Today is the 50th Anniversary of the death of Dorothy L. Sayers; an anniversary that, given Sayers' importance as a twentieth century Christian dramatist and apologist, is appropriately being commemorated through a number of different events.
Dorothy L. Sayers “was particularly conscious that she was one of a group of Christian writers who were under attack from both radical Christian and agnostic critics.” She wrote of indignation being “reserved for a small group of Anglicans, such as Charles Williams, C. S. Lewis … and, of course, T. S. Eliot …”
Sayers corresponded and met with both Lewis and Williams. Lewis numbered Sayers among the friends or acquaintances that he regularly saw or spoke to. Williams’ “admiration for The Nine Tailors, expressed in rhapsodic terms in a letter to Gollancz," endeared him to Sayers. They met, and enjoyed each other’s company. Like many people, she found his conversation stimulating and inspiring, admiring his novels, his works of criticism and his theological writings. Lewis and Sayers both contributed essays to what became the posthumous volume, Essays Presented to Charles Williams.
Lewis and Sayers both also developed a role as ‘popular theologians’, with Sayers taking part in conferences, giving talks to the Forces, broadcasting, writing letters to the press, and writing many articles.
Eliot, Sayers and Williams shared a common love of, and wrote on, the work of Dante and also all wrote drama for the Canterbury Festival. Sayers’ “interest in Dante was first aroused by Williams … he gave her a new direction to her career.” Sayers and Williams exchanged letters discussing Dante for nine months until Williams’ death in 1945 and “Sayers’ delight in her reading [of Dante] is revealed in these letters more than anywhere else.”
Sayers produced a significant theological statement in The Mind of the Maker which explored the nature of the Trinity through an artists' experience of making. Sayers also wrote a controversial series of radio plays on the life of Christ entitled The Man Born To Be King. Dorothy L. Sayers: Her Life and Soul by Barbara Reynolds is a fascinating biography.
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Bruce Cockburn - Creation Dream.
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