A self-described independent, he gave sermons "bereft of doctrine and promising salvation to heathens and even animals," which alarmed his conservative parishioners, Marjory Lang explained in the
Dictionary of Literary Biography. Losing his official pulpit did not deter MacDonald from preaching, however. He gave lectures for those who would hear him, and he incorporated his messages into his various writings. As Maurice Sendak observed in
Washington Post Book Week, MacDonald was "a novelist, poet, mythmaker, allegorist, critic, essayist, and, in everything, a preacher."
"MacDonald had a 'longing after visions and revelations,'" wrote McGillis in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, "and this explains his interest in fantasy and romance, his conception of life, and his literary theory. Not favored with the mystic experience, MacDonald used his imagination to project himself into visions, and he believed firmly in the existence of two corresponding and interpenetrating worlds, one natural and one supernatural. . . . The first fruit of MacDonald's mystic imaginings is Phantastes, a symbolic adventure meant to suggest meaning rather than state it and by degrees to lead the reader to deep truths."
His First Novel
Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women, "firmly established his literary reputation," recounted Lang.
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