Category: George MacDonald

Now that the rough draft of “Preliminary Notes on the Riddle of Self in Lilith” is complete, the task of revision begins! As a first step, today I created a detailed outline of its content to help me make decisions about its large scale structure. I’ve decided on four major sections, or chapters, as shown… Continue reading Organization of “The Riddle of Self in Lilith”

It seems strange that it is even possible to use the same word for the death that is the progress of eternal Life in the human spirit, and for the death that is eternal misery, the death of despair. Those who refuse to die in the first way, die in the second. Rather than losing… Continue reading Preliminary Notes on the Riddle of Self in Lilith, Part VI

We have, then, a simple, direct motion of the will by which the self grounds itself, or chooses to be grounded in, the power that established it–its causing life, as MacDonald would say. We could characterize it simply as obedience to the command, “You shall love the Lord you God, with all your heart, with… Continue reading Preliminary Notes on the Riddle of Self in Lilith, Part V

Through his temporal-spatial dislocation into a new world, and through Mr. Raven’s questioning, Mr. Vane has become aware of the problem of self, the problem posed by his individual existence. The awareness that he does not know, is not at home in, the world has helped mediate to him the awareness that he does not… Continue reading Preliminary Notes on the Riddle of Self in Lilith, Part IV

The first problem facing Mr. Vane in the story is how he is to make himself at home in an utterly unfamiliar world. His temporal-spatial dislocation is far more obvious to him than his existential dislocation, and demands to be dealt with first. But his demand for information is met with a philosophical reply, as… Continue reading Preliminary Notes on the Riddle of Self in Lilith, Part II

I came to Lilith late in my reading of the works of George MacDonald. I don’t remember the date or circumstances of my first reading; I do remember clearly an incident that sealed my impressions of finishing the book. I stepped outdoors somewhat in a daze, partly from the amount of reading I had done… Continue reading Preliminary Notes on the Riddle of Self in Lilith, Part I

Recently, I have been trying to describe the particular concerns of George MacDonald’s theological writing that could, I believe, with some fairness be described as existentialist. In the process, I have learned that the label “existentialist” is a slippery one, and that there is no universal agreement on to whom it should be applied. If… Continue reading MacDonald and Kierkegaard: Sonship and the Knight of Faith

I was hoping to post more frequent updates on my George MacDonald writing projects, but until now I have found that my very absorption with writing has kept me from being able to distill what I have been doing in the form of a post. Our recent 12-day visit with my parents in western Washington… Continue reading An Epistemology of Trust