I tend to read anything about Dorothy L. Sayers, so I was intrigued by this new volume (2020). When I was a parish pastor I often quoted Sayers in my sermons, and not just the theology! Murder mysteries are a great source for descriptions of what humans do. So this book seemed right up my alley.

I have to admit that I was seriously disappointed when I started out. I thought that it was over-simplified and didn’t quite do the depth of Sayers’ thought justice. I also thought it was really geared toward evangelicals. I told a couple friends about my frustration with it, and Joan Beck did a little research and listened to a recording of Crystal Downing at the book launch a year ago. It turns out it is geared to evangelicals, using Sayers’ to help them think a little differently about Christian faith. This really helped me read the book from a different lens.

Crystal Downing is, with her husband, the co-director of the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College where most of Sayers’ papers are housed. So she had access to many things I haven’t read, and I was very happy to have that resource. I did appreciate the last couple chapters on The Mind of the Maker and politics and religion. Downing did an excellent job of lifting up Sayers’ core thinking and putting it in context for the 21st century.