For me, the entry point into MacDonald’s thought and work was his sermon “Justice” in Unspoken Sermons. I encountered it after months of questioning “what is justice?” and I found the sermon to be that rarest of things, a sensible and definitive answer. George MacDonald is the only person I have ever encountered who is able to explain what justice is in a way that makes me love it with all my being. He makes me willing to suffer and strive for it.

C.S. Lewis, who wrote a lot about justice, ultimately got it wrong. For Lewis, heaven is defeated if the saved have everlasting compassion for the unsaved, and, in Lewis’s view, heaven isn’t perfect until the saved forget about the suffering of the unsaved or cease to care about it.

For Lewis, the essence of heaven is joy. He wrote as a worshiper of joy, but to be a worshiper of joy is to forget the essence of joy which is a God of Love, a God willing to sacrifice all his own joy for the sake of another. George MacDonald was a heretic and Lewis was orthodox, but MacDonald was closer to the spirit of Christ than Lewis, and Lewis was the first to admit it.

I think Lewis gets some undue kid glove treatment, no, I don’t think he was a great writer and I think you’ll find he admitted this, himself. However, I can’t help loving his fantastic work, anyway, it’s so much a part of me.

I was offended when Disney dropped the movies right before Dawn Treader, my favorite, and am happy that Apted will be doing it, anyway. Eustace is my favorite human character in the series.

To be honest, I think Lewis gets some undue hands-offing. I don’t think he was a great writer, I think you’ll find he admitted that himself, and I am saying this as somebody who still likes his fantastic work.

I can’t help it, I loved it so much, once. I was offended when Disney dropped the movies right before Dawn Treader, my favorite, and glad to hear Apted’s doing it, anyway. Eustace is far and away my favorite human character in the series.

Glad to introduce anybody, and I actually posted a list of suggested further reading in my blog:

http://bennylava.robertnlee.com/?p=2848

I wish I were you, sorta. Have fun.

–Robert

Oh! I just found out he wrote “The Princess and the Goblin”. Lovely : )

Amy