“Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point . . . A chastity or honesty, or mercy, which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful till it became risky.”[1] – C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters #29 […]
Of all the stories I have read, including even all the novels of this same novelist, [The Princess and the Goblin] remains the most real, the most realistic . . . the most like life.[1] – G.K. Chesterton How do we become good or evil? . . . All these philosophers [Plato, Aristotle, Confucius, Lao […]
“Of course, there are universal rules to which all goodness must conform. But that’s only the grammar of virtue. It’s not there that the sap is. He doesn’t make two blades of grass the same: how much less two saints, two nations, two angels. The whole work of healing Tellus depends on nursing that little […]
In a genuine fairy-story, everything must be miraculous, mysterious, and interrelated; everything must be alive, each in its way. The whole of Nature must be wondrously blended with the whole world of Spirit.[1] Novalis, cited in George MacDonald, Phantastes While reading Phantastes I knew that I had crossed a great frontier. I had already been […]
Lilith, MacDonald’s final novel written forty years after Phantastes, continues its themes of nature throbbing with vitality, shrouded in beauty, and birthing joy. One key insight from Phantastes, that love is only complete when it is fully self-sacrificing, is central to the message of Lilith. The sacrifice in Lilith goes beyond mere selflessness to become […]
“My spirits rose as I went deeper into the forest … I found cheerfulness to be like life itself – not to be created by any argument”[1] – George MacDonald, Phantastes “I did not yet know the name of the new quality, the bright shadow, that rested on the travels of Anodos. I do now. […]
“Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures, especially through my lord Brother Sun … Sister Moon … Brother Wind … sister Water … Brother Fire … Sister Mother Earth … Sister Bodily Death” Francis of Assisi, Canticle of the Sun, 1224 The Medievals persist in their relevance for the present day. Several Italians, […]
“Midway upon the journey of our life, I found myself in a dark wood, for the straight way was lost”[1] – Dante, Inferno “Already were all my will and my desires Turned – as a wheel in equal balance – by The Love that moves the sun and the other stars.”[2] – Dante, Paradise […]
“What we call Man’s power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument.”[1] C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man “Your highly emotional behavior is most illogical.”[2] Spock “It is by will alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the juice […]
Princess Mononoke, an animated film from legendary Japanese writer and director Hayao Miyazaki, is a fantasy tale of the struggle between man and nature that in many ways echoes themes of innocence and evil found in writings and fantasies of J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Miyazaki sets the […]
