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The Hope of the Gospel: A Journey of Faith and Enlightenment
It would help some to understand what Jesus came from the home of our Father to be to us and do for us. Everything in the world is more or less misunderstood at first: we have to learn what it is and come at length to see that it must be so that it could not be otherwise. Then we know it; and we never know a thing really until we know it thus.' (Excerpt)
94 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1892
254 people are currently reading
609 people want to read
About the author
George MacDonald
1,681 books2,489 followersGeorge MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet and Christian Congregational minister. He became a pioneering figure in the field of modern fantasy literature and the mentor of fellow-writer Lewis Carroll. In addition to his fairy tales, MacDonald wrote several works of Christian theology, including several collections of sermons.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
January 15, 2011
Some clay and a lot of gold here. I copied swathes of this book into my journal, I cried a little, and I breathed the air of my first love again. Would I like to have it tattooed onto the inside of my eyelids? Yes please!
November 9, 2023
The Goat.
This man is a fascinating character. I hear echoes of David Bentley Hart, CS Lewis, and Chesterton in his work (not a surprise since he was shaping for them). I also heard echos of early Anabaptists, which was just fun.
This man is a fascinating character. I hear echoes of David Bentley Hart, CS Lewis, and Chesterton in his work (not a surprise since he was shaping for them). I also heard echos of early Anabaptists, which was just fun.
March 15, 2024
The gospel is simultaneously so simple that a child can understand it, yet so deep and rich that the smartest men can only scratch its surface.
Pretty sure I don't agree with everything MacDonald says here (my impression at one point was that he seemed to be indicating that it was possible for people to be reincarnated as animals. Hopefully I just misunderstood), but there was a lot of really rich truth packed into this book. A little difficult to understand given the time period so I missed a great deal, but I would like to go through it again at some point and really take my time to mull over the contents.
Overall I think this book helped make the gospel more precious to me, which is the most I can ask of any book.
Pretty sure I don't agree with everything MacDonald says here (my impression at one point was that he seemed to be indicating that it was possible for people to be reincarnated as animals. Hopefully I just misunderstood), but there was a lot of really rich truth packed into this book. A little difficult to understand given the time period so I missed a great deal, but I would like to go through it again at some point and really take my time to mull over the contents.
Overall I think this book helped make the gospel more precious to me, which is the most I can ask of any book.
September 6, 2018
I listened to this in audio format, and I didn't always pay attention to every word. That being said, as with everything I read by George MacDonald, I love how this book challenges me and gets me thinking.
While MacDonald is deeply theological in his writings, he is not overly technical. He writes in a way that can be understood. This actually makes it very easy to disagree with him, because you know exactly where he stands. And he's not shy about addressing controversial issues. I think I disagreed with something MacDonald wrote in every chapter.
Nevertheless, it's the thrust of the book which I found to be a breath of fresh air. The gospel does not merely have an effect on a few people that God chooses to show His goodness to. No, the gospel affects everything. All of creation will be made new.
Regardless of disagreeing with MacDonald about the details (and there are many details), I hope we can all agree to praise God that we have great hope in the gospel, and that it's all by His grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
While MacDonald is deeply theological in his writings, he is not overly technical. He writes in a way that can be understood. This actually makes it very easy to disagree with him, because you know exactly where he stands. And he's not shy about addressing controversial issues. I think I disagreed with something MacDonald wrote in every chapter.
Nevertheless, it's the thrust of the book which I found to be a breath of fresh air. The gospel does not merely have an effect on a few people that God chooses to show His goodness to. No, the gospel affects everything. All of creation will be made new.
Regardless of disagreeing with MacDonald about the details (and there are many details), I hope we can all agree to praise God that we have great hope in the gospel, and that it's all by His grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
October 24, 2021
Some of the most stimulating and thought-provoking theological reading I have ever done
Everything George MacDonald wrote is deep, and this is especially true of his sermons. This is one of the most powerful books I have read. The Sermon on the Mount and Romans 8 are two of the core passages of the New Testament that I have studied and meditated on for decades, and which have profoundly influence me. MacDonald does deeper and wider exposition here in a shorter space than anything else I've ever read on either, or heard preached and taught.
He wrestles with them and unearths treasure after treasure from both. Some confirmed, and are press me farther, with insights that have shaped my life. Others shocked me with their clarity and brilliance, and I wonder how they eluded me, though of course I have many decades to go before I reach the age MacDonald was when he wrote this, and I hope by then to maybe achieve the depth he had when he was young.
This is difficult reading, written in the 18th century by a brilliant man who wrote extremely long, complex sentences and didn't pause to give many illustrations. (Of course, his novels and poetry are full of incredible illustrations of many of the same insights.) For anyone who is motivated, who takes it slow, who works to digest it, and most of all to put every new insight into action (what Paul calls "the faith of obedience"), I have no doubt that this will challenge and bless you.
I particularly valued his insights on suffering, death, loss, and grief, being in a season of much loss and grief myself right now. I recently finished the excellent biography, George MacDonald: Scotland's Beloved Storyteller by Michael Phillips, which I heartily recommend. I didn't have any idea of the personal siding, illnesses, loss, and grief that MacDonald went through. This is a major reason, I'm sure, that I find his thoughts and counsel so helpful and comforting in my own struggles. He is profound, realistic, and never trite or cliche in his comments and theology on those topics.
