A Light So Lovely
Page 18
32.Madeleine L’Engle, “The Cosmic Questions,” based on her plenary by that title at the 1996 Calvin College Festival of Faith and Writing, in Shouts and Whispers: Twenty-One Writers Speak About Their Writing and Their Faith, ed. Jennifer L. Holberg (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2006), 217.
33.L’Engle, Shouts, 218.
34.William Griffin, “Eschaton á la Carte” in Carnage at Christhaven, ed. William Griffin (San Francisco: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1989), 8.
35.Griffin, Christhaven, 1–2.
36.Robert Siegel, “Without One Plea,” in Christhaven, 11.
37.Luci Shaw, in the forward to Suncatcher: A Study of Madeleine L’Engle and Her Writing by Carole F. Chase (Philadelphia: Innisfree Press, 1995, 1998), 13.
Chapter 3: Truth and Story
1.Madeleine L’Engle, The Rock That Is Higher: Story as Truth (Wheaton, IL: Harold Shaw Publishers, 1993), 215.
2.Chase, Herself, 170.
3.Madeleine L’Engle, Mothers and Daughters, with photography by her adopted daughter Maria Rooney (Kelowna, British Columbia: Northstone Publishing, by arrangement with Harold Shaw Publishers, 1997), 38–39.
4.L’Engle, More Than Words, 146.
5.L’Engle Walking, 64–65.
6.Madeleine L’Engle, introduction to the Bantam Classic edition of The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (New York: Bantam Books, 1987), vii.
7.George MacDonald, “The Fantastic Imagination,” first published in 1893.
8.C. S. Lewis, from the introduction to George MacDonald: An Anthology (1946) by Geoffrey Bles as reprinted in the introduction to Lilith (1895) by George MacDonald (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1981), xi.
9.L’Engle, More Than Words, 149.
10.And my personal favorite (from one reviewer to my critic): “I’m glad I’m not you.”
11.A version of this list first appeared in my article “There and Back Again: Why Hobbits Still Matter for the Hunger Games Generation” in the Nov/Dec 2012 issue of the now-defunct Immerse Journal: A Journal of Faith, Life, and Youth Ministry. It was subsequently reprinted on HarperCollins’s C. S. Lewis blog, Dec. 22, 2012, accessed May 5, 2018. http://www.cslewis.com/there-and-back-again-why-hobbits-still-matter-for-the-hunger-games-generation/.
12.J. R. R. Tolkien, “On Fairy-Stories” in The Tolkien Reader (New York: Ballantine Books, 1966), 89.
13.C. S. Lewis, “Myth Became Fact” in God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics, ed. Walter Hooper (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1970), 58–59.
14.Chase, Herself, 318.
15.L’Engle, Two-Part Invention, 193.
16.L’Engle, Irrational Season, 114.
17.L’Engle, More Than Words, 147.
18.L’Engle, Rock, 89.
19.L’Engle, Rock, 180.
20.L’Engle, And It Was Good, 159.
21.Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1981, 1984, 2007), 216.
22.MacIntyre, Virtue, 216.
23.Madeleine seems to have conflated or confused the seventeenth-century poet Sir Thomas Browne with the real author of this poem, T. E. Brown, who first published it in 1893 as “Indwelling” in his book Old John and Other Poems.
Chapter 4: Faith and Science
1.L’Engle, Best, 158.
2.L’Engle, Best, 159.
3.L’Engle, Quiet, 124.
4.L’Engle, Quiet, 125.
5.L’Engle, Acceptable Time, 9.
6.L’Engle, Great-Grandmother, 123. She’s referring to one of the fourth-century Cappadocian fathers, St. Gregory of Nyssa, whose strong hope in the resurrection upon the death of his sister, Macrina, sustained him.
7.L’Engle, Great-Grandmother, 130.
8.L’Engle, Two-Part Invention, 39.
9.L’Engle, Two-Part Invention, 52.
10.Madeleine L’Engle, from the interview “Madeleine L’Engle on Allegory and Prayer” with Cheryl Forbes, Christianity Today, June 8, 1979, accessed March 2018. https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/septemberweb-only/madeleine-lengle-allegory-prayer-wrinkle-time.html.
