Subversive: Christ, Culture, and the Shocking Dorothy L. Sayers

by Crystal Downing

Overview

Known for her bestselling detective novels, Dorothy L. Sayers lived a fascinating, groundbreaking life as a novelist, feminist, Oxford scholar, and important influence on the spiritual life of C.S. Lewis. This pioneering woman not only forged a literary career for herself but also spoke about faith and culture in revolutionary ways as she addressed the evergreen question of to what extent faith should hold on to tradition and to what extent it should evolve with a changing culture. Thanks to her unmatched wisdom, prophetic tone, and insistent strength, Dorothy Sayers is a voice that we cannot afford to ignore.

Providing a blueprint for bridge-building in contemporary, polarizing contexts, Subversive shows how Sayers used edgy, often hilarious metaphors to ignite new ways to think about Christianity, shocking people into seeing the truth of ancient doctrine in a new light. Urging readers to reassess interpretations of the Bible that impede the cause of Christ, Sayers helps twenty-first-century Christians navigate a society increasingly suspicious of evangelical vocabularies and find new ways to talk and think about faith and culture. Ultimately, she will inspire believers, on both the right and the left, to evaluate how and why their language perpetuates divisive certitude rather than the hopeful humility of faith, and will show us all a better way forward.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781506462752
Publisher:	Broadleaf Books
Publication date:	11/10/2020
Pages:	200
Sales rank:	207,776
Product dimensions:	6.25(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Crystal Downing, PhD, is the Co-Director of the Marion E. Wade Center in Wheaton, Illinois, the preeminent archive in the world for published and unpublished documents by and about C.S. Lewis and six of his British influencers, including J.R.R. Tolkien and Dorothy L. Sayers. Her first book, Writing Performances, won an international award for outstanding Sayers scholarship. Before moving to Wheaton, she taught Romantic and Victorian literature at Messiah College in Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction The Murder of God 1

Chapter 1 The Shock of the New 17

Chapter 2 Religious Shopping and Exchange 51

Chapter 3 The Betrayal of Tradition, the Tradition of Betrayal 91

Chapter 4 The Subversive Mind of the Maker 131

Chapter 5 The Politics of Religion, the Religion of Politics 171

Chapter 6 A Brief Subversive Conclusion 211

Notes 215

Index 235

Editorial Reviews

★ 09/07/2020

Downing (Changing Signs of Truth), codirector of Wheaton College’s Marion E. Wade Center, which focuses on 20th-century Christian writers, considers how the writings of Christian scholar and mystery novelist Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) sought to discover “new conclusions on unchanging foundations” of modern Christianity. While best known for her crime fiction, Sayers was a prolific writer of religious dramas for radio and the stage, as well as academic works on Christian doctrine. Her stories and scholarship challenged dogmatism, relativism, the idolatry of language, British censorship laws, approaches to faith and atonement rooted in “an economy of exchange”—as well as those who hid or ignored the subversive nature of Christ himself. Sayers instead argued that “change can be joyously engaged as long as Christian faith remains rooted in the creeds of the early church.” Downing notes that Sayers disapproved of focus on the artists over the art, once decrying the “craze for the ‘personal angle’ ” that she believed turned criticism into gossip. While Downing tracks the course of Sayers’s personal and professional lives, she never loses sight of Sayers’s art and artistic process—a “theology of creativity” that she believed could “maintain ancient truth by handing it over to new expressions.” This is a powerful intellectual portrait of an important 20th-century writer who merits closer study. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"This is a powerful intellectual portrait of an important 20th-century writer who merits closer study." [Starred Review] --Publishers Weekly

"In Subversive, Crystal Downing's language is alive and imaginative, and her vivid portrayal of Dorothy L. Sayers brings us ever closer to understanding this complicated and intelligent woman. This book is a must-read, an immersive experience, and a splendid accounting of a vibrant woman." --Patti Callahan, New York Times bestselling novelist and author of the award-winning Becoming Mrs. Lewis

"This is the best book on Dorothy L. Sayers I have read in the last decade. It is fresh in its approach, elegant in its prose, and penetrating in its analysis and insight." --Alister McGrath, Professor of Science and Religion, Oxford University; author of C. S. Lewis: A Life

"Dorothy L. Sayers was much more than a talented author of detective stories. She challenged Christian timidity with a bold faith, and she challenged quid-pro-quo views of religion with an emphasis on God's grace. Crystal Downing has succeeded very well in showing why the Sayers who wrote so effectively in her own time deserves to be heard in our day as well." --Mark Noll, recipient of the National Humanities Medal, author of The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind and Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind

"By expertly weaving in examples from Dorothy L. Sayers's poetry, detective fiction, plays, essays, lectures, and letters, Crystal Downing provides an excellent introduction to Sayers for those who are unfamiliar with her work, as well as an intriguing argument with surprising connections that will engage readers who know Sayers well." --Christine A. Colón, Professor of English, Wheaton College; author of Writing for the Masses: Dorothy L. Sayers and the Victorian Literary Tradition and Choosing Community: Action, Faith, and Joy in the Works of Dorothy L. Sayers

"Crystal Downing's lively and entertaining book explores how Dorothy L. Sayers obliged her readers and listeners to face up to all the basic doctrines and implications of the Christian faith, including the ones they would have preferred to ignore. She also shows, somewhat provocatively, how Sayers' approach is still entirely relevant, and even necessary, today." --Suzanne Bray, Professor of English Studies, Lille Catholic University, France, editor of Dorothy L. Sayers: The Christ of the Creeds and Other Broadcast Messages to the British People during World War II

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