The Artist and the Trinity: Dorothy L. Sayers’ Theology of Work - Softcover

Fletcher, Christine M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0718893344 ISBN 13: 9780718893347

Publisher: Lutterworth Press, 2014

Synopsis

Although this book is, in one sense, "about" Dorothy L. Sayers, it significance is theological rather than biographical. Since the mid-Twentieth Century, and the period when Anglican theology appeared to be shaping Britain’s post-War reconstruction in many respects, it has generally been true that the church’s commitment to social action remained whilst its grasp of the theological foundations for that action withered. The theological seriousness, and the deep philosophical, theological and social arguments that Sayers and her associates adduced for the church’s social engagement, were largely forgotten as the Church of England tended to seek relevance in preference to theological authenticity. This lack of theological depth made it easy for the church to revert to an inward-looking pietism from the 1980s onwards which had little if anything to say about the Christian vision of a good society. By turning the spotlight on Sayers’s contribution here, Fletcher shows how the theological seriousness of her period was not the preserve of bishops and clergy but could be, and was, integral to the reflections of a highly intelligent lay woman who saw very clearly how Christian faith could permeate the story of the world, humanity and the created order.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Introduction
1 Sayers' Life and Work
2 Imaginative writing: showing not telling
3 Sayers' Wartime Writing
4 The Artist and the Trinity
5 Good Work

About this title

About the Author

Christine M. Fletcher is Associate Professor of Theology at Benedictine University, Lisle, Illinois. She is the author of numerous articles on the ethics of work and on Dorothy L. Sayers.

Review

This excellent book prompted me to reflect that it is easy for those of us in ministry, encouraged perhaps by managerialist ecclesiastical bureacracies, to view our own work as a set of outcomes to be achieved and problems to be solved over such issues as numerical growth, money, and buildings. But Sayers provides us with another way of conceiving it: as a work of artistic creativity.
(Reverend Dr Edward Dowler 29th May 2015)

About this edition

• Publisher: Lutterworth Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0718893344
• ISBN 13: 9780718893347
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160