The Bible is full of miracles. Yet how do we make sense of them today? And where might we see miracles in our own lives? In this installment of the Hansen Lectureship series, historian and theologian Timothy Larsen considers the legacy of George MacDonald, the Victorian Scottish author and minister who is best known for his pioneering fantasy literature, which influenced authors such as C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, G. K. Chesterton, and Madeleine L’Engle. Larsen explores how, throughout his life and writings, MacDonald sought to counteract skepticism, unbelief, naturalism, and materialism and to herald instead the reality of the miraculous, the supernatural, the wondrous, and the realm of the spirit. Based on the annual lecture series hosted at Wheaton College’s Marion E. Wade Center, volumes in the Hansen Lectureship Series reflect on the imaginative work and lasting influence of seven British authors: Owen Barfield, G. K. Chesterton, C. S. Lewis, George MacDonald, Dorothy L. Sayers, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams.

I hope to serve God & to be delivered not only from the punishment of sin, but also from its power. . . . I wish to be delivered from myself. I wish to be made holy. My hope is in God.

I personally did not like the book one bit. It was recommended to me as one of the lectures to be read in a lifetime but for me it was just an analysis of MacDonald and a series of essays on doubt, religion as a whole, incarnation, all delivered with little quotes from the great writers of that time like Elliott. There’s poetry interpretation, there’s a link attempted to every art – it’s just that it put me to sleep multiple times.

When young we must not mind what the world calls failure; as we grow old, we must not be vexed that we cannot remember, must not regret that we cannot do, must not be miserable because we grow weak or ill.

https://bobonbooks.com/2022/03/14/review-george-macdonald-in-the-age-of-miracles/

At least other people loved it.

In MacDonald’s theological vision, creation is loaded with a superabundance of gifts: it fulfills not only our physical needs but also our cognitive ones. Creation, in short, has been composed with the whole human person in mind.