What I Have Been Reading….George Macdonald in the Age of Miracles

George Macdonald in the Age of Miracles: Incarnation, Doubt, and Reenchantment by Timothy Larson is an excellent study of the works of George Macdonald as part of Wheaton College’s Hansen Lectureship Series. It is longer than my previous reviews so I will only be discussing one book this post, rather than two or three as I usually do.

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George Macdonald in the Age of Miracles: Incarnation, Doubt, and Reenchantment

George Macdonald has been a long-time favorite author of mine, and one of the larger spiritual influences on my life. I was introduced to him through the writings of C. S. Lewis, and I quickly was enthralled by his fantasy classics Phantastes and Lilith. Given this background, I was excited to read Timothy Larsen’s study of George Macdonald’s works through the lens of the Victorian era in which he lived. Dr. Larsen is a historian and theologian who is McManis Professor of Christian Thought at Wheaton College, and his study was deep and thought-provoking. The book, like others in the series, is a collection of three essays Dr. Larsen presented publicly at Wheaton, each with a responding essay from another Wheaton faculty member.

As the title suggests, Larson focuses on three influences that were prominent in influencing Macdonald’s writings: the theological shift from a focus on the Atonement to the Incarnation, the growing public expressions of religious doubt, and Macdonald’s own emphasis on holiness. Larsen traces these themes throughout Macdonald’s writings, providing illuminating historical context throughout the essays. What consistently stood out to me were the parallels between Macdonald’s day and our own.

In the first section Larsen examines the theological shift in 19th century Britain from an emphasis on the Atonement to the Incarnation, essentially shifting the focus of Christianity from Easter to Christmas. Prior to this period Easter was the major Christian holiday, while “Denominations influenced by the Reformed tradition usually did not observe Christmas at all.” Around mid-century, the theological and cultural climate began to change as Christians, increasingly uncomfortable with both the image of a wrathful God needing appeasing by Christ’s substitutionary death and the resulting eternal damnation in hell for the unrepentant, began turning to a more merciful, loving view of God. It was, much like modern evangelical discussion, a debate between what was interpreted as a rigid, harsh old school of thought and what was perceived as a new grace-filled approach to faith and theology. And much like our modern discussion, the debate in Macdonald’s day often veered toward two extremes; each side attacking and belittling the other; either unable or unwilling to see that both are parts of the overall perspective of Christian thought. Larson notes that, “Once people began to shy away from defending the traditional theory of Christ’s work on the cross, they found it difficult to formulate an alternative one and therefore instead welcomed the idea of simply shifting the locus of the proclamation of the gospel to another doctrine, from the cross to the cradle.” Those who embraced this new approach to the gospel tended to minimize or completely ignore the implications of the cross, and thus Christmas became the central focus of the Christian calendar. Macdonald began his ministry as this shift was occurring, and so it is not surprising that his writing is heavily focused on the Incarnation and its implications.

As I read Larsen’s essay, I couldn’t help but notice that we are in a similar moment here in America, where the change over my lifetime has echoed the change in Macdonald’s day. And like in Macdonald’s day, I think those that correctly diagnosed a loveless legalism present in many strands of conservative Evangelical circles have made the mistake of then trying to totally replace the image of a wrathful God with a gentler, loving God who would most definitely never get angry with us. There is a song popular on the Christian radio station I listen to that has a line stating “He’s not mad at you, but madly in love with you” (or something very close to this). While that sounds wonderful, I have to confess the line irritates me a lot. Can anyone truly imagine a God who can look at the war in Ukraine, the butchery of Israelis, and impending famine among innocent civilians in Gaza and not be mad at us? And how many thousands of less prominent stories around the world should also give God reason for wrath? And if we are honest with ourselves, is there any of us who, if we had to give a full account of all of our thoughts and actions throughout our life, would not also raise the ire of God? But is it not also true that God is mad at us precisely because he loves us? Somewhere along the way Christians have separated God’s love and God’s anger to the point we think that they are mutually exclusive ideas, not realizing that God cannot truly love us without also being angry at us when we fail to be what we were meant to be. Conversely, any anger that does not come from love is always harmful and does not reflect the character of God. The Bible often uses the image of God as a father, and it is the loving father (or mother) who is most likely to be angry with us, but if their anger is truly out of love, it is an anger that ultimately has our own good at heart.