Of course, you may not agree with everything he wrote, and he didn't expect his readers would. Many times I have found that he seems to be building an entire argument on a single New Testament passage, sometimes a single verse. That seems shaky to me. But the more I read MacDonald, the more I find that he comes to similar conclusions and builds the same kind of cases on other single passages—so on the whole, he is taking into account the whole counsel of God, but presenting it in bite-sized pieces. This may be a wiser approach, but sometimes has led me to discount his argument or made me think he was missing the bigger picture. Over time I've come to the conclusion that if either of us is missing the bigger picture, it's almost always me. George MacDonald is perhaps the biggest-picture thinker I have encountered outside of Paul, John, Peter, the author of Hebrews, and of course, the most massive thinker of all, Jesus himself.
And MacDonald challenges me to accept that Jesus is the most brilliant thinker, and to believe that Jesus really did teach profound and broad-sweeping realities with practically every statement out of his mouth. No one (outside the Bible) takes Jesus more seriously than MacDonald. He inspires me to study Jesus and obey Jesus much more zealously, so that I can hopefully become a better person, and make this world a better place, like George MacDonald.
His work with Greek is excellent. Don't worry if you don't know Greek—he doesn't use a word of it in these sermons. But he does discuss the English translations of various Greek words and phrases. Some of those happen to be words and phrases I myself have had the opportunity to study, and his work with those is impeccable and surprisingly even lines up with the most up-to-date lexicons and word studies. He has opened my eyes to a number of insights that just aren't available reading the English translations. Not that these change any basic truths of the Gospel; but they add depth, nuance, and power to some aspects in a fresh way, by bringing perspectives that are often lost across the cultural and time gaps between our world and the world of the New Testament.
Evidently many people have had their lives changed by a different George MacDonald work. For some it's one of his novels like Robert Falconer, or his fantasy writing, like Phantastes, or his poetry. For me, all of those have deeply influenced me. But as I look back on my life, I believe that the book that has had the most profound impact, apart from the Bible itself, is Discovering the Character of God, and its twin volume, Knowing the Heart of God. Both are collections of MacDonald's material, brilliantly compiled and edited by Michael Phillips. I owe him and George MacDonald huge debts of gratitude.
In a nutshell: this book isn't for everyone. There's a vast range of George MacDonald writings for many different tastes. This one is brilliant for someone ready to do serious theological reading and living.
Everything George MacDonald wrote is deep, and this is especially true of his sermons. This is one of the most powerful books I have read. The Sermon on the Mount and Romans 8 are two of the core passages of the New Testament that I have studied and meditated on for decades, and which have profoundly influence me. MacDonald does deeper and wider exposition here in a shorter space than anything else I've ever read on either, or heard preached and taught.
He wrestles with them and unearths treasure after treasure from both. Some confirmed, and are press me farther, with insights that have shaped my life. Others shocked me with their clarity and brilliance, and I wonder how they eluded me, though of course I have many decades to go before I reach the age MacDonald was when he wrote this, and I hope by then to maybe achieve the depth he had when he was young.
This is difficult reading, written in the 18th century by a brilliant man who wrote extremely long, complex sentences and didn't pause to give many illustrations. (Of course, his novels and poetry are full of incredible illustrations of many of the same insights.) For anyone who is motivated, who takes it slow, who works to digest it, and most of all to put every new insight into action (what Paul calls "the faith of obedience"), I have no doubt that this will challenge and bless you.
I particularly valued his insights on suffering, death, loss, and grief, being in a season of much loss and grief myself right now. I recently finished the excellent biography, George MacDonald: Scotland's Beloved Storyteller by Michael Phillips, which I heartily recommend. I didn't have any idea of the personal siding, illnesses, loss, and grief that MacDonald went through. This is a major reason, I'm sure, that I find his thoughts and counsel so helpful and comforting in my own struggles. He is profound, realistic, and never trite or cliche in his comments and theology on those topics.
Of course, you may not agree with everything he wrote, and he didn't expect his readers would. Many times I have found that he seems to be building an entire argument on a single New Testament passage, sometimes a single verse. That seems shaky to me. But the more I read MacDonald, the more I find that he comes to similar conclusions and builds the same kind of cases on other single passages—so on the whole, he is taking into account the whole counsel of God, but presenting it in bite-sized pieces. This may be a wiser approach, but sometimes has led me to discount his argument or made me think he was missing the bigger picture. Over time I've come to the conclusion that if either of us is missing the bigger picture, it's almost always me. George MacDonald is perhaps the biggest-picture thinker I have encountered outside of Paul, John, Peter, the author of Hebrews, and of course, the most massive thinker of all, Jesus himself.
And MacDonald challenges me to accept that Jesus is the most brilliant thinker, and to believe that Jesus really did teach profound and broad-sweeping realities with practically every statement out of his mouth. No one (outside the Bible) takes Jesus more seriously than MacDonald. He inspires me to study Jesus and obey Jesus much more zealously, so that I can hopefully become a better person, and make this world a better place, like George MacDonald.
His work with Greek is excellent. Don't worry if you don't know Greek—he doesn't use a word of it in these sermons. But he does discuss the English translations of various Greek words and phrases. Some of those happen to be words and phrases I myself have had the opportunity to study, and his work with those is impeccable and surprisingly even lines up with the most up-to-date lexicons and word studies. He has opened my eyes to a number of insights that just aren't available reading the English translations. Not that these change any basic truths of the Gospel; but they add depth, nuance, and power to some aspects in a fresh way, by bringing perspectives that are often lost across the cultural and time gaps between our world and the world of the New Testament.
