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God so Loved the World
The story of Jesus Christ's life from the time the Angels appeared to Mary until the Resurrection. For all believers of any sect and for all who read the Bible and for those who don't - a book which trumpets to Heaven love and faith - very much a book for our bewildered times.
311 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1951
9 people are currently reading
185 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Goudge
65 books897 followersElizabeth Goudge was an English author of novels, short stories and children's books.
Elizabeth de Beauchamp Goudge was born on 24 April 1900 in Wells, Somerset, in Tower House close by the cathedral in an area known as The Liberty, Her father, the Reverend Henry Leighton Goudge, taught in the cathedral school. Her mother was Miss Ida Collenette from the Channel Isles. Elizabeth was an only child. The family moved to Ely for a Canonry as Principal of the theological college. Later, when her father was made Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, they moved to Christ Church, Oxford.
She went to boarding school during WWI and later to Arts College, presumably at Reading College. She made a small living as teacher, and continued to live with her parents. During this time, she wrote a few plays, and was encouraged to write novels by a publisher. As her writing career took off, she began to travel to other nations. Unfortunately, she suffered from depression for much of her life. She had great empathy for people and a talent for finding the comic side of things, displayed to great effect in her writing.
Goudge's first book, The Fairies' Baby and Other Stories (1919), was a failure and it was several years before she authored Island Magic (1934), which is based on Channel Island stories, many of which she had learned from her mother, who was from Guernsey. After the death of her father, Goudge and her mother went to Devon, and eventually wound up living there in a small cottage. There, she wrote prolifically and was happy.
After the death of her mother, and at the wishes of Goudge's family who wished her to live closer to them, she found a companion who moved with her to Rose Cottage in Reading. She lived out her life there, and had many dogs in her life. Goudge loved dogs, and much preferred their company to that of humans. She continued to write until shortly before her death, when ill health, successive falls, and cataracts hindered her ability to write. She was much loved.
Goudge was awarded the Carnegie Medal for The Little White Horse (1946), the book which J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter stories, has said was her favorite as a child. The television mini-series Moonacre was based on The Little White Horse. Her Green Dolphin Country (1944) was made into a film (under its American title, Green Dolphin Street) which won the Academy Award for Special Effects in 1948.
A Diary of Prayer (1966) was one of Goudge's last works. She spent her last years in her cottage on Peppard Common, just outside Henley-on-Thames, where a blue plaque was unveiled in 2008.
Elizabeth de Beauchamp Goudge was born on 24 April 1900 in Wells, Somerset, in Tower House close by the cathedral in an area known as The Liberty, Her father, the Reverend Henry Leighton Goudge, taught in the cathedral school. Her mother was Miss Ida Collenette from the Channel Isles. Elizabeth was an only child. The family moved to Ely for a Canonry as Principal of the theological college. Later, when her father was made Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, they moved to Christ Church, Oxford.
She went to boarding school during WWI and later to Arts College, presumably at Reading College. She made a small living as teacher, and continued to live with her parents. During this time, she wrote a few plays, and was encouraged to write novels by a publisher. As her writing career took off, she began to travel to other nations. Unfortunately, she suffered from depression for much of her life. She had great empathy for people and a talent for finding the comic side of things, displayed to great effect in her writing.
Goudge's first book, The Fairies' Baby and Other Stories (1919), was a failure and it was several years before she authored Island Magic (1934), which is based on Channel Island stories, many of which she had learned from her mother, who was from Guernsey. After the death of her father, Goudge and her mother went to Devon, and eventually wound up living there in a small cottage. There, she wrote prolifically and was happy.
After the death of her mother, and at the wishes of Goudge's family who wished her to live closer to them, she found a companion who moved with her to Rose Cottage in Reading. She lived out her life there, and had many dogs in her life. Goudge loved dogs, and much preferred their company to that of humans. She continued to write until shortly before her death, when ill health, successive falls, and cataracts hindered her ability to write. She was much loved.
Goudge was awarded the Carnegie Medal for The Little White Horse (1946), the book which J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter stories, has said was her favorite as a child. The television mini-series Moonacre was based on The Little White Horse. Her Green Dolphin Country (1944) was made into a film (under its American title, Green Dolphin Street) which won the Academy Award for Special Effects in 1948.
A Diary of Prayer (1966) was one of Goudge's last works. She spent her last years in her cottage on Peppard Common, just outside Henley-on-Thames, where a blue plaque was unveiled in 2008.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
December 19, 2020
'God So Loved the World' is a stunning retelling of the life of Jesus, from birth to death - beginning the book by describing it as an 'almost unbelievable humbling'. Goudge takes artistic and literary liberties to assume how the characters may have been feeling or reacting, giving so much depth and a whole new image to the Gospels.
Some of the parts that stuck closest with me are the ones that truly demonstrated His person or the different relationships and dynamics between individuals.
For example, she writes, 'when God had wanted his human body again he had withdrawn it through the folds of the linen without disturbing them, gently and quietly, in just that same gentle way in which he opens a flower or moves a cloud'.
Such beautiful descriptions are followed, for example, in 'Mary his mother would have known him instantly when he came to her, and the joy when he came back again would have been comparable only to her joy at Bethlehem when after his birth Joseph laid him in her arms; or to the joy she had felt at Jerusalem when for three days he had been lost then restored to her again. There is no record in the gospels of their resurrection meeting. There are some things so holy that only the language of another world than this can describe them'.
