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    Letters to a Diminished Church: Passionate Arguments for the Relevance of Christian Doctrine
    Unavailable
    Letters to a Diminished Church: Passionate Arguments for the Relevance of Christian Doctrine
    Unavailable
    Letters to a Diminished Church: Passionate Arguments for the Relevance of Christian Doctrine
    Ebook267 pages5 hours

    Letters to a Diminished Church: Passionate Arguments for the Relevance of Christian Doctrine

    By Dorothy Sayers

    4.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    What must a person believe to be a Christian? In this collection of 16 essays, famed author Dorothy L. Sayers discusses why the church desperately needs to refocus on doctrine, as doctrine impacts all of life.

    In her dynamic and sharp writings, Dorothy L. Sayers turned the popular perception of Christianity on its head. She argues that the essence of Christianity is in the character of Christ—energetic, dramatic, and utterly alive. This collection of sixteen brilliant essays reveals Sayers, at her best—a powerful view of Christianity as startling and relevant as it was 50 years ago.

    An outspoken defender of Christian orthodoxy, Dorothy L. Sayers discusses Christian theology with brilliance and wit. A British scholar, author, and staunch Christian, Sayers brings theology vividly to life by showing how the Bible, history, literature, and modern science fit together to make religion not only possible but necessary in our time. Each essay is a concise, perceptive examination of the topic at hand. The book:

    • Includes sixteen essays on a variety of topics addressing core beliefs, the image of God, the problem of sin and evil, and more
    • Presents age-old doctrines without prettying them up or watering them down
    • Provides insights into the social and spiritual forces that affect the modern-day cultural shift away from Christ

    Whether you are reading the great works of Western literature, thinking about your place in God's universe, or simply dealing with the thousand-and-one problems of daily living, this powerful book has words of both challenge and comfort for you.

    "The devil should stand alert, for Sayers is one of his foremost adversaries."

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThomas Nelson
    Release dateSep 6, 2004
    ISBN9781418516161
    Unavailable
    Letters to a Diminished Church: Passionate Arguments for the Relevance of Christian Doctrine
    Author

    Dorothy Sayers

    One of the great mystery novelists of the 20th century, DOROTHY L. SAYERS was born in Oxford in 1893 and was one of the first women to be granted a degree by Oxford University. She wrote more than a dozen Lord Peter novels and short stories, and three more novels were written by Jill Paton Walsh. Sayers was also noted for her Christian writings and plays and her translation of Dante. She died in 1957.

    Read more from Dorothy Sayers

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    Reviews for Letters to a Diminished Church

