S7E33 – AH – “MacDonald Month: George’s Theology”, After Hours with Dr. Kerry Dearborn

Dr. Kerry Dearborn joins David to discuss the theology and imagination of George MacDonald.

S7E33: “MacDonald Month: George’s Theology” (Download)

Show Notes

Introduction

Quote-of-the-week

I know hardly any other writer who seems to be closer, or more continually close, to the Spirit of Christ Himself.

C. S. Lewis

Biographical Information

Dr. Kerry Dearborn completed her BA at Whitman College, her MA at Fuller Theological Seminary, and her PhD at University of Aberdeen in Scotland. She taught theology at Seattle Pacific University between 1994 and 2016, where she became a full professor and is now professor emerita. She also taught for Fuller Seminary Extension in Seattle, and at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. She is the author of “Drinking from the Wells of New Creation: The Holy Spirit and the Imagination in Reconciliation” and “Baptized Imagination: The Theology of George MacDonald” along with various book chapters and journal articles. She has been married for 52 years to Tim Dearborn, and they have three daughters, and 8 grandchildren.

Chit-Chat

I have never concealed the fact that I regarded [MacDonald] as my master; indeed I fancy I have never written a book in which I did not quote from him.

C. S. Lewis, George MacDonald: An Anthology

Toast

• David had a cup of Earl Grey Tea.
• Dr. Dearborn had some English Breakfast Tea.

Discussion

01. “Encountering MacDonald”

Q. When did you discover MacDonald for yourself, and when did he become a subject of serious study?

• A friend gave her “Diary of an Old Soul” in college, a book about faith persisting through suffering. While reading her way through Lewis, she kept hearing him make references to the author.

02. “Calvinism to Celtic Theology”

Q. MacDonald’s theology is a big topic, so let’s take a step back. Who were MacDonald’s influences?

• George grew up under the influence of a rigid federal Calvinism, but through an encounter with Jesus in university, came to conceive of God as a God of love, rather than will and power. He wrote about this in his novel “Robert Falconer”, a book Lewis recommended to his stepson.
• Through his Celtic Christianity, he gained an understanding of God through nature and art, and discovered the joy that God wanted us to live life in. He came to crack open the works of philosophers such as Plato, poets like Samuel Taylor Coleridge, _________, William Wordsworth, and Novalis. He also dove into theologians, including F. D. Maurice and A. J. Scott, both of which had a particularly strong influence on his views of the nature of God and His presence.
• MacDonald often contrasted his newfound Celtic Christianity with the Calvinism of his youth. He wrote about it in his novel “David Elginbrod”…

Dear old Scotland has the sweetest songs in its cottages and the worst singing in its churches of any country in the world.

George MacDonald, David Elginbrod

03. “A Prophetic Figure”

Q. In our correspondence, you described MacDonald as a rather prophetic figure of his time. In what way?

• MacDonald’s view of Christianity was holistic; we should aspire to love God completely, not just intellectually ascend to him. He called for a kind of orthopraxy (right practice) rather than orthodoxy (right doctrine). He also advocated for an increased acceptance and attention to art and imagination in churches, in order to instil an orthopathy (right feeling) in the congregation.

The imagination is necessary for awakening the deeper truths in us, and having the dull ember within us set alight to offer warmth and enhanced vision.

George MacDonald

• MacDonald was also prophetic in calling for compassion and care for the creation of God. God made creation good, thus it was made for tender care rather than exploitation.
• George also held fast to the belief that all were created in the image of God, and worthy of right treatment, including those of a lower stature in society. He practiced these through many hospitable acts, and worked alongside the social reformer Octavia Hill.

04. “God Saw That It Was Good”

Q. You mentioned creation care. Can you expand upon that?

• MacDonald had a sacramental view of creation. He demonstrated this in his story “The Princess and Curdie”, opening with rich descriptions of the landscape and connecting it to the singing of the angels. The book also dives into exploitation, as the king’s greed leads to the destabilisation of the city’s foundation, leading to its destruction.
• Characters’ spiritual development begins when they spend time in nature, as he recognised that Jesus taught, through his parables, to learn from creation.