Evidently many people have had their lives changed by a different George MacDonald work. For some it's one of his novels like Robert Falconer, or his fantasy writing, like Phantastes, or his poetry. For me, all of those have deeply influenced me. But as I look back on my life, I believe that the book that has had the most profound impact, apart from the Bible itself, is Discovering the Character of God, and its twin volume, Knowing the Heart of God. Both are collections of MacDonald's material, brilliantly compiled and edited by Michael Phillips. I owe him and George MacDonald huge debts of gratitude.
In a nutshell: this book isn't for everyone. There's a vast range of George MacDonald writings for many different tastes. This one is brilliant for someone ready to do serious theological reading and living.
August 7, 2011
Although not in full agreement with MacDonald's interesting theory in the last section regarding the redemption of the animal kingdom (which shows disappointing touches of Darwinian influence), I found myself vastly encouraged by the rest of it and comforted once again by the hope of the Gospel.
May 18, 2022
Solid 3.5. As with many things written by MacDonald, this book is full of incredible one-liners and reflections… but also has plenty of moments when you find yourself “off road”, wondering where MacDonald is going with his thoughts.
February 21, 2022
“But there are not a few, who would be indignant at having their belief in God questioned, who yet seem greatly to fear imagining him better than he is: whether is it he or themselves they dread injuring by expecting too much of him?”
There’s a lot of talk in Christian circles nowadays about deconstruction. Lots of people seem to be asking questions and tearing down the scaffolding of unhealthy and toxic faith. Those who profit off such toxic faith are writing articles (and going on rants at their concerts…you know who I mean) about the dangers of deconstruction. A lot of this fear seems particularly apparent in white evangelical Christianity which begs the question - if you are afraid nothing will be left after deconstruction, is there anything there to start with?
A life of faith is inherently a life of growth which leaves behind lesser goods, and certainly toxic evils, for something better. If you are not changing you are probably not growing. If you believe the exact same thing you learned in church as a teenager, it might be good to question some things. I mean, what are the chances you got everything 100% right from the age of 17 on?
But I get why deconstruction is scary. The path from evangelical Christian to exvangelical to exChristian is well trodden. I get all these people - I grew up evangelical, I no longer find the term useful (though I still move on those circles) and I can see why some leave behind the entirety of faith altogether. Yet, I have found so much spiritual depth and wisdom outside of the tiny white evangelical house that, in some ways, I am more committed to my faith than ever.
I could list the authors - Brian Zahnd, David Bentley Hart, Sergius Bulgakov, Rachel Held Evans, James Cone, Martin Luther King Jr., Howard Thurman, Robert Jenson, Sarah Coakley and many others. That’s just people living in the last century. I could also list Pseudo-Dionysius, Maximus the Confessor, Isaac the Syrian, Julian or Norwich and other spiritual masters.
At the top of that list goes George MacDonald. His book Unspoken Sermons is one of my favorites because it helped me form a healthier, more beautiful view of God. His fantasy stories are enjoyable as well as thought-provoking (especially Lillith!). With this in mind, I figured it was time to dig into another of his works - The Hope of the Gospel.
This is similar to Unspoken Sermons in that each chapter is an essay and there was not any over-arching flow, unless I totally missed it. It is also not nearly as good as Unspoken Sermons. But it is better than much else out there, and hits on common themes. The quote I shared above is my favorite from the book. I suspect if MacDonald wrote this today, he’d be seen as promoting deconstruction. He’d be dangerous and either cast out of the evangelical fold (like a Rob Bell) or held at arms length and sanitized. I think of CS Lewis who is more palatable to evangelicals than MacDonald, though the more I read of Lewis the more I realized how, if he were writing today, evangelicals would not like him. Its worth noting MacDonald is one of Lewis’ favorite writers.
Here are just a few snippets from MacDonald. First, I love this quote on how we must focus first on our own character:
“Foolish is the man, and there are many such men, who would rid himself or his fellows of discomfort by setting the world right, by waging war on the evils around him, while he neglects that integral part of the world where lies his business, his first business—namely, his own character and conduct.”
MacDonald did not believe in Penal Substitutionary Atonement, seeing it as setting up rules God must follow:
“Unable to believe in the forgiveness of their Father in heaven, imagining him not at liberty to forgive, or incapable of forgiving forthright; not really believing him God our Saviour, but a God bound, either in his own nature or by a law above him and compulsory upon him, to exact some recompense or satisfaction for sin, a multitude of teaching men have taught their fellows that Jesus came to bear our punishment and save us from hell.”
Another quote criticizing this theory of atonement:
“Very different are the good news Jesus brings us from certain prevalent representations of the gospel, founded on the pagan notion that suffering is an offset for sin, and culminating in the vile assertion that the suffering of an innocent man, just because he is innocent, yea perfect, is a satisfaction to the holy Father for the evil deeds of his children. As a theory concerning the atonement nothing could be worse, either intellectually, morally, or spiritually; announced as the gospel itself, as the good news of the kingdom of heaven, the idea is monstrous as any Chinese dragon. Such a so-called gospel is no gospel, however accepted as God sent by good men of a certain development. It is evil news, dwarfing, enslaving, maddening—news to the child-heart of the dreariest damnation. Doubtless some elements of the gospel are mixed up with it on most occasions of its announcement; none the more is it the message received from him. It can be good news only to such as are prudently willing to be delivered from a God they fear, but unable to accept the gospel of a perfect God, in whom to trust perfectly.”
Another theme in MacDonald is that hell is a consuming fire which cleanses, not a place of unending torture:
“Hell is on the side of God and man, to free the child of God from the corruption of death.”