11.Madeleine L’Engle, A Severed Wasp (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1982), Kindle edition.
12.L’Engle, Walking, 135.
13.L’Engle, Wasp, Kindle.
14.See, for instance, George Harrison’s “Albert Einstein: Appraisal of an Intellect” in The Atlantic, June 1955 (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1955/06/albert-einstein-appraisal-of-an-intellect/303934/, accessed March 2018) along with related articles in the 1955 archives of The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, Scientific American, and LIFE—all of which (with the exception of The Atlantic) Vicky Austin mentions in The Moon By Night as journals her parents read, and which, by extension, I conjecture that the Franklins read in real life.
15.L’Engle, Best, 160.
16.L’Engle with Forbes, Christianity Today.
17.L’Engle with Forbes, Christianity Today.
18.L’Engle, Irrational Season, 138.
19.L’Engle, Irrational Season, 143.
20.Madeleine L’Engle, introduction to the twenty-fifth anniversary of A Wrinkle in Time, bundled with “Do I Dare Disturb the Universe?” Kindle edition.
21.L’Engle, Walking, 134.
22.L’Engle, Walking, 135–36.
23.L’Engle, Walking, 206.
24.“Science Goes to the Movies,” CUNY TV, Nov. 30, 2017, accessed Feb. 9, 2018. http://www.cuny.tv/show/sciencegoesto themovies/PR2006302.
25.“What Is ‘A Wrinkle In Time’? The Science of the Fifth Dimension,” Inverse, Jan. 16, 2018, accessed Feb. 9, 2018. https://www.inverse.com/article/34273-wrinkle-in-time-fifth-dimension-tesseract-science.
26.L’Engle, Irrational Season, 121.
27.The physician is most likely Patricia (Pat) Collins Cowdery, an old friend from Jacksonville, Florida.
28.L’Engle, “Do I Dare Disturb the Universe?” Kindle edition.
29.“Science Goes to the Movies,” CUNY TV.
30.“L’Engle’s Fiction Inspired Real Science,” National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, Sept. 8, 2007, accessed Feb. 9, 2018. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId =14266537.
31.Katherine Paterson, introduction to the fiftieth-anniversary edition of A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (New York: Square Fish/Macmillan/Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2012) xvi.
32.L’Engle, 1996 Veritas Forum.
33.L’Engle, Best, 159.
34.Even the apostle John, at the end of his Gospel, tells us that “Jesus did many other things as well,” but “if every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written (John 21:25).” The Bible does not claim to give us every single bit of knowledge the universe holds, not even all the miraculous signs of Jesus (again, see John 20:30). But it does claim to give us what we need to “believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name (John 20:31).” How the writer in me loves this detail! Stick to your thesis. If you set out to paint a faithful, compelling portrait in words, then don’t dabble in some other purpose. You’re not a court reporter: you’re an artist. This is not a science textbook: it’s a portrait of someone you love. Keep the main thing the main thing.
35.See Psalm 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8.
36.Van Kuiken, “The Gospel of Madeleine L’Engle.”
37.Natalie Grant, “An Open Letter to Madeleine L’Engle,” McSweeney’s online journal, Jan. 14, 2011, accessed May 5, 2018. https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/an-open-letter-to-madeleine-lengle.
38.John Polkinghorne, from a 2005 debate held at Liverpool Cathedral with creation scientist John Mackay, hosted by the BBC’s Roger Philips, accessed March 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KlJ7Bt3oxE.
39.Charlotte Jones Voiklis, “The Annual Perseid [sic] Meteor Shower Peaks August 11–12, 2017,” Aug. 7, 2017 o
n Madeleine L’Engle’s official website, accessed May 5, 2018. https://www. madeleinelengle.com/the-annual-perseid-meteor-shower-peaks-august-11–12–2017/.
40.This footnote is to remind you, the reader, to pause, pick up your smart phone, and look up the meteor shower. Then put the event on your calendar. It’s your Madeleine-inspired assignment for the day.
Chapter 5: Religion and Art
1.John Rowe Townsend, A Sense of Story: Essays on Contemporary Writing for Children (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1971), 129; as quoted in Hettinga’s Presenting, 150.
2.Grant, “Open Letter.”