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith?

Matthew 6:25-30

05. “The Last Shall Be First”

Q. Related to the care of creation is care of the pinnacle of creation: humankind. MacDonald had a particular emphasis on issues related to human dignity. Would you mind telling us a little more about that?

 So the last will be first, and the first last.

Matthew 20:16

• MacDonald lived in a time where the eugenics movement was gaining traction, and many people outside of typical British society were looked down upon. MacDonald lifted these “outsiders” up as heroes in his novels, displaying virtue. One example was in “Sir Gibbie”, where the main character is the orphan son of a poor alcoholic, raised by a kind African man who inspires him. Gibbie shows many Christlike characteristics, and rises in society, eventually becoming a laird (a Scottish lord). Likewise, in MacDonald’s “Thomas Wingfold, Curate” series, two humble, faithful, and disabled sages are deemed unfit to live by an aristocrat.
• George took to heart the words of Christ, who reached out to the lowly…

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Matthew 5:3-12

• Jesus included women in parts of his ministry, and MacDonald used versus such as these to uplift women in his own stories…

…And also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out…

Luke 8:2

Now as they went on their way, he entered a village; and a woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving; and she went to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her.”

Luke 10:38-42

• In “The Princess and Curdie”, the people of a kingdom were not hospitable to Curdie and Lena, but the old grandmother takes them in.
• “The Day Boy and the Night Girl” depicts a dark-skinned girl named Nycteris who is entombed and denied privileges, including seeing the sun. Photogen is a light-skinned male with every privilege, but he has been prevented from seeing darkness. They are being controlled by a white witch according to the social standards of the era. MacDonald conceived of the idea for the story after a speaking tour in the U.S., where he met Harriet Beecher Stowe, and encountered segregation.
• David talked about finishing “The Princess and the Goblin”, and recognising the commoner status of Curdie.

I…can really testify to a book that has made a difference to my whole existence, which  has helped me to see…a vision of things…so real….Of all the stories I have read…it remains the most real, the most realistic, in the exact sense of the phrase the most like life. It is called The Princess and the Goblin, and it is by George MacDonald.

G. K. Chesterton

• Chesterton contributed the introduction to “George MacDonald and His Wife”, in another interesting convergence of lay theologians.

06. “Imagination”

Q. Obviously, imagination was very important to C. S. Lewis; he called it the “organ of meaning”. How did MacDonald see imagination playing out in human roles, particularly in the role of a theologian?

I know nothing that gives me such a feeling of spiritual healing, of being washed as to read George MacDonald.

C. S. Lewis

• MacDonald believed the imagination was a gift from God, made to inspire us spiritually and to understand our human dignity as image-bearers of God.

In very truth, a wise imagination, which is the presence of the spirit of God, is the best guide that man or woman can have…

George MacDonald, A Dish of Orts

• He saw imagination as an integral part of God’s own nature. This is particularly true of God recreating afresh through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.

Tell all the truth but tell it slant —

Success in Circuit lies

Too bright for our infirm Delight

The Truth’s superb surprise

As Lightning to the Children eased

With explanation kind

The Truth must dazzle gradually

Or every man be blind —

Emily Dickinson, Tell all the truth but tell it slant

• In response to a misunderstanding by academics reading “Out of the Silent Planet”, C. S. Lewis wrote about how stories had the potential to offer what traditional learning could not.

I thought I saw how stories of this kind could steal past a certain inhibition which had paralysed much of my own religion in childhood…Supposing that by casting all these things into an imaginary world, stripping them of their stained-glass and Sunday School associations, one could make them for the first time appear in their real potency? Could one not thus steal past those watchful dragons? I thought one could.

C. S. Lewis

That night my imagination was, in a certain sense, baptized; the rest of me, not unnaturally, took longer […] I had not the faintest notion what I had let myself in for by buying Phantastes.

C. S. Lewis, Surprised By Joy

• MacDonald’s concepts are brought to light in “Phantastes”. The character Anodos has a utilitarian and selfish view of life. As his imagination grows, he connects better with others, humbles himself, and as he grows in love, he’s willing to give up his own life for the sake of others.