One point I’ve chewed on frequently is how Jesus is truly human, so we are not yet human until we become more like Jesus. MacDonald touches on this, saying that Jesus was at home in the universe because God made it. Rather than the escapism we often see in Christianity (we’re “not home yet”) things are flipped:
“Here we find one main thing wherein the Lord differs from us: we are not at home in this great universe, our father's house. We ought to be, and one day we shall be, but we are not yet. This reveals Jesus more than man, by revealing him more man than we. We are not complete men, we are not anything near it, and are therefore out of harmony, more or less, with everything in the house of our birth and habitation.”
The God described by Christians, especially in penal substitutionary atonement, comes across as a sort of reluctant savior. God doesn’t really like humans, kind of wants to send most to hell, but chooses to save a few. MacDonald shows God as overwhelming love who enjoys giving:
“For the glory of that Father is not in knowing himself God, but in giving himself away—in creating and redeeming and glorifying his children.”
I’m not sure what MacDonald’s politics were, but the fact he positively mentions FD Maurice, British socialist, indicates he was probably on a good path there as well:
“How far one may advance in such inheritance while yet in the body, will simply depend on the meekness he attains while yet in the body; but it may be, as Frederick Denison Maurice, the servant of God, thought while yet he was with us, that the new heavens and the new earth are the same in which we now live, righteously inhabited by the meek, with their deeper-opened eyes.”
He certainly does not seem to be a big fan of pursuing wealth:
“Which is more the possessor of the world—he who has a thousand houses, or he who, without one house to call his own, has ten in which his knock at the door would rouse instant jubilation? Which is the richer—the man who, his large money spent, would have no refuge; or he for whose necessity a hundred would sacrifice comfort? Which of the two possessed the earth—king Agrippa or tent-maker Paul?”
God is love. Love:
“How does that man love God—of what kind is the love he bears him—who is unable to believe that God loves every throb of every human heart toward another? Did not the Lord die that we should love one another, and be one with him and the Father, and is not the knowledge of difference essential to the deepest love?”
A common question people ask, and rightly so, is how it will be possible to enjoy heaven if your loved ones are being tortured in hell. One atrocious answer is that God will erase your memory of those people. Many writers, such as David Bentley Hart and Thomas Talbott, show the problems with this idea. MacDonald hits on it as well:
“The lord of life died that his father's children might grow perfect in love—might love their brothers and sisters as he loved them: is it to this end that they must cease to know one another? To annihilate the past of our earthly embodiment, would be to crush under the heel of an iron fate the very idea of tenderness, human or divine.”
“We shall all doubtless be changed, but in what direction?—to something less, or to something greater?—to something that is less we, which means degradation? to something that is not we, which means annihilation? or to something that is more we, which means a farther development of the original idea of us, the divine germ of us, holding in it all we ever were, all we ever can and must become?”
Another idea many wonder about, or at least ask me about in my work in ministry, is how an act can be good if we do it knowing we will be rewarded. Sometimes Christians are promised that if they obey God they will get rewards, in this life or after. So rather than doing good because its good, we do it to avoid hell and get gifts. But true maturity comes when we learn to do good because its good - the good character we develop is the reward. Again, MacDonald:
“The reward itself, then, is righteousness; and the man who was righteous for the sake of such reward, knowing what it was, would be righteous for the sake of righteousness,—which yet, however, would not be perfection. But I must distinguish and divide no farther now.”
Finally, MacDonald ends with a delightful argument for the immortality of animals:
“If you did not believe you were yourself to out-live death, I could not blame you for thinking all was over with the sparrow; but to believe in immortality for yourself, and not care to believe in it for the sparrow, would be simply hard-hearted and selfish. If it would make you happy to think there was life beyond death for the sparrow as well as for yourself, I would gladly help you at least to hope that there may be.”
If for no other reason, this is in MacDonald’s favor!
If you haven’t read some MacDonald!
There’s a lot of talk in Christian circles nowadays about deconstruction. Lots of people seem to be asking questions and tearing down the scaffolding of unhealthy and toxic faith. Those who profit off such toxic faith are writing articles (and going on rants at their concerts…you know who I mean) about the dangers of deconstruction. A lot of this fear seems particularly apparent in white evangelical Christianity which begs the question - if you are afraid nothing will be left after deconstruction, is there anything there to start with?
A life of faith is inherently a life of growth which leaves behind lesser goods, and certainly toxic evils, for something better. If you are not changing you are probably not growing. If you believe the exact same thing you learned in church as a teenager, it might be good to question some things. I mean, what are the chances you got everything 100% right from the age of 17 on?
But I get why deconstruction is scary. The path from evangelical Christian to exvangelical to exChristian is well trodden. I get all these people - I grew up evangelical, I no longer find the term useful (though I still move on those circles) and I can see why some leave behind the entirety of faith altogether. Yet, I have found so much spiritual depth and wisdom outside of the tiny white evangelical house that, in some ways, I am more committed to my faith than ever.
I could list the authors - Brian Zahnd, David Bentley Hart, Sergius Bulgakov, Rachel Held Evans, James Cone, Martin Luther King Jr., Howard Thurman, Robert Jenson, Sarah Coakley and many others. That’s just people living in the last century. I could also list Pseudo-Dionysius, Maximus the Confessor, Isaac the Syrian, Julian or Norwich and other spiritual masters.
At the top of that list goes George MacDonald. His book Unspoken Sermons is one of my favorites because it helped me form a healthier, more beautiful view of God. His fantasy stories are enjoyable as well as thought-provoking (especially Lillith!). With this in mind, I figured it was time to dig into another of his works - The Hope of the Gospel.
