Friday, March 1, 2013

George MacDonald and C. Baxter Kruger

I have read, listened to, and watched, a huge amount of "Christian" (and other types of spiritual) content during the past decade. I have followed more rabbit trails than I care to remember. In that sea of words, George MacDonald and C. Baxter Kruger are the two voices that have risen buoyantly to the surface and that I have been unable to sink with my caustic volleys of hurt, fear, anger, doubt and suspicion.

C.S. Lewis famously said of MacDonald:
I know hardly any other writer who seems to be closer, or more continually close, to the Spirit of Christ Himself.
In the introduction to an online version of Unspoken Sermons is this quote from Dr. Rolland Hein:
The purpose of Unspoken Sermons is to arouse the reader’s will so to choose, by imparting a clearer understanding of what God’s Will is. It is not to argue doctrines intellectually. It is not to formulate a systematic theology. MacDonald’s insights are not for the mind alone, but for the heart. They afford the reader glimpses of truths which to the child-heart of the true Christian are undeniable. MacDonald avows: “I believe that no teacher should strive to make men think as he thinks, but to lead them to the living Truth , to the Master Himself, of whom alone they can learn anything, who will make them in themselves know what is true by the very seeing of it.” The careful reader (and this material may not be read otherwise) will certainly have such a confrontation with Truth in the pages ahead. More than once reading here has brought sudden tears to my eyes and an involuntary thrill to my breast, and I have seldom had a stronger feeling of certainty that I was standing in the presence of valid insights into the Eternal Mystery than during the reading of these Unspoken Sermons.
When I read that quote I knew EXACTLY what he meant. The "sudden tears" and "involuntary thrill" have happened many times while listening to the words of both these men. I will go one step further than Dr. Hein: I have NEVER had a stronger feeling of certainty that I was standing in the presence of valid insights into the Eternal Mystery than during the reading of these Unspoken Sermons. Indeed, it is only now that I am nearing the end of reading them that I can start to imagine being able to read the Bible and discovering the Christ in its pages that for so long has been hidden by the "doctrines" and "teachings" of men (not to mention my own self-obsessed blindness).
I would highly recommend the audio version of Unspoken Sermons recently made available at Librivox by David Baldwin. It is very obvious that it was a labor of love and I feel like I am in the presence of MacDonald himself when I listen. Blessings upon you David.

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