Could the next Harry Potter be a devout Christian?

As the days wend away from last week's big reveal, when a breathless world learned the fate of the teenage wizard, a new breed of fantasy fiction, with Potter-style stories, is emerging.

Like the Potter series, it has mystical creatures, macabre events, epic battles and heroic young protagonists. Unlike the Potter books, this genre has overt Christian tones: messiah-like kings who return from the dead, fallen satanic characters and young heroes who undergo profound conversions. What you won't generally find are humans waving wands and performing spells.

Christian fantasy, which had been a slow seller, has caught fire recently, industry analysts say, ignited by the success of the Potter series, which has sent some Christian readers looking for alternatives.

Secular and Christian publishers are churning out titles aimed at the lucrative and growing audience of readers, who are snapping up an estimated $2.4 billion in Christian books a year — about a 30 percent increase in the past four years.

Some Christian religious leaders and Christian parents have expressed unease with the Potter series, believing, among other issues, that humans' use of magic is forbidden by the Bible. The series is on the American Library Association's list of most frequently challenged books at school libraries.

Tapping into that unease are an increasing number of Christian writers who are producing Potteresque books without the elements that some Christians say violate the Bible.

"For a Christian family who's a little skeptical of some of the messages in the Harry Potter books, then they would find my books safe," said Wayne Batson, a Howard County, Md., middle school teacher who has written a popular three-book fantasy series called the Door Within. His latest book, "Isle of Swords," part of a new series, is due out next month.

The growth in Christian fantasy books is part of the recent escalation in sales of Christian fiction.

"Fiction has probably been the strongest category within the Christian book explosion," said Jana Riess, religion reviews editor for Publishers Weekly. "It's definitely leading the way."

The use of magical powers by humans is a controversial theme for Christian writers and readers.

"If God says these things are wrong, unless you don't believe in the Bible, you don't want to argue with God," said Marcia Montenegro, an Arlington, Va., author and speaker who campaigns against what she calls the use of the occult in the Potter books and in popular culture.

Many religious leaders have rejected such objections. They have said that the books have a strong moral message. Some even see Christian symbolism in them.

Nonetheless, critics have said that J.K. Rowling's series gives Harry Potter deity-like powers, although he has no known religion. Critics also say the books lack a definitive portrayal of good and evil. (Harry does engage in some occasional fibbing, and his skills at deceiving adults are well-honed). A few critics have said that the lightning-bolt scar on Harry's forehead represents the mark of the antichrist.

Rowling has dismissed such claims as "absurd."