George MacDonald: Divine Carelessness and Fairytale Levity (Making of the Christian Imagination)

The Scottish poet, author, and Christian minister George MacDonald is widely known as an inspiration for the works of C S Lewis, J R R Tolkien and Lewis Carroll, among others. Nineteenth century photographs of MacDonald present a forbidding visage, embodying Victorian-era solemnity. Yet behind the facade, as Daniel Gabelman writes, lived a whimsical and fantastical muse. Indeed, MacDonald imbued theological weight through childlike lightheartedness. Gabelman ably reveals in MacDonald's writings a bridge between playfulness and seriousness in the modern imagination. George MacDonald delivers a balanced reading of its subject that ultimately lends a new theological and literary weight to whimsy.