Goudge uses floral and often stunning language to provide such depth to the book, using words like 'perhaps' to show it to be of her own volition. I love this book, and know I will come back to it time and time again.
Some of the parts that stuck closest with me are the ones that truly demonstrated His person or the different relationships and dynamics between individuals.
For example, she writes, 'when God had wanted his human body again he had withdrawn it through the folds of the linen without disturbing them, gently and quietly, in just that same gentle way in which he opens a flower or moves a cloud'.
Such beautiful descriptions are followed, for example, in 'Mary his mother would have known him instantly when he came to her, and the joy when he came back again would have been comparable only to her joy at Bethlehem when after his birth Joseph laid him in her arms; or to the joy she had felt at Jerusalem when for three days he had been lost then restored to her again. There is no record in the gospels of their resurrection meeting. There are some things so holy that only the language of another world than this can describe them'.
Goudge uses floral and often stunning language to provide such depth to the book, using words like 'perhaps' to show it to be of her own volition. I love this book, and know I will come back to it time and time again.
April 2, 2024
What a beautiful book this is. I am thankful to @elizabethgoudgebookclub for suggesting it as a Lenten read/devotion.
It is the life of Christ - told in a way only Elizabeth Goudge can do - with vivid detail, description, and introspection. I found myself reading many times with tears flowing.
If you can find a copy of this, I would definitely grab it - and if you can, read the book of John at the same time. I'm doing the John study with @wearebsf and it was the perfect complement to God So Loved the World.
It is the life of Christ - told in a way only Elizabeth Goudge can do - with vivid detail, description, and introspection. I found myself reading many times with tears flowing.
If you can find a copy of this, I would definitely grab it - and if you can, read the book of John at the same time. I'm doing the John study with @wearebsf and it was the perfect complement to God So Loved the World.
July 30, 2017
I read this as a teenager (a long time ago now), and it touched my spirit in such a special way it was probably one of the main reasons I fell in love with Jesus. I still have my original copy which is now falling to pieces. I'll have to buy another one because I never want to be without this book. Elizabeth Goudge you are an absolute gem. I've read most of her books and loved them all.
July 22, 2023
I loved this book. It was the perfect companion to watching the series The Chosen. One catches a glimpse of what it might have been to have walked with Jesus in the years He was on the earth. Gorgeous prose as I have come to expect from Goudge who has become one of my very favorite all time writers. A perfect Easter read.
April 1, 2024
Not only a retelling of Christ's life but a beautiful meditation on it. Wonderful to read a bit at a time, especially in the Pre-Lent and Lenten period. Read for the Elizabeth Goudge Read-Along Group, I got to do a lovely Zoom discussion.
March 16, 2022
A beautiful retelling and reflection on the life of Jesus!
January 20, 2021
Elizabeth at her best.
September 11, 2021
In a lot of ways, this book was the best retelling of Jesus' life that I've ever seen. Elizabeth Goudge managed to make everyone in the gospels human, because that was one of her greatest gifts: seeing the humanity and divinity in everyone. It's interesting how she wrote this book when she was in her fifties and talked about hell as a real place, and then in her autobiography (which she wrote in her seventies), she talked about how she could not believe that God, love itself, would create a soul and damn it to hell. Do you know how amazing that is, that she kept questioning and learning and growing in her faith and as a person? Too many people don't do that. This was a lovely book.
May 16, 2023
A wonderful insight and depth of understanding and compassion can be felt and seen in this story of the life of Christ!
As a reader you feel as though you are there in the scenes, that they are coming to life in your mind.
Elizabeth Goudge expresses her great love for Jesus in her ability to convey in her own words, the Gospel story. It feels as though she has travelled to Israel and personally seen the places she describes.
I'm so thankful for this beautiful book and highly recommend it.
As a reader you feel as though you are there in the scenes, that they are coming to life in your mind.
Elizabeth Goudge expresses her great love for Jesus in her ability to convey in her own words, the Gospel story. It feels as though she has travelled to Israel and personally seen the places she describes.
I'm so thankful for this beautiful book and highly recommend it.
March 30, 2024
I loved Miss Goudge's insight and commentary on the life of Jesus Christ. It was inspiring and uplifting. I stopped many times to underline passages and share them with my husband. It was a beautiful experience to read this in the month leading up to Easter.
October 27, 2025
Beautiful.. a wonderful way to learn and feel the Bible, the story of Our Lord.
I really admire Elizabeth Goudge's biblical knowledge and the way she gets her readers to feel the story she is telling, she plants it in our hearts. Beautiful.
5 stars.
I really admire Elizabeth Goudge's biblical knowledge and the way she gets her readers to feel the story she is telling, she plants it in our hearts. Beautiful.
5 stars.
April 29, 2023
Elizabeth Goudge's fiction is at the top of my all time favorites list. Just ask my grandchildren; she has an entire dedicated shelf in my living room cabinet.
However, this book's treatment of the gospels and Scripture strayed a bit, in my opinion, from what's actually in the Bible's canon theology-wise.
I chose to leave it unfinished and found a new home for it with another Goudge fan.
However, this book's treatment of the gospels and Scripture strayed a bit, in my opinion, from what's actually in the Bible's canon theology-wise.
I chose to leave it unfinished and found a new home for it with another Goudge fan.
October 19, 2009
God so loved the world by Elizabeth Goudge (1951)
Want to read
April 23, 2012Date acquired: April 2012
April 17, 2022
Read during Lent 2022.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews