London ? He’s been attacked by evangelical Christians as glamorizing the occult, but young wizard Harry Potter could be a powerful means of spreading the gospel, an ecumenical church group said.

A new booklet published recently by Churches Together in Britain and Ireland cites J.K. Rowling’s best-selling books as a good way of illustrating important themes like the battle between good and evil.

The Harry Potter books “ask people to look again at the selfish material world and the presence within it of Christian values truth, love and, supremely, self-giving and sacrifice,” says the booklet, which accompanies a book on mission entitled “Presence and Prophesy.”