This is similar to Unspoken Sermons in that each chapter is an essay and there was not any over-arching flow, unless I totally missed it. It is also not nearly as good as Unspoken Sermons. But it is better than much else out there, and hits on common themes. The quote I shared above is my favorite from the book. I suspect if MacDonald wrote this today, he’d be seen as promoting deconstruction. He’d be dangerous and either cast out of the evangelical fold (like a Rob Bell) or held at arms length and sanitized. I think of CS Lewis who is more palatable to evangelicals than MacDonald, though the more I read of Lewis the more I realized how, if he were writing today, evangelicals would not like him. Its worth noting MacDonald is one of Lewis’ favorite writers.
Here are just a few snippets from MacDonald. First, I love this quote on how we must focus first on our own character:
“Foolish is the man, and there are many such men, who would rid himself or his fellows of discomfort by setting the world right, by waging war on the evils around him, while he neglects that integral part of the world where lies his business, his first business—namely, his own character and conduct.”
MacDonald did not believe in Penal Substitutionary Atonement, seeing it as setting up rules God must follow:
“Unable to believe in the forgiveness of their Father in heaven, imagining him not at liberty to forgive, or incapable of forgiving forthright; not really believing him God our Saviour, but a God bound, either in his own nature or by a law above him and compulsory upon him, to exact some recompense or satisfaction for sin, a multitude of teaching men have taught their fellows that Jesus came to bear our punishment and save us from hell.”
Another quote criticizing this theory of atonement:
“Very different are the good news Jesus brings us from certain prevalent representations of the gospel, founded on the pagan notion that suffering is an offset for sin, and culminating in the vile assertion that the suffering of an innocent man, just because he is innocent, yea perfect, is a satisfaction to the holy Father for the evil deeds of his children. As a theory concerning the atonement nothing could be worse, either intellectually, morally, or spiritually; announced as the gospel itself, as the good news of the kingdom of heaven, the idea is monstrous as any Chinese dragon. Such a so-called gospel is no gospel, however accepted as God sent by good men of a certain development. It is evil news, dwarfing, enslaving, maddening—news to the child-heart of the dreariest damnation. Doubtless some elements of the gospel are mixed up with it on most occasions of its announcement; none the more is it the message received from him. It can be good news only to such as are prudently willing to be delivered from a God they fear, but unable to accept the gospel of a perfect God, in whom to trust perfectly.”
Another theme in MacDonald is that hell is a consuming fire which cleanses, not a place of unending torture:
“Hell is on the side of God and man, to free the child of God from the corruption of death.”
One point I’ve chewed on frequently is how Jesus is truly human, so we are not yet human until we become more like Jesus. MacDonald touches on this, saying that Jesus was at home in the universe because God made it. Rather than the escapism we often see in Christianity (we’re “not home yet”) things are flipped:
“Here we find one main thing wherein the Lord differs from us: we are not at home in this great universe, our father's house. We ought to be, and one day we shall be, but we are not yet. This reveals Jesus more than man, by revealing him more man than we. We are not complete men, we are not anything near it, and are therefore out of harmony, more or less, with everything in the house of our birth and habitation.”
The God described by Christians, especially in penal substitutionary atonement, comes across as a sort of reluctant savior. God doesn’t really like humans, kind of wants to send most to hell, but chooses to save a few. MacDonald shows God as overwhelming love who enjoys giving:
“For the glory of that Father is not in knowing himself God, but in giving himself away—in creating and redeeming and glorifying his children.”
I’m not sure what MacDonald’s politics were, but the fact he positively mentions FD Maurice, British socialist, indicates he was probably on a good path there as well:
“How far one may advance in such inheritance while yet in the body, will simply depend on the meekness he attains while yet in the body; but it may be, as Frederick Denison Maurice, the servant of God, thought while yet he was with us, that the new heavens and the new earth are the same in which we now live, righteously inhabited by the meek, with their deeper-opened eyes.”
He certainly does not seem to be a big fan of pursuing wealth:
“Which is more the possessor of the world—he who has a thousand houses, or he who, without one house to call his own, has ten in which his knock at the door would rouse instant jubilation? Which is the richer—the man who, his large money spent, would have no refuge; or he for whose necessity a hundred would sacrifice comfort? Which of the two possessed the earth—king Agrippa or tent-maker Paul?”
God is love. Love:
“How does that man love God—of what kind is the love he bears him—who is unable to believe that God loves every throb of every human heart toward another? Did not the Lord die that we should love one another, and be one with him and the Father, and is not the knowledge of difference essential to the deepest love?”
A common question people ask, and rightly so, is how it will be possible to enjoy heaven if your loved ones are being tortured in hell. One atrocious answer is that God will erase your memory of those people. Many writers, such as David Bentley Hart and Thomas Talbott, show the problems with this idea. MacDonald hits on it as well:
“The lord of life died that his father's children might grow perfect in love—might love their brothers and sisters as he loved them: is it to this end that they must cease to know one another? To annihilate the past of our earthly embodiment, would be to crush under the heel of an iron fate the very idea of tenderness, human or divine.”
“We shall all doubtless be changed, but in what direction?—to something less, or to something greater?—to something that is less we, which means degradation? to something that is not we, which means annihilation? or to something that is more we, which means a farther development of the original idea of us, the divine germ of us, holding in it all we ever were, all we ever can and must become?”
Another idea many wonder about, or at least ask me about in my work in ministry, is how an act can be good if we do it knowing we will be rewarded. Sometimes Christians are promised that if they obey God they will get rewards, in this life or after. So rather than doing good because its good, we do it to avoid hell and get gifts. But true maturity comes when we learn to do good because its good - the good character we develop is the reward. Again, MacDonald:
“The reward itself, then, is righteousness; and the man who was righteous for the sake of such reward, knowing what it was, would be righteous for the sake of righteousness,—which yet, however, would not be perfection. But I must distinguish and divide no farther now.”
