Choosing Community: Action, Faith, and Joy in the Works of Dorothy L. Sayers

Colón (Writing for the Masses), professor of English at Wheaton College, Ill., delivers an elegant exploration of the role of Christian faith and community in the novels, plays, and lectures of Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957), creator of the fictional aristocrat-detective Lord Peter Wimsey and his future wife, Harriet Vane. Raised in Huntingdonshire, England, Sayers’s early life as a “daughter of the Manse” (her father was a minister) shaped her Anglican faith and moral vision, and, in Colón’s telling, pushed her toward the tumultuous company of artists. Though Sayers’s novels were informed by her faith, Colón argues, she did not write them intending to present a theological perspective. Instead, she recognized the importance of preserving the complexity of “communities of action.” For instance, Lord Peter Wimsey needed to do more than find a killer; he needed to unleash the moral agency of the other characters. Colón’s section of how Sayers nourished “communities of joy” in her personal life is particularly moving as it reveals Sayers’s love of her friends and support for other writers. Sayers’s fans will definitely want to pick this up. (Oct.)