Week 13: Chapter 12 — More on MacDonald's Teaching

1.MacDonald addresses the narrator's concern that it seems unfair for the redeemed to be happy while others are still in Hell. He points out that the narrator is demanding that God's universe be organized around human sentimentality rather than divine love. What is the distinction MacDonald is making? Do you find it convincing?

2.MacDonald warns the narrator against 'the demand to be pitied' — the idea that suffering, by itself, gives one moral authority or demands capitulation from others. He distinguishes between genuine compassion (which seeks the other's good) and sentimental pity (which seeks to make the feeling of discomfort go away). How do you practice that distinction in your own relationships?

3.MacDonald makes the striking claim that Heaven, once fully entered, will be retroactively seen to have been the only real thing — that from within joy, the earthly sorrows will be understood as 'the beginning of all the real story.' How does this eschatological perspective relate to Romans 8:18 ('the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed')?