So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

• Matthew 7:2

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God.

• Micah 6:8

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

• Galatians 5:19-26

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

• John 13:34-35

“Miss Agatha Christie was writing her Miss Marple mysteries, and GK Chesterton his Father Brown tales.  Sayers, like Chesterton, found murder mysteries of vehicle to explore the choices characters make between good and evil.  But she never let that get in the way of spinning a captivating yarn. In the introduction to a collection of short stories that she edited, she admits the widespread attraction of the genre:”

• Carole Vanderhoof (editor), The Gospel in Dorothy L. Sayers, Selections from Her Novels, Plays, Letters, and Essays

“Some prefer the intellectual cheerfulness of the detective story; some the uneasy emotions of the ghost story; but in either case, the tale must be about dead bodies or very wicked people, preferably both, before the Tired Business Man can feel really happy and at peace with the world  [Such stories] make you feel that it is good to be alive, and that, while alive, it is better, on the whole, for you to be good. (Detective authors, by the way, are nearly all as good as gold, because it is part of their job to believe and to maintain that Your Sin Will Find You Out. That is why Detective Fiction is, or should be, such a good influence in a degenerate world, and that, no doubt, is why so many bishops, school masters, eminent statesmen and others with reputations to support, read detective stories to improve their morals, and keep themselves out of mischief.)”

• Dorothy L. Sayers, Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery, and Horror, Third Series

Boilerplate

In this mini-series, I will fulfill a promise.  Some time ago, published 14 January 2025, I wrote a brief synopsis of the book, Subversive by Crystal Downing.  The post is called A Subversive Christian.  In that book, I talked about the three books in the photo above.  And I especially wanted to do a mini-series on the book on the right, The Gospel in Dorothey L. Sayers. 

Note that the title uses the preposition “in.”  Dorothy L. Sayers did not write a fifth gospel.  She did not write as if inspired directly by God.  The canon of Scripture is complete.

But in stating what this is not, then what is it?  All Christians have the Holy Spirit within them, guiding them.  When being a Christian is something you have inside you and through you, then your life will reflect that.  This book is how you can see various aspects of the Christian life in the works of Dorothy L. Sayers, mystery novels, plays, letters, and essays.

After the Introduction, it starts with Whose Body?  The editor’s attribute of a Christian that she focuses on is “Conscience.” Whose Body? is her first detective fiction novel featuring her main character, Lord Peter Wimsey.  Then in Death Must Advertise, we find Lord Peter has a couple of middle names.  His full name is Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey.

But we will stay in the Introduction for more than a  week.  There are at least a half dozen quotes just in the introduction that look interesting.  I am not in a hurry to speed through this book.  I was not in a hurry to start it with me being over a year since I promised to make it into a mini-series.

But I would hope people could read my short stories and see the gospel being acted out in the characters in my fictional stories.  Deviled Yeggs grew up in a family of safe crackers, robbing from others.  He set out as a policeman, and then homicide detective, to redeem the family name but learning each person must have Christ redeem them individually.  Deviled’s wife, Trinity Naomi Tesla (TNT) Yeggs, was nicknamed “Nitroglycerin” (Glyce for short) by her parents because she was explosive when shaken.  But she found calm and peace in her husband’s arms, and eventually she found the same comfort and peace in the arms of Jesus as she faced “shaky” experiences.

Even when not writing about Jesus directly, the Good News (Gospel) appears in many ways in what a Christian writes.  Let’s enjoy this journey with possibly my favorite author (outside the Bible with C.S. Lewis in a tie with her), Dorothy L. Sayers.

Discussion

This will conclude the “Introduction.”  There is one more quote, maybe two quotes in a single post, that I want to use as a fitting end of this mini-series.  So, if you want to do your homework, next week’s post will be a quote from Whose Body?  As we move forward, the moral lessons from her novels or short stories may become spoiler alerts.

When I read a mystery novel in the past, I would occasionally ponder, “Why isn’t real life so cut and dried?”

I am not the only one who has written or said, “While on earth, we beg for justice, but once we get to Heaven, we want mercy.”

Detective fiction usually paints a dire scene, but as Dorothy L. Sayers states, “Your Sin Finds You Out.”

But how many times has the complaint never been filed?  How many times has the detective missed the mark or even fell for the framing of an innocent person?

Yes, if you have always had justice in everything you are involved in on earth, are you a real human being?

When I was a military officer, a superior officer said there would be that one time when we will all have that moment where our commanding officer will make a very idiotic command that we have to follow.  We may curse the ground he walks on, but to be fair, someone higher up said the idiotic thing had to be done and you drew the short straw, or it was drawn by others for you.

I once got back from a sketchy mission, no real danger, but it seemed an impossible task when assigned.  I was successful in that a half dozen strange things had to all align at the same time, but the task was complete.  With everyone slapping my idiot commanding officer on the back for getting it done, when all he did was assign it to me, I pulled him aside in private and asked a question we all want to say … often.  I asked, “Why me?”

He shrugged and said, “You were the only one who could think outside the box.  You were the only one that I could give the task to and have any chance of success.”

That sounds like a compliment, but it set me up for the next crazy task, and the one that followed.

So, after a day like that, I desired to go home, take the boots off, and disappear in a novel, where it was not as dire as what I had been through, but I knew that justice would be served.

And what is justice?  We all have a sense of what is right.  Jesus boiled it down to loving each other.  People do not like the laundry list in Galatians 5, but how do you show the love other than showing those fruits of the Spirit while avoiding those naughty things.

But those are fruits of the Spirit?  How can we show them?

That’s the point.  We need to know what we should do.  We must desire to do the right thing.  And then, above all else, we must trust in God.

The strength to do it comes from Him.

Closing Prayer

Father, guide me.  I enjoy a good story where justice is served.  But it is so much better for me to be part of the story in showing love to others.  Forgive me for my weakness.  Fill me with Your love.  And show me the way.
In Thy Name I pray.
Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.