    4.5/5

    26 ratings3 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This is the writing of Dorothy L Sayers, so it comes as no surprise that it is both eloquent and erudite. Her style, humour and forthright approach to conveying her message are there in full. The collection of 16 essays is put together well: for the most part, the essays are in an order which promotes connection and flow of ideas from one to the next. Whether that was an original publication order determined by Sayers, or the decision of the editor, it is impossible to tell from the text: no original publication dates are given, which is a great shame. All the essays date from the period around 1940, and the wartime context comes through clearly. There is a poignancy to reading Sayers’ criticism of Hitler knowing that worse was to come in the years immediately following. Sayers’ optimism about—and fears for—the post-war period also come through strongly: she hopes that the world will be better, but fears that many of the errors of the inter-war period will be repeated. Some of the essays are better than others; some are long and some are short; some are very explicitly about Christian doctrine and the church, and others merely touch upon those topics. Most remain relevant and interesting to today’s reader, despite the passage of seventy years. Even where ideas in theology have moved on, there is a great deal which is still of interest.The collection opens with The Greatest Drama Ever Staged, a short but intensely passionate apologia for the truth and relevance of Christian doctrine. She laments the fact that dogma is seen as dull and irrelevant: “If this is dull,” she asks, “then what, in Heaven’s name, is worthy to be called exciting?” (p. 4) She bewails the lack of understanding of what Christian doctrine actually is: “Nobody is compelled to believe a single word of this remarkable story. God … has created us perfectly free to disbelieve in him as much as we choose. … All the same, if we are going to disbelieve a thing, it seems on the whole desirable that we should first find out what, exactly, we are disbelieving.” (p. 6)In What do we believe?, she moves on to offer some brief comments on creedal statements, and in The Dogma is the Drama she considers some of the common misconceptions about and stereotypes of Christian doctrine and of Christians. The Image of God is a fascinating exploration of analogy, metaphor and creativity in the context of humankind’s relationship with God. It is followed by Creative Mind, which explores the nature of creativity and of poetic, as opposed to scientific, truth. Creed or Chaos? returns to the theme of why doctrine matters, and considers it at greater length. Sayers considers not only what dogma is, but also its practical relevance to the average Christian. She reiterates her conviction that it is “a grave mistake to present Christianity as something charming and unpopular with no offense in it” (p. 58) before moving on to a consider Christian dogma regarding God, man, sin, judgement, matter, work and society. These are all themes that recur throughout the collection.Strong Meat briefly considers Christianity as grown-up religion and religion for the grown-up, and is followed by The Other Six Deadly Sins, which reflects on the common error of equating sin with ‘proscribed sexual behaviour’ and then considers all seven of the traditional deadly sins . This is a fascinating study, made all the more so by its wartime context. The theme is continued in Christian Morality, in which Sayers pithily observes that “Disreputable people who knew they were disreputable were gently told [by Jesus] to go and sin no more; the really unparliamentary language was reserved for those thrifty, respectable and sabbatarian citizens who enjoyed Caesar’s approval and their own.” (p. 112) This essay is particularly interesting for its comment on the relationship between church and state in the matter of public morality, and on the church’s failure to condemn overproduction, acquisitiveness and systemic waste in society in the same way it condemns profligate living in the individual.In The Triumph of Easter , Sayers turns her attention to free will, evil and judgement, and in Why Work? she returns to the issue of what Christianity has to say about work, productivity and macroeconomics. Again, this is very interesting for its historical context: Sayers comments on the profligacy and materialism of the 30s and the war economy. This is highly pertinent to today’s context, and were Sayers here today I think she would be fully entitled to look at the economic chaos of the last couple of years and say, ‘I told you so.’ I am not wholly convinced by all of Sayers’ conclusions regarding serving the community, but on the value of work and the nature of secular vocation I cannot fault her.The next essay, Toward a Christian Aesthetic, is one of the more speculative pieces, and considers at some length the relationship between Christianity and the Arts. (It was also the nadir of one of the more irritating editorial decisions regarding this work: the adoption of American English spelling throughout. If Sayers did indeed write concerning ‘esthetic’ matters then I shall gladly take back this criticism, but I cannot for one moment imagine that she did so. The offence of ‘offense’ I could overlook, ‘theater’ I could just about tolerate, but the systematic deletion of the letter a from this essay drove me mad. Why must an Englishwoman’s magnificent prose be mutilated for an American audience? British English is perfectly comprehensible. )The Faust Legend and the Idea of the Devil is interesting, but focuses more on literature than theology, as does The Writing and Reading of Allegory. Both of these are longer essays, and are likely to be of most interest to those with a background in literature. Interposed between these two, however, is a midget gem of an essay: A Vote of Thanks to Cyrus addresses the tendency to put Bible stories in a box and not to relate them to the rest of history. This is perhaps one of the more outdated essays, insofar as textual criticism and research into Biblical and