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Creed or Chaos? Why Christians Must Choose Either Dogma or Disaster (Or, Why It Really Does Matter What You Believe)
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Average Rating:  out of 13 Reviews
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Price: $10.95
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Sale: $10.99
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Manufacturer: Sophia Institute Press
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EAN (European Article Number): 9780918477316
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Paperback
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Author: Dorothy L. Sayers
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Publisher: Sophia Institute Press
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Dewey Decimal Number: 230
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Publication Date: 1999-12-01
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Reading Level: 176
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Description: 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.
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Customer Reviews
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Review Summary: Choices, choices... |
Date: 2005-03-16 |
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Details: Dorothy Sayers, best known as the author of typically wonderful British mysteries, was also known in her lifetime as an engaging public speaker, and one of the topics she would speak about is the life of the church. A staunch and solid Anglican of Anglo-Catholic persuasion (read here, 'more Catholic than the Pope', in many respects), she in some ways shared a spotlight (and variously competed for the spotlight) with other such luminaries as C.S. Lewis.
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.
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Review Summary: Too Close for Comfort |
Date: 2004-11-07 |
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Details: This collection of essays and speeches covers more ground than the title suggests. The first portion, on the importance of dogma in an authentically religious life, is passionate, persuasive, and predicts the coming battle between Christianity and paganism in Western culture. Interesting as this is, I found the second part of the book more intriguing still, when Sayers turns her attention to the significance of work and then to the Seven Deadly Sins. She draws a crucial distinction between work as an end in itself and work as a means to an end. Instead of treating our work as our gift to God, are we merely looking for a paycheck so we can get more stuff? Sayers exposes the social ills wrought by excessive materialism and insufficient attention to our moral responsibilities, and carries this theme further in her discussion of the deadly sins. This final chapter makes for an excellent examination of conscience as well as an embarrassing commentary on the crass materialism that pervades our culture, almost invisible in the absence of moral reflection. And above all, this book exhorts us to moral reflection. With remarkable power and insight, Sayers encourages us to ask, "What am I doing, and why am I doing it?" |
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Review Summary: I'll take Creed, thank you. |
Date: 2003-11-19 |
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Details: Like some of the other reviewers, I found that some of the essays in this book did wander off from the main question as presented in the book's title. Particularly the last three chapter's do this, focusing more on socio-economic issues rather than on the significance of dogma or creed in the church. These essays were tangentially related, however, as Sayers pointed out the need for Christianity's influence to be pervasive in all aspects of life. The weakest chapters in this volume were, nonetheless, the 5th and 6th chapters, titled "Strong Meat" and "Why Work?" However, the remainder of the book was very well written, and enjoyable to read. Sayer's primary intent was to show how Christianity collapses without dogmas or creeds. She marvelously shows how dogma is not the dusty, dull, and boring thing that modern Christians often claim, but rather, that the very excitement and drama in Christianity is in the dogma! She uses the doctrine of the incarnation in particular to illustrate this, and throughout the book she interweaves the historic Apostle's, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds to show their profound relevance and interest to even modern humanity. The problem, she asserts, is not that the dogma is dull, but that the church has not properly taught or shown its meaning. This has created another problem, which is that most unbelievers despise Christianity without even ever understanding the truly radical nature of what it teaches: that God entered the world in human flesh. When Christianity isn't clear and creedal in what it teaches to its own, it won't be able to present a clear and vital witness of Christ to the world. The best chapter of the book is the one titled "Creed or Chaos?" In it Dorothy Sayers affirms that "it is absolutely impossible to teach Christianity without teaching Christian dogma" (33), and then proceeds to list several dogmas which are especially in need of being taught on account of their being misunderstood. She states the case for dogma very well in this chapter, but makes one particularly false statement. She says that "The Church of Rome alone has retained Her prestige because She puts theology in the foreground of Her teaching"(33). Rome is not alone in retaining her prestige or dogma. The glaring omission is that the confessional bodies of the Lutheran church also place theology in the foreground of their teaching. There are those in Lutheranism wandering toward Chaos (and who would do well to read this book), but the true heart of Lutheranism is a boldly creedal faith. Even though Sayers ignores the Lutheran church, it is interesting to note that in the 6th chapter, on "Why Work?", she comes surprisingly close to the Lutheran understanding of what Scripture teaches regarding vocation. Overall, Sayers' book issues a much-needed call to return to the orthodox creeds of Christianity, as this problem has continued and worsened in the church at large since she wrote these essays in the WWII era. |
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Review Summary: Don't Miss Dorothy L. Sayers |
Date: 2003-08-14 |
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Details: If I have a gripe about this book, it's that the cover picture and blurb would be more at home on a tabloid at the checkstand. There's an earlier version of this book with a somewhat better cover. For that matter, these essays are drawn from two collections published in Sayer's day, Unpopular Opinions and another one I forgot. The best essays reappeared some time back in a collection called Christian Letters to a Post-Christian World (I wonder why that title didn't sell?!), and then again in a series by MacMillian called The Whimsical Christian (catch the play on the name of her detective, Lord Peter Wimsey). However you have to get them, try to read the best of these essays, "The Dogma is the Drama" and "And Telling You a Story" among them. The first one relates to her experiences while writing The Man Born to Be King, the first radio drama of the life of Jesus for the BBC. Long before Jesus Christ Superstar and the many movies tackling the subject, she was at the front lines of critical crossfire for updating the gospels to everyday Cockney England (the sort of updating that was common in the Middle Ages in Mystery plays). The second essay tells how she fell under the spell of another British writer, Charles W.S.Williams, and was so inspired by his writings on Dante that she taught herself Italian and translated the three volumes of The Divine Comedy (the third volume, Paradise, being completed by her student, Barbara Reynolds). Other essays touch on her trials as a mystery writer and playright, and the zillion other things she did (that no one seems to know about). Fans of her sleuth, Lord Peter, may enjoy tracking down these witty essays by the divine Dorothy L. |
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Review Summary: A Quality Read |
Date: 2003-03-28 |
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Details: This short work is well worth the time of any Christian. What exactly is our claim? Has the church complacently allowed a post-modern relativism to separate us from the great doctrines of the creeds? Why is modern Christianity so diverse and perverse? These are the critical questions Sayers attempts to answer. Her uncompromising passion for objective truth is refreshing and she conveys that righteous passion with eloquence. Again, this short work is well worth the time. The only caveat I will make to my enthusiastic approval of her book is it seems to end after the fourth chapter. Chapters five through seven are dedicated to things outside the primary concern of the work, embodied in the first four chapters. While the later are of some value as well, the first four chapters are the heart of the work and they are what I enthusiastically praise. |
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