Customer Reviews

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

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It may come as a surprise to many readers that mystery-suspense author Dorothy Sayers ("Murder Must Advertise"; "Gaudy Night") was a first-rate theological writer as well. Although published nearly fifty years ago, to Miss Sayers' mind the world was going to hell in a handbasket (almost literally!) and it's a wonder we have survived for so long.

We've got to have dogma, she says--not partial dogma or silly dogma or nondogma masquerading as freethinking or tolerance. She lampoons the silliness of her own fellow Anglicans' beliefs in a kind of parody catechism. The section on Atonement begins, "God wanted to damn everybody, but His vindictive sadism was sated by the crucifixion of his own son . . ." She notes (quite accurately, I think) that it is nonbelievers who fear death the most, not staunch Christians, whereas a common-sense interpretation might lead one to think exactly the opposite. Sayers believes the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds must be taken literally--now, lots of people do but you will rarely encounter someone who argues the case so intelligently.

Stylistically and theologically, Sayers was so Anglo-Catholic as to be Catholic. As the preface to this book warns, Sayers occasionally uses "catholic" to mean the Christian church universal, sometimes "Catholic" to mean the Church of England (Anglican Church) and sometimes the Roman Catholic Church. It's easy to figure out what she means from context, though.

Like many radical conservatives (Ayn Rand comes to mind), Sayers is best on the attack. Another way of saying this is that she was better at diagnosing the problem than coming to workable solutions. She plumps for the dignity of individual labor in pre-mechanical settings so strongly that I suspected she had in mind the medieval past she knew so well (among her accomplishments Sayers was also a gifted medievalist). If that's the case, I doubt we can bring back the guild halls, get rid of the Diesels and keep the antibiotics, just like that. She is furious at the Church of England for being so namby-pamby about teaching dogma but at the same time must at least acknowledge that the C of E will lose attendance if it is too dogmatic.

None of this is to imply that "Creed or Chaos" is a blast from the past. It is well worth reading today because the issues it raises are still with us today. On the whole this book is witty, forceful and a pleasure to read. I couldn't quite give this book a "5" because I thought Sayers bit off a bit more material than she could chew, but this is a good read nonetheless.

Dorothy L. Sayers is the best christian apologist I have read next to C.S. Lewis. These two contemporaries both defend orthodoxy in the christian faith in a way that is enjoyable to read (in terms of scathing wit and very appropriate humor) and disturbing for its clear presentation of the failings of both modern christianity and modern society.

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.

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?"

The last chapter of this book (chapter 7 - "The Other Six Deadly Sins") is alone worth the purchase price; an analysis of the seven deadly sins, and how, be it grossly or subtly, we commit them every day. This chapter can serve as a good guide for those who wish to examine their own consciences. We tend to dismiss our own sins by comparing ourselves to those who have sinned worse, but this is not part of Christian life. Our sins, even the small ones, adversely affect ourselves and a lot of other people. So, it is imperative for moral Christians to, with brutal honesty, ask themselves, "What sins, no matter how small, am I committing?"

But then, how does one know what is and is not a sin? That's where creed comes in. Without a creed, a Nazi can say that it is not evil to kill Jews, and who can tell him authoritatively that he is wrong. Without a creed, a slave-trader can say that it is OK to enslave human beings, and even use the Bible alone to justify it (as slave owners in this country did). Who can tell him authoritatively that he is wrong?

It is not surprising at all to hear so many people who say that the author sounded Catholic (one reviewer even mistakenly said that she WAS Catholic); this because her views DO sound very Catholic. This "call to holiness" is exactly what we teach, and we have a firmly established creed to follow.

A good book for Catholic and protestant alike.

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.

Just a quick correction to the second review of Creed or Chaos...

Dorothy Sayers was Anglican, not Roman Catholic. She was a novelist, playwright, scholar, and an associate of C.S. Lewis. Her fervent call for orthodoxy and her witty warnings about the impending chaos in creedless Christian churches are basic points expounded by Roman Catholicism...so the error is completely understandable.

Sayers, like Lewis, wrote on universal principles & truths. Her message is one to be embraced by all intellectually honest Christians able to see past denominational separatism.

It's too bad the Roman Catholic Church can't claim her as one of their own- she'd have made a bright feather in their cap of illustrious thinkers.

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.

What a treat to find this book to enjoy right along with Sayers' fiction. While Sayers was not Roman Catholic, there's not a thing here a Catholic could complain about. In fact, it made clear for me some of the recent teaching of John Paul II, and this from a book written at the beginning of World War II. I read the first several chapters with great enjoyment, savoing Sayers' beautiful use of the language, and finding myself lifted in prayer. Then the last two chapters, I found myself reading with a growing conviction that I need to retool some of my thinking. Warning: this book may shock some who think capitalism is unadulteratedly Christian!

I was given this book as a birthday present by a friend. I was surprised at how slim the volume was; but in this case, size is not an indication of content. The text is tight, well written, every line a gem of thought. Not new concepts if you're a Christian, but presented by a thinking person for thinking people. I don't mean couched in intelligentsia-type padding. No, Miss Sayer's work is straightforward, hard-hitting and yet enjoyable. Things that in 1947 were taken for granted by the British Establishment (Miss Sayers was after all High Anglican) are made totally refreshing by her approach. I keep wanting to underline things...but I realise if I did that I'd probably end up underlining the whole short book. Short, yes, but that's because there's no "fat" in it. The concepts and language have not aged; there's nothing "outmoded" here. Indeed Miss Sayers was one of the finest minds of her time, and this book shows it.
20 out of 10.