Persian history have moved on over the last 70 years, but the mock literary review of John’s gospel is exceedingly funny.The final essay, The Problem Picture returns to earlier themes: scientific and poetic truth, creativity, sin and redemption, literature, and how to address social problems. Sayers begins with the assertion that, “It has become abundantly clear of late years that something has gone seriously wrong with our conception of the humanity and of humanity’s proper attitude to the universe.” (p. 241) She argues that the root problem is a misunderstanding of how the world works: we have started to think that “all human experience may be presented in terms of a problem having a predictable, finite, complete and sole possible solution” (p. 248), and when we cannot find that solution we become angry and disappointed. Sayers posits that people try to treat life like a detective novel, without appreciating that the author has set up the novel in such a way as to be able to solve all the problems within it, and life is not like that. We cannot ‘solve’ death: we can merely postpone it and view it from a different perspective, she argues. We cannot resolve the tension between individual liberty and social order through a mathematical formula, but only by compromise. We cannot ‘solve’ unemployment until we readjust our thinking about the nature of work and the real value of money. We have been unable to ‘solve’ international conflict “because we looked at peace and security as a problem to be solved and not as a work to be made.” (P. 266)This is a collection of essays that offers much food for thought. Some of the ideas Sayers puts forward are now outdated, but most remain as interesting, inspiring and relevant now as they were seventy years ago. It is subtitled ‘Passionate Arguments for the Relevance of Christian Doctrine’; it certainly includes that, but also offers a great deal more. Recommended for those who like CS Lewis’s writings on Christianity, those who think it matters what Christians believe – and those who think it doesn’t matter what Christians believe.
    • 5/5
      This is the writing of Dorothy L Sayers, so it comes as no surprise that it is both eloquent and erudite. Her style, humour and forthright approach to conveying her message are there in full. The collection of 16 essays is put together well: for the most part, the essays are in an order which promotes connection and flow of ideas from one to the next. Whether that was an original publication order determined by Sayers, or the decision of the editor, it is impossible to tell from the text: no original publication dates are given, which is a great shame. All the essays date from the period around 1940, and the wartime context comes through clearly. There is a poignancy to reading Sayers’ criticism of Hitler knowing that worse was to come in the years immediately following. Sayers’ optimism about—and fears for—the post-war period also come through strongly: she hopes that the world will be better, but fears that many of the errors of the inter-war period will be repeated. Some of the essays are better than others; some are long and some are short; some are very explicitly about Christian doctrine and the church, and others merely touch upon those topics. Most remain relevant and interesting to today’s reader, despite the passage of seventy years. Even where ideas in theology have moved on, there is a great deal which is still of interest.The collection opens with The Greatest Drama Ever Staged, a short but intensely passionate apologia for the truth and relevance of Christian doctrine. She laments the fact that dogma is seen as dull and irrelevant: “If this is dull,” she asks, “then what, in Heaven’s name, is worthy to be called exciting?” (p. 4) She bewails the lack of understanding of what Christian doctrine actually is: “Nobody is compelled to believe a single word of this remarkable story. God … has created us perfectly free to disbelieve in him as much as we choose. … All the same, if we are going to disbelieve a thing, it seems on the whole desirable that we should first find out what, exactly, we are disbelieving.” (p. 6)In What do we believe?, she moves on to offer some brief comments on creedal statements, and in The Dogma is the Drama she considers some of the common misconceptions about and stereotypes of Christian doctrine and of Christians. The Image of God is a fascinating exploration of analogy, metaphor and creativity in the context of humankind’s relationship with God. It is followed by Creative Mind, which explores the nature of creativity and of poetic, as opposed to scientific, truth. Creed or Chaos? returns to the theme of why doctrine matters, and considers it at greater length. Sayers considers not only what dogma is, but also its practical relevance to the average Christian. She reiterates her conviction that it is “a grave mistake to present Christianity as something charming and unpopular with no offense in it” (p. 58) before moving on to a consider Christian dogma regarding God, man, sin, judgement, matter, work and society. These are all themes that recur throughout the collection.Strong Meat briefly considers Christianity as grown-up religion and religion for the grown-up, and is followed by The Other Six Deadly Sins, which reflects on the common error of equating sin with ‘proscribed sexual behaviour’ and then considers all seven of the traditional deadly sins . This is a fascinating study, made all the more so by its wartime context. The theme is continued in Christian Morality, in which Sayers pithily observes that “Disreputable people who knew they were disreputable were gently told [by Jesus] to go and sin no more; the really unparliamentary language was reserved for those thrifty, respectable and sabbatarian citizens who enjoyed Caesar’s approval and their own.” (p. 112) This essay is particularly interesting for its comment on the relationship between church and state in the matter of public morality, and on the church’s failure to condemn overproduction, acquisitiveness and systemic waste in society in the same way it condemns profligate living in the individual.In The Triumph of Easter , Sayers turns her attention to free will, evil and judgement, and in Why Work? she returns to the issue of what Christianity has to say about work, productivity and macroeconomics. Again, this is very interesting for its historical context: Sayers comments on the profligacy and materialism of the 30s and the war economy. This is highly pertinent to today’s context, and were Sayers here today I think she would be fully entitled to look at the economic chaos of the last couple of years and say, ‘I told you so.’ I am not wholly convinced by all of Sayers’ conclusions regarding serving the community, but on the value of work and the nature of secular vocation I cannot fault her.The next essay, Toward a Christian Aesthetic, is one of the more speculative pieces, and considers at some length the relationship between Christianity and the Arts. (It was also the nadir of one of the more irritating editorial decisions regarding this work: the adoption of American English spelling throughout. If Sayers did indeed write concerning ‘esthetic’ matters then I shall gladly take back this criticism, but I cannot for one moment imagine that she did so. The offence of ‘offense’ I could overlook, ‘theater’ I could just about tolerate, but the systematic deletion of the letter a from this essay drove me mad. Why must an Englishwoman’s magnificent prose be mutilated for an American audience? British English is perfectly comprehensible. )The Faust Legend and the Idea of the Devil is interesting, but focuses more on literature than theology, as does The Writing and Reading of Allegory. Both of these are longer essays, and are likely to be of most interest to those with a background in literature. Interposed between these two, however, is a midget gem of an essay: A Vote of Thanks to Cyrus addresses the tendency to put Bible stories in a box and not to relate them to the rest of history. This is perhaps one of the more outdated essays, insofar as textual criticism and research into Biblical and Persian history have moved on over the last 70 years, but the mock literary review of John’s gospel is exceedingly funny.The final essay, The Problem Picture returns to earlier themes: scientific and poetic truth, creativity, sin and redemption, literature, and how to address social problems. Sayers begins with the assertion that, “It has become abundantly clear of late years that something has gone seriously wrong with our conception of the humanity and of humanity’s proper attitude to the universe.” (p. 241) She argues that the root problem is a misunderstanding of how the world works: we have started to think that “all human experience may be presented in terms of a problem having a predictable, finite, complete and sole possible solution” (p. 248), and when we cannot find that solution we become angry and disappointed. Sayers posits that people try to treat life like a detective novel, without appreciating that the author has set up the novel in such a way as to be able to solve all the problems within it, and life is not like that. We cannot ‘solve’ death: we can merely postpone it and view it from a different perspective, she argues. We cannot resolve the tension between individual liberty and social order through a mathematical formula, but only by compromise. We cannot ‘solve’ unemployment until we readjust our thinking about the nature of work and the real value of money. We have been unable to ‘solve’ international conflict “because we looked at peace and security as a problem to be solved and not as a work to be made.” (P. 266)This is a collection of essays that offers much food for thought. Some of the ideas Sayers puts forward are now outdated, but most remain as interesting, inspiring and relevant now as they were seventy years ago. It is subtitled ‘Passionate Arguments for the Relevance of Christian Doctrine’; it certainly includes that, but also offers a great deal more. Recommended for those who like CS Lewis’s writings on Christianity, those who think it matters what Christians believe – and those who think it doesn’t matter what Christians believe.
    • 5/5
      This is the writing of Dorothy L Sayers, so it comes as no surprise that it is both eloquent and erudite. Her style, humour and forthright approach to conveying her message are there in full. The collection of 16 essays is put together well: for the most part, the essays are in an order which promotes connection and flow of ideas from one to the next. Whether that was an original publication order determined by Sayers, or the decision of the editor, it is impossible to tell from the text: no original publication dates are given, which is a great shame. All the essays date from the period around 1940, and the wartime context comes through clearly. There is a poignancy to reading Sayers’ criticism of Hitler knowing that worse was to come in the years immediately following. Sayers’ optimism about—and fears for—the post-war period also come through strongly: she hopes that the world will be better, but fears that many of the errors of the inter-war period will be repeated. Some of the essays are better than others; some are long and some are short; some are very explicitly about Christian doctrine and the church, and others merely touch upon those topics. Most remain relevant and interesting to today’s reader, despite the passage of seventy years. Even where ideas in theology have moved on, there is a great deal which is still of interest.The collection opens with The Greatest Drama Ever Staged, a short but intensely passionate apologia for the truth and relevance of Christian doctrine. She laments the fact that dogma is seen as dull and irrelevant: “If this is dull,” she asks, “then what, in Heaven’s name, is worthy to be called exciting?” (p. 4) She bewails the lack of understanding of what Christian doctrine actually is: “Nobody is compelled to believe a single word of this remarkable story. God … has created us perfectly free to disbelieve in him as much as we choose. … All the same, if we are going to disbelieve a thing, it seems on the whole desirable that we should first find out