It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

07. “Very Trinitarian”

Q. In our emails, you described MacDonald as very Trinitarian, with a particular emphasis on the Holy Spirit. What makes him such a rare commodity in this area?

• In MacDonald’s original sect of Christianity, there was an emphasis on the Father, Son and Bible, rather than the Holy Spirit, leading to a legalism rather than a responsiveness to God’s daily presence. The Son was viewed as the purchase price for the Elect, rather than a revelation and Saviour for all mankind, leading to a disconnect.
• Through MacDonald’s personal study, he saw God as a communal God, who wants to welcome all and extend His love.

08. “Corage. God Mend Al.”

Q. What area of George’s theology did you find the richest and most compelling?

• MacDonald suffered many tragedies and natural evils in his life, yet the love of the Father shone throughout all of his works, because he knew that God suffered as one of us, and eventually triumphed over evil.
• MacDonald rearanged his name into an anagram…

Corage. God Mend Al.

George MacDonald

All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.

Mother Julian of Norwich

Nothing is alien in thy world immense–
No look of sky or earth or man or beast;
“In the great hand of God I stand, and thence”
Look out on life, his endless, holy feast.
To try to feel is but to court despair,
To dig for a sun within a garden-fence:
Who does thy will, O God, he lives upon thy air.

George MacDonald

09. “Universalist Tendencies”

Q. We couldn’t speak about the theology of George MacDonald without talking about his universalism. Could you outline his beliefs about salvation?

• MacDonald was an avid defender of 2 Peter 3:9, desiring all to repent…

The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

2 Peter 3:9

• MacDonald also held that God desires all to be saved…

This is good, and it is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

1 Timothy 2:3-4

• George also believed that God will do everything possible to save us, as shown through the parables of the Good Shepherd, the Prodigal Son, and as discussed by Paul in 1 Corinthians…

 Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

1 Corinthians 13:8

• However, MacDonald did believe in Hell, unlike modern Universalists, though he saw it as a source of restorative justice as opposed to retributive justice, that it was not everlasting, and that it was a state of being, brought on by rejecting God.

Imagination cannot mislead us into too much horror of being without God. For that is living death. But with this divine difference: that the outer darkness is but the most dreadful form of the consuming fire—the fire without light—the darkness visible, the black flame. God hath withdrawn himself, but not lost his hold. His face is turned away, but his hand is laid upon him still. His heart has ceased to beat into the man’s heart, but he keeps him alive by his fire. And that fire will go on searching and burning in him, as in the highest saint who is not yet pure as God is pure.

George MacDonald

• MacDonald often referenced Jesus’ parables about pursuing his lost children. He showed this most profoundly in “Lilith”, where Lilith repents after confronting her own evil.

Annihilation itself is no death to evil. Only good where evil was, is evil dead. An evil thing must live with its evil until it chooses to be good. That alone is the slaying of evil.

George MacDonald, Lilith

• George was very concerned with people choosing to move away from the good, eventually shrivelling into nothingness, as he depicted with the witch in “The Day Boy and the Night Girl”. Lewis has a similar scene in “The Great Divorce”.
• Still, he understood his beliefs to be speculative, and urged readers to turn to Christ for understanding.
• MacDonald had Universalist tendencies, similar to Gregory of Nyssa.

10. “Hell, Or Purgatory?”

Q. MacDonald’s idea of Hell seems to be much closer to the concept of Purgatory. Can you talk about this?

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11. “Beginning His Works”

Q. If someone wanted to dig into MacDonald as a theologian, where would you recommend they start?

• People who have been interested in MacDonald’s theology of love enjoyed his “Unspoken Sermons”. Additionally, he weaves theology through poems in “Diary of an Old Soul”. But theology can also be found in his fiction, such as “The Princess and Curdie”.

Wrap-Up

More Information

• “Baptized Imagination: The Theology of George MacDonald”
• North Wind: A Journal of George MacDonald Studies
• “Drinking From the Wells of New Creation: The Holy Spirit and the Imagination in Reconciliation”

Concluding Thoughts

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