones.

The Rev Martin Baldock, vicar of Dringhouses, says the stories cast the Church as a dark, brooding negative power, with God portrayed as an "exhausted, powerless, ancient being".

Writing in the parish magazine, The Porch, he said he was surprised how high His Dark Materials came in the BBC's Big Read, a poll of people's favourite works of fiction.

But he told the Evening Press that he had really enjoyed reading the books, and was not suggesting people should avoid reading them or that parents should ban their children from reading them.

"The stories are very good," he said. "I have read all three of them.

"But what is disturbing is that in a complete fiction, you have the Church represented as an evil power, and children who have very little contact with the Church could develop a very negative attitude towards it. It's unhelpful."

Mr Baldock said that for parents to try to ban their children from reading such books would be counter-productive. "If you ban them, that would only make them more attractive," he said.

He said it would be far better for parents to know what books their children were reading and discuss issues raised with them.

Pullman himself has said in an interview that His Dark Materials was the search for a way of looking at big religious questions.

He said: "My own belief is that God is dead, but that we need heaven nonetheless; and since it's no longer possible to believe in a Kingdom of Heaven, we shall have to create a republic."

In the newsletter, Mr Baldock was also critical of another Big Read high flier, Pride And Prejudice, "with its archetypal, spineless clergyman, Mr Collins," but he had nothing but praise for the winner, Lord Of The Rings.

He said there was a big debate about God and spiritual matters going on, but for most people, Church was not part of that debate.

He believed Christians should go out and see the latest films and read the latest books, so they could join the debate with others.

"We'll then be able to link our faith with other people's ideas, opinions and world views.

"Perhaps we ought to run a couple of evenings on how to watch films, how to bring our faith to bear on what the films are saying, and how to look for points of inspiration which there are in many, many films."

Updated: 08:31 Wednesday, February 25, 2004