A good take on George MacDonald’s The Wise Woman…

over at Crisis.

MacDonald is a fascinating man.  C.S. Lewis said he never wrote a book that was not influenced by him.  He was raised in the Scottish Calvinist tradition, but deeply rejected it in favor of, well, Jesus.  He was never a Catholic, but was so deeply holy and good a man that an awful lot of the Holy Spirit filled him with an awful lot of Catholic imagination.  Most interesting to me is the way in which a curious Marian piety filled his heart though his mind never articulated it as such.  Every time he depicts God or the holy, it is *always* in feminine terms. I’m re-reading At the Back of the North Wind right now.  Such a beautiful piece of work.  His Princess stories are a joy too, not to mention Phantastes, the book that baptized Lewis’ imagination and showed him holiness for the first time.  And don’t forget the The Wise Woman.