A compilation of the complete published sermons of George MacDonald, some complete and presented in both original and edited formats, others condensed to highlight essential themes. The selections are introduced and briefly placed in their theological and historical context by MacDonald scholar and biographer Michael Phillips. This 400 page volume is one of the most thorough and significant presentations of George MacDonald's groundbreaking and transformational theology ever published and is an indispensable aid in understanding the thought of the 19th century Scotsman and his place in Christian theological history.
The selections included in this book are abridged from the original writings of George MacDonald, and represent a thematic and sequential compilation from the most focused theological treatises among his huge corpus of work. They have been brought together in an orderly exposition of what can be called George MacDonald's "gospel" -- in other words, his perspective on what the good news of Jesus Christ actually is. The twenty main chapters are highlighted by: The True Gospel, The Nature of God, Sin and Salvation, Childship, The Fire of Purification, Hell, Becoming Like Christ, and much more, Ten additional mini-chapters cover such topics as Can Prayer Change God's Mind?, The White Stone, and Opinion and Truth. As one of the world's foremost interpreters of MacDonald's spiritual vision, Michael Phillips insightfully brings out the essential themes in MacDonald's writings. This volume is a companion to his other titles that illuminate various aspects of MacDonald's thought, including George MacDonald's Transformational Theology of the Christian Faith, George MacDonald's Spiritual Vision: An Overview, and George MacDonald and the Late Great Hell Debate. Phillips is also the author of the major biography, George MacDonald, A Writer's Life.
An Introductory Overview of the Theology of George MacDonald, with extensive quotes progressively arranged to provide a backdrop for understanding MacDonald's thought. Notes and compilation by noted MacDonald biographer and expert Michael Phillips. This brief volume of 75 pages represents a companion to the more comprehensive title George MacDonald's Transformation Theology of the Christian Faith.
The Christian Goddess: Archetype and Theology in the Fantasies of George MacDonald, examines this British Victorian writer's employment of female figures to represent Deity. Such symbolism is extremely unusual for a Christian author of this period and anticipates the efforts of many modern theologians to develop an image of God as Mother. Bonnie Gaarden reads the goddess-figures in MacDonald's fantasies as both archetypes of the collective unconscious and as emblems articulating MacDonald's unique Christian theology, which is Trinitarian, Neo-Platonic, mystical and universalist. The goddesses become the central figures around which the author develops her interpretations of MacDonald's adult fantasy-novels, his children's books and some of his fairy tales. These readings discover MacDonald's ideas about God and the nature of good and evil, models of spiritual and psychological development that foreshadow the theories of Carl Jung and Eric Neumann, and acerbic commentary on the values and customs of Victorian society and religion. According to The Christian Goddess, MacDonald's Romantic belief in God's self-revelation in Nature led him to create Nature-mothers (such as the Green Lady in 'The Golden Key' and Lilith's Eve) which evoke both the Great Mother archetype described by Eric Neumann, and the modern neopagan Great Mother as developed in the works of James Frazer, Robert Graves, and Marija Gimutas. MacDonald dramatized his view of evil and its cure in the title character of Lilith, a Terrible Mother archetype historically embodied in the Hindu goddess Kali. MacDonald's notion of the world as Keat's 'vale of Soulmaking,' also elaborated by religious philosopher John Hick, is conveyed by Magic Cauldron archetypes in The Wise Woman, 'The Gray Wolf,' and Lilith. Muse-figures in Phantastes and At the Back of the North Wind express MacDonald's conviction that a 'right imagination' is the voice of God, while Divine Children in The Wise Woman and 'The Golden Key' communicate his belief that 'true childhood' is the Divine nature. The great-grandmother in the Princess books, a personification of the multi-dimensional activity of Divine Wisdom, springs from the Judeo-Christian Sophia and the classical Athena, while Kore figures in The Princess and the Goblin, Lilith, and Phantastes re-present the transforming descents of Persephone and Christ. This book shows MacDonald's fantasies as a chronological bridge, anchored in the traditions of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, incorporating the teachings of Christian mysticism and theistic Romanticism, and linking to the contemporary concerns in Western society that have given birth to the New Age. The Christian goddess portrayed in these fantasies may strike the reader as a Deity whose time has come.
The chapters presented here reproduce the introductions of Phillips' lengthier volume George MacDonald's Transformational Theology of the Christian Faith, which also includes the full text of each sermon along with its introduction. These two overlapping companion-volumes offer one of the most delightfully thorough and significant presentations of MacDonald's groundbreaking and transformational theology ever published. Together, they are an indispensable aid in understanding the thought of the 19th-century Scotsman, and forever cement his place in Christian theological history.
Parables--used by Jesus to reveal to us the kingdom of God, used to move us from being bystanders to active recipients of God's work of revelation--are constantly at risk of being buried as "mummies of prose," as George MacDonald puts it. We become so familiar with the language of Scripture that Jesus' parables no longer work on us in this revelatory and transforming way. George MacDonald, the Victorian poet and theologian, observed this very process at work in Victorian society. It was a culture saturated with Christian jargon but often devoid of a profound understanding of the gospel for its own time and culture. The language of Scripture no longer penetrated people's hearts, imaginations, and attitudes; it no longer transformed people's lives. MacDonald, called to be a pastor, turned to story and more specifically the "parabolic" as a means of spiritual awakening. He created fictive worlds in which the language of Jesus would find a new home and regain its revelatory power for his particular Victorian audience.
Devotional selections from the poetry, sermons, and fiction of the great Victorian author George MacDonald. One of the nineteenth-century's greatest thinkers, George MacDonald has inspired generations with his powerful stories and sermons. Now his words of wisdom are available in a series of devotionals compiled and edited by the MacDonald scholar and author of George MacDonald: Scotland’s Beloved Storyteller. Discovering the Character of God presents brief, daily readings from MacDonald’s poetry, sermons, and fiction. Each offers deep insight into God’s loving character and the harmony that exists between his mercy and his justice. MacDonald’s imaginative perception of God's presence and handiwork in every facet of life lead the reader on an enriching path of discovery.
The imagination has been called, 'the principal organ for knowing and responding to disclosures of transcendent truth'. This book probes the theological sources of the imagination, which make it a vital tool for knowing and responding to such disclosures. Kerry Dearborn approaches areas of theology and imagination through a focus on the nineteenth century theologian and writer George MacDonald. MacDonald can be seen as an icon whose life and work open a window to the intersection of word, flesh and image. He communicated the gospel through narrative and image-rich forms which honour truth and address the intellectual, imaginative, spiritual, and emotional needs of his readers. MacDonald was also able to speak prophetically in a number of areas of contemporary concern, such as the nature of suffering, aging and death, environmental degradation, moral imagination and gender issues. Dearborn explores influences which shaped him, along with the wisdom he has offeredin the formation of significant Christian writers in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Authors such as C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, Dorothy Sayers, J.R.R. Tolkien, W.H. Auden, Frederick Buechner and others attribute to MacDonald key paradigm shifts and insights in their own lives. A study of MacDonald does not offer a formulaic approach to theology and the imagination, but the possibility of gleaning from his rich harvest relevant nourishment for our own day. It also provides a context in which to assess potential weaknesses in imaginative approaches to theology.