Larson’s second essay focused on Macdonald’s response to what has been described as ‘The Crisis of Doubt’ that was a prevalent part of the Victorian cultural atmosphere. It was an era where publicly questioning the Christian faith was becoming more acceptable, and there was much discussion and writing by those who struggled to adhere to the faith or had abandoned it altogether. Macdonald, like many today, wrestled with the place of doubt in the Christian faith. For some, doubt is something to be avoided, or perhaps seen as evidence of cracks in the foundation of one’s faith. However, Macdonald saw authentic doubt -and the accompanying questioning of one’s faith- as a possible, perhaps necessary, path to a deeper and more mature faith. In his fantasy Lilith, the character Mr. Vane is told “Thou doubtest because thou lovest the truth.” This viewpoint on doubt is one of his central themes, and it is just as needed today as it was in the Victorian Era. Doubt is essential to faith, and it is despair, not doubt, that is the true opposite of faith.

The last essay focuses on another of Macdonald’s major themes, and that is holiness. Today I would imagine the word holiness conjures up images of joyless, rigidly legalistic people in the minds of many. One of Macdonald’s great gifts was the ability to depict in his fiction an image of holiness that is warm, inviting, and yet still holds some the mystery, awe, and fear that should accompany approaching a God who is our Creator and Judge. C. S. Lewis credited Macdonald’s fantasy work Phantastes with baptising his imagination prior to his full conversion to Christianity.

Lewis writes, “It is as if I was I were carried sleeping across the frontier, or as if I had died in the old country and could never remember how I came alive in the new. For in one sense the new country was exactly like the old. I met there all that had already charmed me in Malory, Spenser, Morris, and Yeats. But in another sense all was changed. I did not yet know (and I was long in learning) the name of the new quality, the bright shadow, that rested on the travels of Anodos. I do now. It was Holiness.”

In my own spiritual journey I can attest that Phantastes and Macdonald’s other fantasy classic, Lilith had a similar effect on me, allowing me to better see the true nature of holiness that had been somewhat twisted into a more strict, legalistic shape during my childhood. Larson notes that the symbol that Macdonald uses to represent holiness in some of his children’s fantasy works is a mystical rose fire. These fires of glowing roses (which- reminiscent of Moses’ burning bush in the Old Testament- are never consumed by the fire) possess the qualities of healing and purification. The fire had the ability to clean, heal, reveal character flaws, and enhance spiritual perceptiveness.

There were other motifs in Macdonald’s writing that demonstrate how he believed God transforms us into his image. As Larson notes, Macdonald had a strong belief that difficult, painful experiences were given by God just as much as the good experiences of life and were meant ultimately for the purification of our character. Redemptive pain, and often redemptive death, was a major theme in many of Macdonald’s writings. I would agree with Larson’s point here as in nearly every Macdonald story I have read, there is some element of redemptive pain or death that, if the character is willing to submit to, will result in their finding some type of spiritual healing or spiritual growth. This element of Macdonald’s works had a major impact on me during the years when I was trying to make sense of my experiences within the larger context of a life that I struggled to find a place in. The warm, illuminating sense of holiness that radiated out of Macdonald’s fantasy works helped to lead me back to a faith that I had very deeply questioned and was struggling to hold onto at that point in my life.

Timothy Larsen’s deep historical knowledge and keen insights make this an excellent book that I would heartily recommend both for those who enjoy spiritual fantasy as well as those who appreciate mining the past for lessons to help us understand and navigate the present. Well worth the time. My only complaint is the book really doesn’t talk about miracles at all, so I don’t know why that is mentioned in the title. Minor quibble.

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