Playboy magazine is to pull the plug on its Portuguese edition after it ran a photo shoot featuring Jesus Christ among topless models. The spread was ostensibly a tribute to Nobel Prize-winning author Jose Saramago's The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, but Hugh Hefner's headquarters have reacted with outrage.

The pictures show a long-haired, glowing Jesus watching two models in a lesbian clinch, standing next to a prostitute and looking over the shoulder of a woman reading a book. A final, heavily tattooed woman, appears to have died in his arms.

Theresa Hennessy, Playboy Enterprises vice president of public relations told the Mail Online: We did not see or approve the cover and pictorial in the July issue of Playboy Portugal. It is a shocking breach of our standards and we would have not allowed it to be published if we had seen it in advance. We are in the process of terminating our agreement with the Portuguese publisher.

Saramago's novel is a fictional re-telling of Christ's life, depicting him as a flawed, human character. It generated controversy among the Roman Catholic Church, who accused Saramago of depicting a "substantially anti-religious vision."

However, other critics have praised it as a "deeply philosophical, provocative and compelling work."