“Brothers, have you found our king? There he is, kissing little children and saying they are like God. There he is at table with the head of a fisherman lying on his bosom, and somewhat heavy at heart that even he, the beloved disciple, cannot yet understand him well. The simplest peasant who loves his children and his sheep were-no, not a truer, for the other is false, but-a true type of our God beside that monstrosity of a monarch.”

Macdonald, George. Unspoken Sermons Series I, II, and III (p. 6). Start Publishing LLC. Kindle Edition.

Unspoken Sermons George MacDonald, Kindle Edition page 6

MacDonald rejected the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement as put forward by John Calvin which argues that Christ has taken the place of sinners and is punished by God in their place, believing that in turn it raised serious questions about the character and nature of God. Instead, he taught that Christ had come to save people from their sins, and not from a Divine penalty for their sins. The problem was not the need to appease a wrathful God but the disease of cosmic evil itself.