George MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet and Christian Congregational minister.
24 Facts About George MacDonald
2.
George MacDonald became a pioneering figure in the field of modern fantasy literature and the mentor of fellow-writer Lewis Carroll.
3.
The Christian author Oswald Chambers wrote in his Christian Disciplines that "it is a striking indication of the trend and shallowness of the modern reading public that George MacDonald's books have been so neglected".
4.
George MacDonald was born on 10 December 1824 at Huntly, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
5.
George MacDonald grew up in an unusually literate environment: one of his maternal uncles was a notable Celtic scholar, editor of the Gaelic Highland Dictionary and collector of fairy tales and Celtic oral poetry.
6.
George MacDonald's step-uncle was a Shakespeare scholar, and his paternal cousin another Celtic academic.
7.
An account cited how the young George MacDonald suffered lapses in health in his early years and was subject to problems with his lungs such as asthma, bronchitis and even a bout of tuberculosis.
8.
George MacDonald grew up in the Congregational Church, with an atmosphere of Calvinism.
9.
George MacDonald graduated from the University of Aberdeen in 1845 with a degree in chemistry and physics.
10.
George MacDonald spent the next several years struggling with matters of faith and deciding what to do with his life.
11.
George MacDonald was appointed minister of Trinity Congregational Church, Arundel, in 1850, after briefly serving as a locum minister in Ireland.
12.
In May 1853, George MacDonald tendered his resignation from his pastoral duties at Arundel.
13.
George MacDonald was for a time editor of Good Words for the Young.
14.
George MacDonald is often regarded as the founding father of modern fantasy writing.
15.
George MacDonald performed this lecture to great acclaim, speaking in Boston to crowds in the neighbourhood of three thousand people.
16.
George MacDonald was friends with John Ruskin and served as a go-between in Ruskin's long courtship with Rose La Touche.
17.
George MacDonald founded a literary studio in that Ligurian town, naming it Casa Coraggio.
18.
George MacDonald died on 18 September 1905 in Ashtead, Surrey, England.
19.
George MacDonald was cremated in Woking, Surrey, and his ashes were buried in Bordighera, in the English cemetery, along with his wife Louisa and daughters Lilia and Grace.
20.
George MacDonald was said to have been particularly affected by the death of Lilia, his eldest.
21.
George MacDonald appears to have never felt comfortable with some aspects of Calvinist doctrine, feeling that its principles were inherently "unfair"; when the doctrine of predestination was first explained to him, he burst into tears.
22.
George MacDonald rejected the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement as developed by John Calvin, which argues that Christ has taken the place of sinners and is punished by the wrath of God in their place, believing that in turn it raised serious questions about the character and nature of God.
23.
George MacDonald frequently described the atonement in terms similar to the Christus Victor theory.
24.
George MacDonald was convinced that God does not punish except to amend, and that the sole end of His greatest anger is the amelioration of the guilty.