Sonderbooks Book Review of George MacDonald in the Pulpit

Reviewed August 19, 2002.
Johannesen Printing and Publishing, Whitehorn, California, 1996.

When I first became familiar with George MacDonald’s teachings, it was through Michael Phillips’ collections of excerpts from his works. These were taken from his writings of Unspoken Sermons. I ended up buying these original books, learning more about the ideas I was already familiar with.

This volume is a whole new set of teachings. These are sermons that George MacDonald actually spoke. He was a highly popular speaker, and the compilers got the texts from newspaper accounts of his sermons, preached between 1871 and 1901. Can you imagine newspapers printing whole sermons today?!

I found this to be a wonderful collection for devotional reading. It’s probably a good place to start for someone who’s not familiar with George MacDonald’s teachings, as I don’t think that an evangelical Christian would find anything controversial.

His message is simple. God loves us deeply, as a Father loves his children. He wants us to be good--to be the people that He created us to be. Because He loves us, He will do what He needs to do to help us become that, taking each person at his own level. Our response should be obedience--to do what God wants us to do.

George MacDonald doesn’t focus on theology. He focuses on how we should live our lives and how much God loves us.

The book closes with a tribute to George MacDonald by G. K. Chesterton. Apparently he knew George MacDonald and believed that his life matched his teachings. I am more and more impressed by his writings.

Reviews of related books:
Exploring Universalism
Phantastes

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Book Reviews by Sondra Eklund

****George MacDonald in the Pulpit*

compiled by J. Joseph Flynn and David Edwards