Finally, MacDonald ends with a delightful argument for the immortality of animals:
“If you did not believe you were yourself to out-live death, I could not blame you for thinking all was over with the sparrow; but to believe in immortality for yourself, and not care to believe in it for the sparrow, would be simply hard-hearted and selfish. If it would make you happy to think there was life beyond death for the sparrow as well as for yourself, I would gladly help you at least to hope that there may be.”
If for no other reason, this is in MacDonald’s favor!
If you haven’t read some MacDonald!
April 16, 2024
I…wow. This was so unexpectedly rich. There were a few slow chapters after the first one but otherwise this book, this author is one I will need to keep coming back to. It is no wonder to me that Lewis made MacDonald his guide to the footsteps of heaven in The Great Divorce and invested his character with such dignity and wisdom in that story.
This book is basically a series of meditations based more or less on the sermon on the mount, with some wanderings to other parts of scripture which are nevertheless connected. I struggle to find any one or two highlights to share since I highlighted so much of this book, and most portions I did not highlight still I found to be very edifying.
I would say this would be a great book to read with friends, so that you might have someone else to think through and mull over his thoughts with—this greatly enhanced my own reading, I think.
This book is basically a series of meditations based more or less on the sermon on the mount, with some wanderings to other parts of scripture which are nevertheless connected. I struggle to find any one or two highlights to share since I highlighted so much of this book, and most portions I did not highlight still I found to be very edifying.
I would say this would be a great book to read with friends, so that you might have someone else to think through and mull over his thoughts with—this greatly enhanced my own reading, I think.
September 25, 2021
First few chapters were really good, latter half got a little less interesting.
July 6, 2024
Looking at the title, my expectation would be that this would be an outline of what the Gospel is and how it applies to the Christian life. This was partly true but it was also, as others have pointed out, a mixture of other thoughts on the Gospel (like a whole chapter on whether animals are reincarnated in heaven). Even more, you can see MacDonald's universalist leaning in here as well as the fact that, at times, MacDonald focuses so much on God coming down to man that it almost underemphasizes God's holiness. More can be said but, all in all, while this was not a necessarily standout book, it was still a good casual read with some good truths here and there to reflect on.
March 6, 2012
This book is one of the most powerful collections of spiritual discussion that I have ever read. MacDonald writes about the gospel and about what it means to be a Christian in a way that only a man who spent his life trying to understand it possibly could.
It's full of truths that are simply stated, and profoundly introspective such as,
'Who truly owns a house? The man who owns a hundred mansions scattered throughout the countryside? Or the man who owns no house, but a knock on any door in his village would bring instant jubilation from those within?'
There's another book by MacDonald, "Getting to Know Jesus", which has several repeated essays. I'm not sure what the details are on why these two books were published separately when their content crosses over.
This book is available as an audiobook for free download at: http://bit.ly/yhPR61
It's full of truths that are simply stated, and profoundly introspective such as,
'Who truly owns a house? The man who owns a hundred mansions scattered throughout the countryside? Or the man who owns no house, but a knock on any door in his village would bring instant jubilation from those within?'
There's another book by MacDonald, "Getting to Know Jesus", which has several repeated essays. I'm not sure what the details are on why these two books were published separately when their content crosses over.
This book is available as an audiobook for free download at: http://bit.ly/yhPR61
May 29, 2016
It is a blessed thing to be able to step into the mind of and discover how someone interpreted the Bible in the 1890's. It was refreshing to read MacDonald's honesty and humility in dissecting several passages.
The most common criticism I have read on this book has to do with the last chapter in which he discusses the fate of animals in eternity. I found no issues there. In my opinion one would only struggle with the chapter if one was already convinced of their own position on the fate of animals. If one's mind is open it will not be difficult to digest.
The most common criticism I have read on this book has to do with the last chapter in which he discusses the fate of animals in eternity. I found no issues there. In my opinion one would only struggle with the chapter if one was already convinced of their own position on the fate of animals. If one's mind is open it will not be difficult to digest.
March 26, 2014
George MacDonald makes my heart into a balloon. A balloon with tears streaming down its sides, but a joyous balloon sailing up and up into the endless heavens nonetheless.
December 21, 2025
…the cause of every man's discomfort is evil, moral evil—first of all, evil in himself, his own sin, his own wrongness, his own unrightness; and then, evil in those he loves: with this latter I have not now to deal; the only way to get rid of it, is for the man to get rid of his own sin. No special sin may be recognizable as having caused this or that special physical discomfort—which may indeed have originated with some ancestor; but evil in ourselves is the cause of its continuance, the source of its necessity, and the preventive of that patience which would soon take from it, or at least blunt its sting. The evil is essentially unnecessary, and passes with the attainment of the object for which it is permitted—namely, the development of pure will in man; the suffering also is essentially unnecessary, but while the evil lasts, the suffering, whether consequent or merely concomitant, is absolutely necessary. Foolish is the man, and there are many such men, who would rid himself or his fellows of discomfort by setting the world right, by waging war on the evils around him, while he neglects that integral part of the world where lies his business, his first business—namely, his own character and conduct. Were it possible—an absurd supposition—that the world should thus be righted from the outside, it would yet be impossible for the man who had contributed to the work, remaining what he was, ever to enjoy the perfection of the result; himself not in tune with the organ he had tuned, he must imagine it still a distracted, jarring instrument. The philanthropist who regards the wrong as in the race, forgetting that the race is made up of conscious and wrong individuals, forgets also that wrong is always generated in and done by an individual; that the wrongness exists in the individual, and by him is passed over, as tendency, to the race; and that no evil can be cured in the race, except by its being cured in its individuals: tendency is not absolute evil; it is there that it may be resisted, not yielded to. There is no way of making three men right but by making right each one of the three; but a cure in one man who repents and turns, is a beginning of the cure of the whole human race.