what, exactly, we are disbelieving.” (p. 6)In What do we believe?, she moves on to offer some brief comments on creedal statements, and in The Dogma is the Drama she considers some of the common misconceptions about and stereotypes of Christian doctrine and of Christians. The Image of God is a fascinating exploration of analogy, metaphor and creativity in the context of humankind’s relationship with God. It is followed by Creative Mind, which explores the nature of creativity and of poetic, as opposed to scientific, truth. Creed or Chaos? returns to the theme of why doctrine matters, and considers it at greater length. Sayers considers not only what dogma is, but also its practical relevance to the average Christian. She reiterates her conviction that it is “a grave mistake to present Christianity as something charming and unpopular with no offense in it” (p. 58) before moving on to a consider Christian dogma regarding God, man, sin, judgement, matter, work and society. These are all themes that recur throughout the collection.Strong Meat briefly considers Christianity as grown-up religion and religion for the grown-up, and is followed by The Other Six Deadly Sins, which reflects on the common error of equating sin with ‘proscribed sexual behaviour’ and then considers all seven of the traditional deadly sins . This is a fascinating study, made all the more so by its wartime context. The theme is continued in Christian Morality, in which Sayers pithily observes that “Disreputable people who knew they were disreputable were gently told [by Jesus] to go and sin no more; the really unparliamentary language was reserved for those thrifty, respectable and sabbatarian citizens who enjoyed Caesar’s approval and their own.” (p. 112) This essay is particularly interesting for its comment on the relationship between church and state in the matter of public morality, and on the church’s failure to condemn overproduction, acquisitiveness and systemic waste in society in the same way it condemns profligate living in the individual.In The Triumph of Easter , Sayers turns her attention to free will, evil and judgement, and in Why Work? she returns to the issue of what Christianity has to say about work, productivity and macroeconomics. Again, this is very interesting for its historical context: Sayers comments on the profligacy and materialism of the 30s and the war economy. This is highly pertinent to today’s context, and were Sayers here today I think she would be fully entitled to look at the economic chaos of the last couple of years and say, ‘I told you so.’ I am not wholly convinced by all of Sayers’ conclusions regarding serving the community, but on the value of work and the nature of secular vocation I cannot fault her.The next essay, Toward a Christian Aesthetic, is one of the more speculative pieces, and considers at some length the relationship between Christianity and the Arts. (It was also the nadir of one of the more irritating editorial decisions regarding this work: the adoption of American English spelling throughout. If Sayers did indeed write concerning ‘esthetic’ matters then I shall gladly take back this criticism, but I cannot for one moment imagine that she did so. The offence of ‘offense’ I could overlook, ‘theater’ I could just about tolerate, but the systematic deletion of the letter a from this essay drove me mad. Why must an Englishwoman’s magnificent prose be mutilated for an American audience? British English is perfectly comprehensible. )The Faust Legend and the Idea of the Devil is interesting, but focuses more on literature than theology, as does The Writing and Reading of Allegory. Both of these are longer essays, and are likely to be of most interest to those with a background in literature. Interposed between these two, however, is a midget gem of an essay: A Vote of Thanks to Cyrus addresses the tendency to put Bible stories in a box and not to relate them to the rest of history. This is perhaps one of the more outdated essays, insofar as textual criticism and research into Biblical and Persian history have moved on over the last 70 years, but the mock literary review of John’s gospel is exceedingly funny.The final essay, The Problem Picture returns to earlier themes: scientific and poetic truth, creativity, sin and redemption, literature, and how to address social problems. Sayers begins with the assertion that, “It has become abundantly clear of late years that something has gone seriously wrong with our conception of the humanity and of humanity’s proper attitude to the universe.” (p. 241) She argues that the root problem is a misunderstanding of how the world works: we have started to think that “all human experience may be presented in terms of a problem having a predictable, finite, complete and sole possible solution” (p. 248), and when we cannot find that solution we become angry and disappointed. Sayers posits that people try to treat life like a detective novel, without appreciating that the author has set up the novel in such a way as to be able to solve all the problems within it, and life is not like that. We cannot ‘solve’ death: we can merely postpone it and view it from a different perspective, she argues. We cannot resolve the tension between individual liberty and social order through a mathematical formula, but only by compromise. We cannot ‘solve’ unemployment until we readjust our thinking about the nature of work and the real value of money. We have been unable to ‘solve’ international conflict “because we looked at peace and security as a problem to be solved and not as a work to be made.” (P. 266)This is a collection of essays that offers much food for thought. Some of the ideas Sayers puts forward are now outdated, but most remain as interesting, inspiring and relevant now as they were seventy years ago. It is subtitled ‘Passionate Arguments for the Relevance of Christian Doctrine’; it certainly includes that, but also offers a great deal more. Recommended for those who like CS Lewis’s writings on Christianity, those who think it matters what Christians believe – and those who think it doesn’t matter what Christians believe.