Books by Rolland Hein

George MacDonald wrote fairy tales for both children and adults to demonstrate the essential role of the imagination in apprehending spiritual truths. He explained: "". . . undefined, yet vivid visions of something beyond, something which eye has not seen nor ear heard, have far more influence than any logical sequences whereby the same things may be demonstrated to the intellect."" Rolland Hein undertakes to show how MacDonald''s tales contain such visions, helping readers to experience for themselves glimpses of ""something beyond"" and catch exciting insights into eternal truths.""Readers of George MacDonald may experience delight and perplexity in about equal proportions. Rolland Hein has performed a great service, enhancing our delight and reducing our perplexity. Dr. Hein summarizes the narratives of MacDonald''s most well-known fantasy stories and offers perceptive interpretive commentary. This is the one book you will need to best understand and enjoy the riches of MacDonald''s vivid and spiritually-infused imagination.""--David C. Downing, the Marion E. Wade Center, Wheaton College""Rolland Hein is that rare thing--a great teacher-scholar whose writing and interpretation are as lucid, generous, and vastly encouraging as the author he helps readers to love more fully by understanding more completely. He thoroughly explores MacDonald''s fairy tales, which deeply satisfy the spiritual hunger of readers by offering glimpses of Reality that can be shaped only by the imagination.""--Jill Pelaez Baumgartner, Wheaton College, author of What Cannot Be Fixed""There is a place inside your consciousness that you traveled to as a child while reading fairy tales--a place where your fledgling soul found its wings as you pondered the truth of imaginative experience. Rolland Hein understands the importance of pondering in this place--not just for children but for adults. His masterful guide, Doors In, invites you in to explore George MacDonald''s nineteenth century fairy tales designed, in fact, specifically for adults.""--Jo-Anne Cappeluti, California State University, Fullerton Rolland Hein is Emeritus Professor of English at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois. He is the author of The Harmony Within: The Spiritual Vision of George MacDonald, George MacDonald: Victorian Mythmaker, Through the Year with George MacDonald, Christian Mythmakers, and Growing with My Garden.

C. S. Lewis once remarked that his debt to George MacDonald's writings was ""almost as great as one man can owe to another . . . I know hardly any other writer who seems to be closer, or more continually close, to the Spirit of Christ Himself."" Born in Scotland in 1824, MacDonald was educated at King's College in Aberdeen and Highbury Seminary in London. As a Christian minister, he indulged early his fondness--and skill--in the writing of poetry, then fantasy and fiction, as well as sermons. Quickly becoming known for his literary skills, he became a popular writer and lecturer, counting among his friends and fans Lady Byron, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Mark Twain, John Ruskin, Matthew Arnold, and Lewis Carroll (who only published Alice's Adventures in Wonderland at the urging of the MacDonald family). At the time of his death in 1905, he left behind a large volume of work that has had a profound influence on many writers, including G. K. Chesterton, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Madeleine L'Engle, and Frederick Buechner. This seminal biography is based upon a careful researching of thousands of letters written to and by MacDonald as well as personal papers and documents collected in museums and libraries in America and Europe. A noted MacDonald scholar, Rolland Hein spent over a decade reading and researching these documents with a view to exploring those aspects of the life and experiences of this great author and saint that have so profoundly influenced many of the seminal authors of the twentieth century.

About the Contributor(s):Rolland Hein, professor emeritus from Wheaton College, also graduated from Wheaton in 1954. Having recieved a BD degree from Grace Theological Seminary and a PhD from Purdue University, he taught English at Bethel College, St. Paul, until 1970. His writings include George MacDonald: Victorian Mythmaker and Christian Mythmakers. He currently conducts a class in myth at the Wade Center on Saturday mornings. He and his wife, Dorothy, live near St. Charles, Illinois.

About the Contributor(s):Rolland Hein, professor emeritus from Wheaton College, also graduated from Wheaton in 1954. Having recieved a BD degree from Grace Theological Seminary and a PhD from Purdue University, he taught English at Bethel College, St. Paul, until 1970. His writings include George MacDonald: Victorian Mythmaker and Christian Mythmakers. He currently conducts a class in myth at the Wade Center on Saturday mornings. He and his wife, Dorothy, live near St. Charles, Illinois.

George MacDonald was a many-faceted nineteenth-century writer-an ordained minister without a church, a popular lecturer, college professor, and most famously, the author nearly 50 books. From sermons to poetry, scholarly essays to novels, and fantasy romances to fairy stories, his writing often combines the flavor of the fantastic with a scent of the spiritual-all the while evincing wisdom based in reality. Rolland Hein, eminent MacDonald scholar, biographer, and editor of this anthology, aptly quotes from MacDonald's novel The Marquis of Lossie, "Life and religion are one, or neither is anything...." The selections from Through the Year with George MacDonald are proof of the unity of MacDonald's vision. They are also proof of the decades Dr. Hein has spent immersed in the writings of this remarkable author, compiling a devotional book that readers will return to many times over for inspiration. Many who are aware of C.S. Lewis's indebtedness to George MacDonald and, as a consequence, have desired to know this Scottish author better, will find this anthology to be the perfect way into his writings. Rolland Hein is a wise and accomplished guide to MacDonald, presenting readers with selections that speak engagingly of deep spiritual truths such as kindness, trust, obedience, holiness-and chief among these always, the unending love of God the Father for each one of His children. Indeed, in this volume you will encounter, as MacDonald compellingly demonstrates, 'life essential.' Marjorie Lamp Mead, Associate Director The Marion E. Wade Center, Wheaton College C.S. Lewis said of George MacDonald, "I know hardly any other writer who seems... closer... to the Spirit of Christ Himself." In this devotional book, renowned scholar Rolland Hein presents gems from the rich array of MacDonald's writings-a rare treasure for all who wish to walk beside one who practiced the presence of God. Monika B. Hilder, Associate Professor of English, Trinity Western University, author of The Feminine Ethos in C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia Rolland Hein is professor emeritus at Wheaton College and the author of several books about George MacDonald.

Description:George MacDonald is a witness to the power of imagination. By using the art of enchantment, he is able to draw readers into another world seemingly more real than this one. What was the power behind his imagination and what drove MacDonald''s art? It was his vision of the spiritual life that provided the context for his fantastic fairy tales and other writings.The Harmony Within: The Spiritual Vision of George MacDonald takes a close look at the religious roots of MacDonald''s writing. So many people today are looking for a spiritual connection between God and man, between myth and destiny. George MacDonald''s work provides a doorway to other worlds; the ideas behind his writing may help reshape the mythic elements of our lives.