Niche of Time: Items from the Wish List: Dorothy L. Sayers

Creed or Chaos? by Dorothy L. Sayers (Author)

Today you hear it even from many well-meaning Christians: "It doesn't really matter what you believe, so long as you're sincere." These pages demonstrate that such a "doctrineless Christianity" is not merely impossible; it's dangerous. Indeed, argues author Dorothy L. Sayers, if Christians don't steep themselves in doctrine, then the Christian Faith - and the world outside the Faith - will descend into chaos. It's a surprising argument these days, but once you've finished these lucid and often witty pages, you'll agree with Sayers that dogma is no exercise in hair-splitting about insignificant matters; it's a vibrant window into the splendor of God's truth, a window that each Christian soul needs. Doctrine is vital to your faith, to my faith, and even to the faith of the simplest believers. Each of us must make a stark choice: creed . . . or chaos! These pages show why there's no way you can avoid that choice - and they help you to choose wisely. – Amazon.

Catholic Tales and Christian Songs by Dorothy Leigh Sayers (Author)

Four Sacred Plays by Dorothy L. Sayers (Author)

This book contains four short plays by Sayers on a religious theme. The Zeal of Thy House was written for Canterbury Cathedral and dramatizes an episode in its construction. The Devil to Pay is a reworking of the Faust legend. He That should Come is a nativity play, originally written for radio, in natural language. The Just Vengeance is about the spirit of a fallen airman, returning to Lichfield Cathedral, for which it was written. – Amazon.

The Emperor Constantine

by Dorothy L. Sayers (Author), Ann Loades (Introduction)

A brief 'Prologue' by the 'Church' introduces the career of Constantine (from AD 305-337) with scenes from the empires of both west and east, concentrating on Constantine's progress to imperial power and inevitably in religious belief. He discovers Christ to be the God who has made him his earthly vice-regent as single Emperor. Summoning the Council of Nicaea in 325, an invigorating debate results in the acceptance of Constantine's formula that Christ is 'of one substance with God' The implications of the Creed of Nicaea are revealed in the last part of the play in which it is Constantine's mother, Helena, who brings him to the realization that he needs redemption by Christ for his political and military life as well as for the domestic tragedy which has resulted in the death of his son. – Amazon.

The Poetry of Search and the Poetry of Statement: On Dante and Other Writers by Dorothy L. Sayers (Author), Barbara Reynolds (Introduction)

Introducing the Dante Papers Trilogy: Introductory Papers on Dante Further Papers on Dante The Poetry of Search and the Poetry of Statement The Poetry of Search, with which the book opens, puts forward the suggestion that controversy about what kind of thing poetry ought to be has tended to overlook the fact that there are two kinds of poetry, corresponding roughly to the categories of Romantic and Classical but which she prefers to describe as the Poetry of Search and the Poetry of Statement. The poet of search writes to find out what he feels-Keats is an example-and the poet of statement writes to tell what he knows-and here Dante is the master. Dante the Maker, which follows, discusses two examples of this method as poet of statement: First, how the whole of the Paradiso is built like a bridge between the first and the last terrains, and how roads from all the other parts of the poem run together to one point from which to pass over that bridge; secondly, how from a single unadorned statement in the seventh canto the reader who shares Dante's background may construct a whole labyrinth of associated imagery, turning and returning perpetually upon the central affirmation of fact in which a whole complex of meanings lies implicit. - Amazon

The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers: Vol 3 by Dorothy L. Sayers (Author), Barbara Reynolds (Editor)

The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers: 1951-1957 in the Midst of Life (Vol 4) by Barbara Reynolds (Author)

The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers: Child and Woman of Her Time (v. 5) by Barbara Reynolds (Author)

Love All/Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers (Author), Muriel St. Clare Byrne (Author), Alzina S. Dale (Author)

Further Papers on Dante: His Heirs and His Ancestors by Dorothy L. Sayers (Author), Barbara Reynolds (Introduction)

Introducing the Dante Papers Trilogy: Introductory Papers on Dante Further Papers on Dante The Poetry of Search and the Poetry of Statement Dr. Sayers' Further Papers on Dante will be warmly welcomed by all who read her Introductory Papers on Dante and by those hundreds more who want to know more about this astonishing poet newly disclosed to them by her vivid Penguin translation of the Inferno and the Purgatorio. The first series dealt mainly with the theological and ethical aspects of the Divine Comedy. The present one is more heterogeneous and pays more attention to the literary and poetic aspects of Dante's work. Here and there an attempt is made to rescue Dante from the exalted isolation in which he stands, and to compare with him other poets writing on similar themes. 'To label any poet hors concours is in a manner to excommunicate him' This is not a work of popularization, but Dr. Sayers has in a high degree the ability to make things plain and readable for the general reader while at the same time revealing much that scholars may have overlooked. – Amazon.

The Just Vengeance

by Dorothy L. Sayers (Author), Ann Loades (Introduction)

In this play, Dorothy L. Sayers addressed the crimes and problems of human life, especially those of the victors in war, in an entirely novel way, by precipitating an airman in the very moment of his death back into the company of citizens of the "City" in this case, Lichfield. The citizens range from Adam and Eve (Adam himself the inventor of the axe which kills Abel) together with other biblical characters in the history of redemption brought to new life as members of the City (e.g, Judas is a common informer). Others bear burdens of shame, toil, fear, poverty, and ingratitude. Former inhabitants (e.g, George Fox, Dr. Johnson) help the airman see that no more than they can he shift the burden of guilt and grief that they all share. There is but one remedy, to join the "Persona Dei" carrying his cross, finding indeed that he bears their burdens for them. The "Persona Dei" is finally seen in resurrection and glory. – Amazon.

The Passionate Intellect: Dorothy L. Sayers' Encounter With Dante by Barbara Reynolds (Author)

Dorothy L. Sayers, detective novelist, poet, scholar, playwright, and Christian apologist, spent the last fourteen years of her life reading and translating Dante's 'Divine Comedy' The first two volumes of her translation, 'Hell' and 'Purgatory' were published during her lifetime, but when she died in 1957 the third volume, 'Paradise' was unfinished. It was completed by her friend Barbara Reynolds. Thirty years later Barbara Reynolds wrote this book, the first full-length study of this illuminating stage in the creative life of Dorothy Sayers. Drawing on personal reminiscences and unpublished letters, she tells a moving and compelling story. The work explores the dynamic impact of Dante upon a mature mind. New light is shed on Dorothy Sayers' personality, her relationship with her friends, her methods of work, and her intellectual and spiritual development. Readers of Dante, no less than readers of Sayers, will find this an exciting book. – Amazon.