Northern Lights

(a.k.a. The Golden Compass)

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
(Genesis 3:19)

Just finished reading Northern Lights a couple of hours ago. It's set in a parallel universe that has a lot in common with ours. In this world the Christian church is still very powerful, and it doesn't seem like there has been a Reformation.
The book is largely concerned with the discovery of elementary particles called Dust, which are attracted to people. The church believes Dust is the cause of original sin and, ironically, is conduting cruel experiments on children to try and work out how Dust (and sin) might be destroyed.

Apparently some Christian groups have been upset by this book and the rest of the trilogy. I think it's still pretty under the radar though. There'll probably be more of a fuss when the film comes out.
It seems to me more that Philip Pullman's bothered by the church's stumblings into dogmatism and hypocracy than by the Christ himself. I'll see what I think once I've finished the trilogy.