Michael Phillips

Michael Phillips is a prolific bestselling author, with sales of his fiction, nonfiction, and devotional writings exceeding seven million copies worldwide. A leading authority on the works and message of George MacDonald and their connections to C.S. Lewis, he and his wife Judy are former bookstore owners and split their time between George MacDonald’s Scotland and their home in California.

Featured Books By Author

Discovering the Character of God

Following the enormous response to his updated editions of George MacDonald’s novels in the 1980s, Michael Phillips felt the need to introduce MacDonald’s fiction readers also to the Scotsman’s poetry and theological perspectives. At the time none of MacDonald’s non-fiction writings or poetry was available. Phillips therefore compiled two anthologies of selections, topically arranged, from those writings. Almost thirty years later, the two volumes—Discovering the Character of God and Knowing the Heart of God—remain classics in the MacDonald bibliography that have helped multiple thousands probe their understanding of God more deeply. These two clearly organized and understandable illuminations of MacDonald’s wisdom distill the essence of MacDonald’s thought in manageable topical groupings suitable for devotional reading or more extensive study. Each chapter also draws upon selections from the novels and poetry to illuminate MacDonald’s vision of the infinitely loving and forgiving Fatherhood of God.
Read more

The Truth in Jesus

In spite of a gradually expanding awareness of George MacDonald and his influence on the faith and writings of C.S. Lewis, most Lewis devotees, as well as many readers of MacDonald’s fantasies and fiction, remain largely unacquainted with the theological foundations of MacDonald’s corpus and its influence on Lewis’s spiritual development. When intrepid readers attempt to probe MacDonald’s sermons, however, most find the going extremely difficult. Expecting Lewis’s gift of straightforward clarity, many readers find MacDonald’s Victorian method and syntax from the previous century daunting and impossible to decipher. Dense theological progressions, sentences of 100-200 words, and an archaic linguistic style, prevent MacDonald’s wisdom from shining through with clarity. In his two volumes Your Life in Christ and The Truth in Jesus, Michael Phillips addresses this difficulty with the same editorial expertise that distinguish his editions of MacDonald’s novels. Assisted by insightful introductions based on his extensive knowledge of MacDonald’s writings and thought, these two volumes provide an understandable entrée into the expansive world of George MacDonald’s theological writings.
Read more

Murder by Quill

Best-selling novelist Michael Phillips sets up a wonderful cast of characters in this witty mystery set in a fictionalized adaptation of Cullen House in northern Scotland. An eclectic group of aspiring authors--winners of a prestigious writing contest--is invited to a "writer's retreat" at the home of wealthy philanthropist Hugh Barrabault. He is a man who can make each of them famous overnight. They have everything to gain by the success of Barrabault's endeavor. When their host is found murdered by a writing quill of unusual design, late one stormy night when secluded in his mansion with none but his author-guests, it is obvious one of them possesses motives other than fame and fortune. It turns out that all eight have secrets they would prefer not be divulged. When alliances and tensions develop between the former strangers, accusations begin to fly. Someone must take charge. But what if that someone is the murderer?
Read more

Books By
Michael Phillips