George MacDonald

Life

MacDonald was born in 1824 in Huntly, Aberdeenshire, in northeastern Scotland, the son of a farmer. He studied at King's College, University of Aberdeen, and after receiving his degree in 1844 moved to London, where he worked as a tutor. He then trained for the Congregational ministry at Highbury College in London. Congregationalism is a Protestant tradition in which the members of each local church govern its affairs.

In 1850 he became pastor of Trinity Congregational Church in Arundel, Sussex, England. He reportedly resigned in 1853, however, after disputes over doctrine. He later took up church work in Manchester but gave it up because of ill health. From then on he supported himself by lecturing on English literature, private tutoring, public speaking, preaching, editing a children's magazine, and writing. In 1851 he married Louisa Powell, with whom he had eleven children. He is said to have suffered from tuberculosis throughout his life and to have struggled financially. He died in 1905 in Ashtead, Surrey, England.

Ministry and Work

Although his pastorate was brief, MacDonald continued to work as an itinerant preacher and lecturer and expressed his faith through literature. He first gained recognition in 1855 with the religious poem Within and Without, and in 1858 he published Phantastes, a fantasy novel for adults. His works for children include At the Back of the North Wind (1871), The Princess and the Goblin (1872) and its sequel The Princess and Curdie, The Light Princess, and The Golden Key. Late in life he wrote Lilith (1895), another fantasy novel for adults. He also wrote more than twenty realist novels set in Scotland. Altogether, his novels, fairy tales, poetry, collections of sermons, and literary criticism amount to some fifty volumes.

His works are regarded as depicting the soul's spiritual journey back to God through allegory and fairy tale. He served as a mentor to Lewis Carroll, author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. He went on to influence C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, G. K. Chesterton, and others, and for this reason he has been called the "father of fantasy." Lewis selected 365 passages from MacDonald's writings to compile an anthology. Lewis also made MacDonald a character in his novel The Great Divorce, portraying him as the protagonist's guide.

Influence on the Korean Church

In Korea, MacDonald has become known chiefly through C. S. Lewis. Lewis's George MacDonald: An Anthology, translated by Hong Jong-rak, is published in Hong Sung Sa's "Writings of Faith" series. The book has been described as the first in Korea to introduce MacDonald's Christian thought directly, and it was reissued in 2021. Fairy tales such as The Light Princess and The Princess and the Goblin have also been translated several times. Korean Christian media have treated him as one of the roots of Christian fantasy literature. There is no record, however, of his having directly influenced any particular Korean denomination or church movement.

Assessment

MacDonald is regarded as a writer who portrayed faith through the imagination during the Victorian era, when realist fiction predominated. Lewis praised him highly, saying that he knew of no writer who seemed closer to the Spirit of Christ than MacDonald. Lewis nevertheless added the qualification that he would not go so far as to call him free from error. As his departure from the Arundel church after doctrinal disputes shows, his theological views were controversial even in his own day. Consequently, even among readers who greatly admire his literary work, how his theology should be assessed remains a separate question.