December 26, 2022
The modern church would be better if George MacDonald were more widely read.
I find it odd that he is not more popular given that he influenced some very well read authors of the last two centuries. His friendship impacted Lewis Carroll. His writings greatly inspired the likes of JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis.
I’ve enjoyed his fantasy and fiction writing before, but to dive into his understanding of the Bible was fascinating.
“The Hope of the Gospel” is made up of twelve short sections based on scenes from the life of Jesus, a full breakdown of the Sermon of the Mount, and a few passages of Paul’s writings.
MacDonald’s explanation of the Beatitudes alone makes this book worth the read.
His thoughtful exploration of Jesus’ teachings indeed conveys the great “Hope of the Gospel,” to be set free of the enslaving love of self and set free to accept love and love others with abandon, being brought further and further into union with the Creator.
I want to understand the Gospel as George MacDonald did.
As many other reviews mention, the final chapter devotes a lot of time to MacDonald’s belief that even the animal kingdom will share in the resurrection and recreation of the world to come. I’ll admit, I initially found this an odd place to land such an incredible set of sermons… and while it leaves me more to chew on, I find myself drawn to his passionate plea that a true understanding of the Gospel would radically transform the way humans relate to not only the Creator, and fellow human creatures, but even those “subordinate” to us in the created order. That true transformation would develop in us “a heart big enough to love any life God has thought fit to create.”
I find it odd that he is not more popular given that he influenced some very well read authors of the last two centuries. His friendship impacted Lewis Carroll. His writings greatly inspired the likes of JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis.
I’ve enjoyed his fantasy and fiction writing before, but to dive into his understanding of the Bible was fascinating.
“The Hope of the Gospel” is made up of twelve short sections based on scenes from the life of Jesus, a full breakdown of the Sermon of the Mount, and a few passages of Paul’s writings.
MacDonald’s explanation of the Beatitudes alone makes this book worth the read.
His thoughtful exploration of Jesus’ teachings indeed conveys the great “Hope of the Gospel,” to be set free of the enslaving love of self and set free to accept love and love others with abandon, being brought further and further into union with the Creator.
I want to understand the Gospel as George MacDonald did.
As many other reviews mention, the final chapter devotes a lot of time to MacDonald’s belief that even the animal kingdom will share in the resurrection and recreation of the world to come. I’ll admit, I initially found this an odd place to land such an incredible set of sermons… and while it leaves me more to chew on, I find myself drawn to his passionate plea that a true understanding of the Gospel would radically transform the way humans relate to not only the Creator, and fellow human creatures, but even those “subordinate” to us in the created order. That true transformation would develop in us “a heart big enough to love any life God has thought fit to create.”
May 8, 2021
So much hope and joy present in this book. From the powerful opening chapter on the challenge of finding a liberating Gospel within a modern Christian tendency towards a picture of depravity, to the even more powerful (for me) closing chapter on humanities realtionship to the created world and the creatures that inhabit it.
Each chapter narrows in on an element of hope found in the Gospel promise, working through the tesnsion of this hope and the questions that emerge from it and the mystery that makes such tensions tenable in the fabric of our Christian imagination and the practicality of our Christian lives.
Be aware that this is written in an old style english, so while the content is easily digestable, working through the prose takes a bit of work for those not used to the language (which I suspect would be most of us). But having to read and reread sentences actually enriches the overall process and helps in making sense of MacDonalds carefully constructed arguments. Turns it into a true, meditative journey with one of the great Christian voices of human history as a helpful guide.
Each chapter narrows in on an element of hope found in the Gospel promise, working through the tesnsion of this hope and the questions that emerge from it and the mystery that makes such tensions tenable in the fabric of our Christian imagination and the practicality of our Christian lives.
Be aware that this is written in an old style english, so while the content is easily digestable, working through the prose takes a bit of work for those not used to the language (which I suspect would be most of us). But having to read and reread sentences actually enriches the overall process and helps in making sense of MacDonalds carefully constructed arguments. Turns it into a true, meditative journey with one of the great Christian voices of human history as a helpful guide.
May 31, 2025
An excellent supplement to Unspoken Sermons--in many ways, it constitutes a fourth series of Unspoken Sermons. Again, MacDonald's main focus is on the primacy of obedience. All good theology and true knowledge is downstream from obedience to Jesus, because only a righteous person with a loving heart can accept the truth. Our receptivity to the truth depends on our ability to love.
It is clear that these were written after Unspoken Sermons, however, because he is willing to be more forthright about his criticisms of received religion. By the end, he even lets us in on some of the more speculative aspects of his theology. Though he is clear that some of the views are, in the end, speculative, we know that he is offering what he believes to be the truth.
It is clear that these were written after Unspoken Sermons, however, because he is willing to be more forthright about his criticisms of received religion. By the end, he even lets us in on some of the more speculative aspects of his theology. Though he is clear that some of the views are, in the end, speculative, we know that he is offering what he believes to be the truth.