3.Marcus, Listening, 95.
4.L’Engle, Shouts, 215.
5.Madeleine L’Engle, “A Sky Full of Children,” from Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, paperback edition 2004), 81.
6.L’Engle, Rock, 68.
7.Marcus, Listening, 74.
8.Marcus, Listening, 77.
9.See Circle of Friends, 15–16.
10.L’Engle, Walking, 235.
11.Leif Enger, foreword to Penguins and Golden Calves: Icons and Idols in Antarctica and Other Unexpected Places by Madeleine L’Engle (Colorado Springs, CO: A Shaw Book published by WaterBrook Press, 1996, 2003), xi.
12.L’Engle, Walking, 28.
13.Enger, Penguins, xii.
14.L’Engle, Walking, 9–10.
15.Chase, Herself, 129.
16.Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1962. Reprint, New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Books, 1973), 199.
17.G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, from The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton, Vol. I, ed. David Dooley (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1986), 300.
18.Brown, The Calling podcast.
19.L’Engle, Walking, 5.
20.L’Engle, Walking, 50.
21.Hettinga, Presenting, 19–20.
Chapter 6: Fact and Fiction
1.L’Engle, Quiet, 89.
2.L’Engle, Quiet, 90.
3.L’Engle, Quiet, 92–93.
4.L’Engle, Rock, 94.
5.L’Engle, Walking, 197.
6.Marcus, Listening, 53.
7.Marcus, Listening, 182. C. S. Lewis, incidentally, was likewise accused of ignoring whole swaths of his real history. At least one of his oldest and closest friends, to whom he was known as “Jack,” jokingly referred to Surprised by Joy, his bestselling autobiography, as “Suppressed by Jack.”
8.Marcus, Listening, 172.
9.See Kathleen Long Bostrom, Winning Authors: Profiles of the Newbery Medalists (Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2003), 137.
10.L’Engle, Quiet, 197.
11.Marcus, Listening, 179–80.
12.Cynthia Zarin, “The Storyteller: Fact, Fiction, and the Books of Madeleine L’Engle,” The New Yorker, April 12, 2004, accessed May 5, 2018. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/04/12/the-storyteller-cynthia-zarin.
13.L’Engle, Quiet, 93.
14.L’Engle, Quiet, 93.
15.Madeleine L’Engle, Meet the Austins (New York: Square Fish/Macmillan/Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1960), 15.
16.See L’Engle, Walking, 223–24.
17.Marcus, Listening, 204.
18.Marcus, Listening, 297.
19.Cara Parks, “Ironing Out the Wrinkles—The Complexities of Madeleine L’Engle,” The New Republic, Nov. 27, 2012, accessed May 5, 2018. https://newrepublic.com/article/110453/wrinkle-in-time-complexities-madeline-lengle-leonard-marcus.
20.L’Engle, Walking, 164.
21.L’Engle, Walking, 47.
22.L’Engle, Princess, viii–ix.
23.L’Engle, Princess, x.
24.Marcus, Listening, 158.
25.Calvin Miller, “The Blue Tattoo” in Christhaven, 68.
26.Madeleine L’Engle, afterword to Beyond Belief: What the Martyrs Said to God by Duane W. H. Arnold and Robert Hudson (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 135.
Chapter 7: Light in the Darkness
1.L’Engle, Rock, 11.
2.From chapter 27 of The Revelations of Divine Love by St Julian of Norwich: “But Jesus, who in this Vision informed me of all that is needful to me, answered by this word and said: It behoved that there should be sin; but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”
3.In yet another example from one of her Wheaton College lectures, she said, “I don’t know what happens often, but I know that ultimately, as Lady Julian of Norwich said, ‘All shall be well. All is in God’s hand, and God is ultimately in control of creation.’ We have free will, that tiny pearl; but God is in control of creation.” Chase, Herself, 272.
4.L’Engle, Walking, 185–86.
5.Voiklis and Roy, Becoming Madeleine, 67.
6.L’Engle, Two-Part Invention, 61.
7.Maria Rooney, Mothers and Daughters, with Madeleine L’Engle, 7.
8.L’Engle, Great-Grandmother, part 1, chapter 3, Kindle edition.
