Editing George MacDonald (section)

==Theology==
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According to biographer William Raeper, MacDonald's theology "celebrated the rediscovery of God as Father, and sought to encourage an intuitive response to God and Christ through quickening his readers' spirits in their reading of the Bible and their perception of nature."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.george-macdonald.com/resources1/theology.html|title=George MacDonald's Theology|website=The George MacDonald WWW Page|access-date=30 December 2020|archive-date=13 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220113160040/http://george-macdonald.com/resources1/theology.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

MacDonald's oft-mentioned [[Universal reconciliation|universalism]] is not the idea that everyone will automatically be saved, but is closer to [[Gregory of Nyssa]] in the view that all will ultimately repent and be restored to God.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=12-04-015-v|title=An Orthodox Appreciation of George MacDonald|website=Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity}}</ref>

MacDonald appears to have never felt comfortable with some aspects of Calvinist doctrine, feeling that its principles were inherently "unfair";<ref name=reis/> when the doctrine of [[predestination]] was first explained to him, he burst into tears (although assured that he was one of the [[Predestination (Calvinism)|elect]]).{{citation needed|date=March 2017}} Later novels, such as ''Robert Falconer'' and ''[[Lilith (novel)|Lilith]]'', show a distaste for the idea that God's electing love is limited to some and denied to others.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

Chesterton noted that only a man who had "escaped" Calvinism could say that God is easy to please and hard to satisfy.{{clarify|date=June 2021}}{{sfn|Macdonald|1924|loc=Intro}}

MacDonald rejected the doctrine of [[penal substitution]]ary 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.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.online-literature.com/george-macdonald/unspoken-sermons/31/ | title=Unspoken Sermons by George MacDonald: Justice }}</ref> Instead, he taught that Christ had come to save people from their sins, and not from a Divine penalty for their sins: the problem was not the need to appease a wrathful God, but the disease of cosmic evil itself.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}} MacDonald frequently described the [[atonement in Christianity|atonement]] in terms similar to the [[Christus Victor]] theory.{{clarify|date=March 2017}}{{citation needed|date=March 2017}} MacDonald posed the rhetorical question, "Did he not foil and slay evil by letting all the waves and billows of its horrid sea break upon him, go over him, and die without rebound—spend their rage, fall defeated, and cease? Verily, he made atonement!"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Phillips |first1=Michael R. |year=1987 |title=George MacDonald: Scotland's Beloved Storyteller |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TobyAAAAMAAJ&q=%22their+rage+fall+defeated%22 |location=Minneapolis |publisher=Bethany House |page=209 |isbn=978-0871239440 |access-date=14 September 2017}}</ref>

[[File:George and Louisa MacDonald on their 50th anniversary.jpg|thumb|MacDonald with his wife Louisa in 1901 at their 50th wedding anniversary]]

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.<ref>{{cite book | author = Yamaguchi, Miho | year = 2007 | title = George MacDonald's Challenging Theology of the Atonement, Suffering, and Death | page = 27 | publisher = Wheatmark | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=b_0ot9LcC5EC&pg=PA27 | access-date = 15 March 2017| isbn = 9781587367984 }}</ref> As the doctor uses fire and steel in certain deep-seated diseases, so God may use hell-fire if necessary to heal the hardened sinner. MacDonald declared, "I believe that no hell will be lacking which would help the just mercy of God to redeem his children."<ref>{{cite book | author = Johnson, Joseph | year = 1906 | title =George MacDonald: A Biographical and Critical Appreciation | page = [https://archive.org/details/georgemacdonaldb00johnuoft/page/155 155] | publisher = Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, Ltd. | url = https://archive.org/details/georgemacdonaldb00johnuoft | access-date = 15 March 2017}}</ref> MacDonald posed the rhetorical question, "When we say that God is Love, do we teach men that their fear of Him is groundless?"  He replied, "No. As much as they were will come upon them, possibly far more.&nbsp;... The wrath will consume what they ''call'' themselves; so that the selves God made shall appear."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Phillips |first1=Michael R. |year=1987 |title=George MacDonald: Scotland's Beloved Storyteller |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TobyAAAAMAAJ&q=%22wrath+will+consume%22 |location=Minneapolis |publisher=Bethany House |page=202 |isbn=978-0871239440 |access-date=14 September 2017 }}</ref>

However, true repentance, in the sense of freely chosen moral growth, is essential to this process, and, in MacDonald's optimistic view, inevitable for all beings (see [[universal reconciliation]]).{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

MacDonald states his theological views most distinctly in the sermon "Justice", found in the third volume of ''Unspoken Sermons''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/macdonald/unspoken3.viii.html |title=Sermon "Justice", at ''Unspoken Sermons Third Series'' |publisher=Christian Classics Ethereal Library |access-date=19 June 2018}}</ref>