As one who has been roused to life by George MacDonald, I was eagerly awaiting this book, and am happy to report the author delivers on each of his promises, and in fine style. The last few years have seen a number of critical assessments of MacDonald’s work, each written with a slightly different focus, and Waking the Dead is one of the best.

This is a book that will not only please the academic community, but all lovers of classic fantasy. The dozen authors who contributed chapters to this superlative work write in a clear, engaging style. I’ve read all of MacDonald and quite a bit about him, but was thrilled to gain new insights into the Scotsman and his work…

MacMurray delivers on just what the title implies: describing the evolution of his understanding of the Gospel (indeed, of God Himself) from the mainstream Reformed perspective to what I would call the understanding of the Apostles and the early Christian community…

"The Good News is not that Jesus has opened up the possibility of salvation and you have been invited to receive Jesus into your life. The Gospel is that Jesus has already included you into His life, into His relationship with God the Father, and into His anointing in the Holy Spirit…

Is it any wonder that a book which integrates profound theological discourses with fascinating fiction would make reference to George MacDonald? Baxter Kruger is one of my favorite writers on the subject of the Trinity…

"There is an impassable chasm," Young writes, "...between a God who takes ownership for the Creation along with the havoc we have produced, and One who authors the evil itself…”

"God doesn't have a low view of humanity, because God knows the truth about us. God is not fooled by all the lies we have told ourselves and each other. Jesus is the truth about who we are--fully human, fully alive. Deeper than all the hurt and broken bits and pieces is a 'very good' creation, and we were created in the image and likeness of God..."

The "lies" that this book set forward are perceived as lies through the lens of Jesus's identity and what His identity shouts to us about God, about ourselves, about creation, about our destiny, and about our future...

While the Trinity was not an explicit focus of George MacDonald's writing, his thinking was in complete harmony with the best writers who emphasize the Trinitarian nature of God. Indeed, John's statement that God is love is only understandable in the context of the Trinity, that ours is a three-person God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit united in an eternal dance of love. The Good News is that we are all invited to join in that dance--you, me, Donald Trump, Kim Jong-un, John Piper, everyone. 

I've got quite a library of MacDonald's books, and am not all that easy to impress, but MacDonald and Sanderson are a marriage made in the third heaven, as St. Paul would surely affirm. Breathtakingly beautiful hardly begins to describe this edition of The Golden Key; Sanderson' black-and-white scratchboard illustrations have the haunting quality of one's profoundest dreams. 

"My prayer," writes Robin Parry, "is that by the end of the book you will not be thinking that the Bible is old and out of date but that it is excitingly relevant to our modern understandings of the world in which we live."