Shadows and Chivalry: C. S. Lewis and George MacDonald on Suffering, Evil and Goodness

SHADOWS AND CHIVALRY studies the influence of George MacDonald, a nineteenth-century Scottish novelist and fantasy writer, upon one of the most influential writers of modern times, C. S. Lewis - the creator of Narnia, literary critic, and best-selling apologist. While other books, quoting Lewis himself, have only mentioned the fact that Lewis called MacDonald his "master," and that MacDonald's Phantastes helped "baptize" Lewis's imagination, this study attempts to trace the overall effect of MacDonald's work on Lewis's thought and imagination. Without ever ceasing to be a story of one man's influence upon another, the study also serves as an exploration of each writer's thought on, and literary visions of, good and evil. Lastly, using the metaphor of chivalry, McInnis looks at what Lewis and MacDonald believed to be greater than either suffering or hell: the severe and tender Love who longs to save. "By far the most penetrating and exhaustive study that I have seen of the origin in George MacDonald's writings of so many of C. S. Lewis's ideas. Jeff McInnis's sensitive and highly informed judgments greatly enrich our understanding of their imaginative and devotional achievement. A genuinely enriching read for any earnest Christian mind." Rolland Hein, Professor Emeritus, Wheaton College Author of Through the Year with George MacDonald "Jeff McInnis has written a book that henceforth will be indispensable to all students of C. S. Lewis who seek to understand the oft-mentioned but till now not fully fathomed debt of his literary and theological imagination to George MacDonald. His well conceived study has the further benefit of doing considerable justice to the angular graces of MacDonald's anti-Calvinistic under¬standing of redemption. McInnis's chapter on "The Chivalry of God" finds an indispensable key to this great, but out-of-time conversation between two lay theologians of enduring interest and literary power." David Lyle Jeffrey, Distinguished Professor of Literature and the Humanities, Baylor University Author of Christianity and Literature: Philosophical Foundations and Critical Practice Jeff McInnis (PhD, University of St. Andrews) is Professor of English at Panola College in Carthage, Texas. Read more