July 7, 2019
This is a lovely sort of post-script to George MacDonald's 3-volume Unspoken Sermons. Leaning heavily on the synpotic Gopsels, MacDonald lays out the shape of the Gospel as he understands it. Salvation is from sin itself rather than the consquences of sin; with the necessary help of Jesus we must cast out our own sins; the salvation of a few now is a pledge for the salvation of all in the future; and all of Creation, including the animals, will be redeemed along with us. As always with MacDonald, all I can do it recommend reading it for youself!
June 24, 2020
The wonderful, holistic, fully loving, fully immanent and transcendent God of George MacDonald is manifest in full glory, calling all to Him who is their life and source of existence, not for the paltry forgiveness of sins but for LIFE! A life that extends gently to the whole universe, drawing it in with beauty and love. A brilliant read.
George MacDonald never ceases to amaze me with his understanding of God, intertwined with the fullness of life. A breath of fresh air.
George MacDonald never ceases to amaze me with his understanding of God, intertwined with the fullness of life. A breath of fresh air.
July 11, 2023
fascinating read, so much food for thought.
I especially liked his reflections on the beatitudes. Also his perspective on the temple scene:
I must be “among my father’s things”
Jesus always is- nothing can harm him, it’s all God’s therefore he needs possess none of it, fear none of it, can enjoy and release all of it as he passes through
(and he welcomes us right into this very life- we are literally heirs)
I was surprised by his discussion on creation/animals at the end!
I especially liked his reflections on the beatitudes. Also his perspective on the temple scene:
I must be “among my father’s things”
Jesus always is- nothing can harm him, it’s all God’s therefore he needs possess none of it, fear none of it, can enjoy and release all of it as he passes through
(and he welcomes us right into this very life- we are literally heirs)
I was surprised by his discussion on creation/animals at the end!
November 8, 2021
Deep and profound. MacDonald has a way of speaking truth poetically and prophetically. This presentation of the Christian gospel is simple, but capable of radical transformation. I found it to enriching, and a good reminder of why God is so good and beautiful.
September 21, 2023
This is a book I will need to reread in a few years because I know I didn’t properly digest it all. There were some parts I appreciated and thought very good, but was thrown by the weird tangent about animals at the end.
March 17, 2020
¡Excelente!
De los pocos libros que algún día volveré a leer.
De los pocos libros que algún día volveré a leer.
January 1, 2021
Meaningful
As always GMD is inspirational.. Not an easy read (I read most areas three times.) Felt stupid but no matter. Very worth while.
As always GMD is inspirational.. Not an easy read (I read most areas three times.) Felt stupid but no matter. Very worth while.
May 5, 2021
Una lectura un poco complicada, pero edificante, full doctrina.
July 13, 2024
I didn't realize it the first time I read this, but this book is essentially a long sermon about the beatitudes in Matthew. A lot of what C. S. Lewis wrote about was inspired by MacDonald and I came across several thoughts here that I've seen repeated in Lewis. A worthwhile read for the Christian. I find it interesting that the last portion of the book is primarily about the fact that animals will be resurrected at the end of the world with us with even little pokes at reincarnation here and now. MacDonald seems like a very interesting thinker and someone's writing worth pondering over. It's not a long book and plenty to learn from it, I recommend.
July 6, 2012
What does it mean that God became man? What does it mean that Christ conquered death, and the he is the new leader of the world? These are the questions George MacDonald asks in this short little books, and with examples from Jesus' life, the Beatitudes and St. Paul's letters, he answers them very eloquently. His mode of communication is outdated, and he repeats himself quite a lot. Still, he is not hard to understand, and as usual MacDonald writes well. If it wasn't for his devoting the entire last chapter to the immortality of animals(!), this would get four stars. I have to admit, I didn't expect very much from this book, but the level of MacDonald's theological understanding surprised me.
September 16, 2014
I checked out this author because both CS Lewis and GK Chesterton credited him in their journey to faith....so, obviously I was expecting something so intellectual that I wouldn't be able to read it. Surprisingly though, MacDonald's writing style was really approachable, even emotional in its descriptions. I loved it.
He goes through the beatitudes (blessed are they who mourn, etc) and it was a beautiful picture of the ways God blesses us while turning worldly wisdom on its head. He surprises us, He comes to our darkest places and always pursues with gentleness.
The last chapter I found a little odd (devoted to the notion that all dogs go to heaven), but the rest of the book is lovely. I highlighted about half the book.
He goes through the beatitudes (blessed are they who mourn, etc) and it was a beautiful picture of the ways God blesses us while turning worldly wisdom on its head. He surprises us, He comes to our darkest places and always pursues with gentleness.
The last chapter I found a little odd (devoted to the notion that all dogs go to heaven), but the rest of the book is lovely. I highlighted about half the book.
May 5, 2013
This review is based on the public domain reading by Jordan available at librivox.org.
At first I feared this would be a recapitulation of Unspokem Sermons, but quickly I found that this was not the case. In this book, MacDonald takes on the task of describing what Christian life looks like, primarily through a detailed look at each verse of the sermon on the mount. The book covers practical matters and is less concerned with theology on the whole. Overall, I recommend this to people who have already read Unspoken Sermons and want to read more of MacDonald, but if you have not read the Sermons, I strongly recommend picking that up first.
At first I feared this would be a recapitulation of Unspokem Sermons, but quickly I found that this was not the case. In this book, MacDonald takes on the task of describing what Christian life looks like, primarily through a detailed look at each verse of the sermon on the mount. The book covers practical matters and is less concerned with theology on the whole. Overall, I recommend this to people who have already read Unspoken Sermons and want to read more of MacDonald, but if you have not read the Sermons, I strongly recommend picking that up first.
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