MacDonald wrote novels, children's stories, and fantasy. But the core of his beautiful theology can be found in his work Unspoken Sermons.
If you've never read Unspoken Sermons, or even if you've read it many times, I'm excited to alert you to the fact that free audio downloads of Unspoken Sermons are now available.
How did this happen? We have David Baldwin to thank. David patiently took the time to professionally record Unspoken Sermons and make it available to all of us at LibriVox. From David's email that he sent me:
In 2008 I started reading Unspoken Sermons and before long began to think, "Reading is not enough. This I must internalize." Thus began a three year project of outlining, annotating, and recording all thirty-six sermons. Each sermon was carefully recorded using studio quality equipment with the end goal of helping others encounter MacDonald's thought in a new way or perhaps for the first time.The audio files for Unspoken Sermons can be found here at LibriVox.
And let's all express our deep gratitude to David.
Got it free on my kindle about a year ago along with several other McDonald books. I know I would personally benefit from listening to these audio versions. Thanks and yes reading it isn't good enough.
Thank you Richard and thank you David. MacDonald has been a great mentor for me.
Googling George Macdonald two years ago is how I discovered your blog. He has also profoundly affected me.
Yes, thank you so much! I learned of George MacDonald by reading The Princess and the Goblin, and it was one of the best children's books I'd read. I have Unspoken Sermons on my Kindle as well, for those who would like a text version. It's free.
http://www.amazon.com/Unspoken-Sermons-Series-II-ebook/dp/B00849E492/ )
I love the idea of being able to listen to his sermons instead of reading them... considering how lengthy my commute is most days, this seems like the ideal way to absorb them. Thanks for the head's up!
Oh, thank you so much for the head's up. I've loved him for decades now. How do we let David know how grateful we are?
Great question. I don't David personally. He just sent me an email. But there is a Thank A Reader procedure you can use to thank a specific Librivox reader: http://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Thank_You
Thank you, Richard, for kindly posting the link to my audio recording of Unspoken Sermons. And thank you to all for your gracious words and thoughts.
As a rule I abhor self-marketing. Let every man or woman’s work stand or fall on its own merit. Why trumpet one’s own work? But with regard to these recordings I thought, “If one poor beggar beats a path to an apple tree, is it self-serving to tell other poor beggars of the path?” I think not. Therefore if these recordings help one person move one step closer to the Father, I have received more than enough thanks.
For those who care to dig a little deeper (and you should know that unless you are willing to dig you will not get much from MacDonald!) you may be interested in annotated outlines in pdf and video format at http://georgemacdonald.info/unspoken_sermons.html.
I've been listening to George MacDonald via Librivox for several years now and was watching and waiting for David to finish his recording of Unspoken Sermons. I grabbed it as soon as it was finished and have been enthralled. David brings MacDonald's words to life in a beautiful way. Sometimes reading MacDonald can be a bit of a chore because I have to go back over passages several times to be sure I am correctly understanding his meaning. David has clearly put a lot of effort into giving the correct voicing to MacDonald's beautiful language, bringing his stunning insights directly into view. I am so very grateful to people like David, and also Michael Phillips, who are keeping MacDonald's words alive.
Interestingly, within the past couple weeks, Unspoken Sermons has been mentioned by 3 people whose words have meant very much to me. C. Baxter Kruger, Robin Parry and now Richard. Do good things come in 3's? In this case, yes.
http://baxterkruger.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-pause.html
http://theologicalscribbles.blogspot.com/2013/02/online-audio-versions-of-george.html
Oh, how nice! He showed up on here.
Mr. Baldwin, thank you so much for the time and energy you have devoted to making these apples more accessible to us. I’m so grateful for your work helping us on to the Father!
Just finished the first chapter "The Child in the Midst." I was blown away! Excellent stuff! Thanks to both you and David for referring me to this book.