Creed or Chaos?: Why Christians Must Choose Either Dogma or Disaster (Or, Why It Really Does Matter What You Believe) [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

This particular book, 'Creed or Chaos?' is a particular favourite of mine. Written in the 1940s, it is actually a compilation of pamphlets (or, perhaps more appropriately, tracts) that were issued along with her speaking engagements. This is a book of lectures, but these are no mere lectures. Sayers is a woman of wit and wisdom in addition to being a scathing and no-holds-barred critic of those things she finds deserving of critique.

There are seven essays in total, which deal with issues of art and culture, church and state, public and private morality, virtue, and more. The title of the collection comes from the fifth essay, 'Creed or Chaos?' in which Sayers argues for the necessity of strong dogma in the face of declining stability in the world. Watching the unfolding of events at the beginning of the second world war, after having lived through the aftermath of the first (which included the collapse of the old order in Russia), she lays part of the blame on the kind of touchy-feely Christianity that had come into vogue that was more concerned with feelings than with understanding and order. 'The thing I am here to say to you is this: that it is worse than useless for Christians to talk about the importance of Christian morality, unless they are prepared to take their stand upon the fundamentals of Christian theology. It is fatal to let people suppose that Christianity is only a mode of feeling; it is vitally necessary to insist that it is first and foremost a rational explanation of the universe.'

Perhaps my favourite section of the entire collection comes from the fourth essay, 'The Dogma is the Drama'. In this, Sayers puts forward a catechism based upon popular conceptions and misconceptions of what Christianity and its attendant dogmatic points are, and suggests that, as misleading as her witty answers might be, they still bear remarkable relation to the way in which Christian orthodoxy is perceived, not only by those outside the dogmatic faith, but also those inside.

Sayer's play, 'The Zeal of Thy House', was high in her mind during several of these lectures. In her essay, 'Why Work?' she looks at the vocation of work and labour, spinning the question around from being 'should we work for the Lord?' to becoming 'how can our work be work for the Lord?' Any work, artfully done, can be sacred in this context. She has particular ire for those who insist on the moral or pietistic purity of those who should really be chosen for their work for their directly related skills. With regard to her own profession, she lists the virtues of the actors (being on time, knowing their lines, etc.) and states that only after such considerations were made would any attempt be made to find out the piety of the actors. 'The worst religious films I ever saw were produced by a company which chose its staff exclusively for their piety,' she wrote. This excess of zeal with regard to the wrong aspects led to films so bad they would never be a credit to Christianity, no matter how 'good' the people involved might be with regard to morality and piety.

Sayers is also rather forward for her time at discussing sex, claiming that the primary sin of her time was seen as sex (in that regard, not much has changed!); hence the title of the final essay, 'The Other Six Deadly Sins'. Here she looks at sin and morality with her dogmatic lens intact, but also explores the ways in which human nature ignores the inconvenient on a regular basis.

This is a wonderful book, short and to the point, witty and serious, and surprisingly relevant to the church and world today.