9.Madeleine L’Engle, from the Q&A following her plenary “The Cosmic Questions” at the 1996 Calvin College Festival of Faith and Writing, accessed via the festival archives on May 5, 2018. https://soundcloud.com/user-309235021/ref-a03218-engle-evening-event/s-Zyu4u.
10.L’Engle, Rock, 266.
11.Hettinga, Presenting, 14.
12.L’Engle, Door, 46.
13.L’Engle, Walking, 165–66.
14.L’Engle, Wrinkle, 89.
15.L’Engle, Irrational Season, 28.
16.For example, Van Kuiken writes in “The Gospel of Madeleine L’Engle,” “Despite their differences, L’Engle pictures the good and evil characters in Many Waters as being brothers, leaving the distinct impression that God and Satan will, at some point in time, be united again.”
17.Scientific theory once held that Mercury didn’t rotate like other planets, and thus had a permanent dark side that never saw the sun. This theory has since been challenged.
18.Michael O’Brien, A Landscape with Dragons: The Battle for Your Child’s Mind (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1998), 103.
19.See St. Irenaeus’s second-century treatise Against Heresies, particularly book 3.
20.L’Engle, “Do I Dare Disturb the Universe?” Kindle edition.
21.L’Engle, during an on-stage conversation with Luci Shaw at the 1996 Calvin College Festival of Faith and Writing, accessed via the festival archives on May 5, 2018. https://soundcloud.com/user-309235021/ref-a03220-shaw-and-lengle-1996/s-kRhJO.
22.L’Engle, Quiet. Kindle edition.
23.L’Engle, Good, 37.
24.Madeleine L’Engle, interviewed by Bob Abernethy in a PBS episode of Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, Nov. 17, 2000, accessed May 5, 2018. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2012/02/10/november-17–2000-madeleine-lengle/3639/.
25.Mother Teresa, Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the “Saint of Calcutta” ed. Brian Kolodiejchuk (New York: Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc., 2007), 163.
26.Mother Teresa, Come Be My Light, 214.
27.L’Engle, Walking, 189.
28.L’Engle, Walking, 202–3.
29.Madeleine L’Engle, Odyssey Networks interview posted posthumously, July 30, 2010, accessed May 5, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCVf_Fooqhk.
30.L’Engle, Good, 133.
31.L’Engle, Great-Grandmother, part 1, chapter 12, Kindle edition.
32.L’Engle, Two-Part Invention, part 2, chapter 9, Kindle edition.
33.Marcus, Listening, 98.
34.L’Engle, Walking, 119.
35.Luci Shaw, first printed in Harvesting Fog (Pinyon Publishing, 2010). Used by permission of Pinyon Publishing, 23847 V66 Trail, Montrose, Colorado 81403.
36.Annie Dillard, The Writing Life in Three by Annie Dillard (New York: Perennial / HarperCollins, 1990), 568.
Epilogue: Tesser Well
1.L’Engle, Wrinkle, 172.
2.L’Engle, Wrinkle, 172.
3.L’Engle, Irrational Season, 118.
4.L’Engle, Irrational Season, 118.<
br />
5.Enger, Penguins, xiii.
6.L’Engle, Calvin festival plenary Q&A.
RECOMMENDED BOOKS
By Madeleine L’Engle
Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art
The Rock That Is Higher: Story as Truth
A Circle of Quiet
A Wrinkle in Time
A Wind in the Door
A Swiftly Tilting Planet
Meet the Austins
A Ring of Endless Light
A Live Coal in the Sea
The Ordering of Love: The New and Collected Poems of Madeleine L’Engle
Madeleine L’Engle Herself compiled by Carole F. Chase
About Madeleine L’Engle
Becoming Madeleine: A Biography of the Author of A Wrinkle in Time by Her Granddaughters by Charlotte Jones Voiklis and Léna Roy
Presenting Madeleine L’Engle by Donald R. Hettinga
Listening for Madeleine: A Portrait of Madeleine L’Engle in Many Voices by Leonard Marcus
* “To a Long Loved Love: 7” from The Weather of the Heart by Madeleine L’Engle, copyright 1978 by Crosswicks, Ltd. Used by permission of WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Penguin Random House LLC for permission.