What a wonderful person to choose to finish Patron Saints for Postmoderns: Ten from the Past Who Speak to Our Future. Chris Armstrong chooses, from the 20th Century, Dorothy Sayers and I love how he describes her: “Unorthodox in her personality, but passionately orthodox in her faith Dorothy Sayers would find herself (almost by accident) blessing a generation sunk in the spiritual doldrums” (182).

Who is fan of Sayers? What’s your favorite of her books? How do you describe her?

Ever since I read Barbara Reynolds’ exceptional biography of Sayers (Dorothy L. Sayers: Her Life and Soul
), I’ve known of her quirks and her genius — and the genius can be found in any number of her writings. To choose her as a patron saint for postmoderns is a wise choice.

Daughter of an Anglican priest, Dorothy Sayers was engulfed by romanticism and by English class sensibilities. She was an Oxford student in modern languages, where she formed the Modern Admiration Society — a group of a dozen or so women friends who gathered in rooms to talk.

She did well, taking a First. Then she became a teacher at a girls school. She soured on teaching and moved home. She published some poetry and began working for Blackwell in Oxford. She then began to publish mysteries … for which many to this day know her (I tried one and I put it down after a few unsuccessful attempts). A couple of bad relationships. One resulted in pregnancy and she all but gave the child up to her cousin Ivy, even though she cared for him and provided for him always. Most agree that she dealt with this poorly but found some peace with God over her sin.

“Fame leads one to odd — and sometimes providential — places” (195). She wrote a play for the Canterbury Cathedral Festival and this event led her into the church and into theology and the rest is history! “Dogma is the drama” was her famous line, and she increasingly wrote essays and gave speeches and talks on Christian subjects. Her most famous book is The Mind of the Maker
.