“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

• Matthew 7:1-2

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?

• Romans 2:1-3

SPOILER ALERT WARNING

If you intend to read this book, the following may give away the mystery

“I am wandering on, darling, am I not? I only wondered what kind of natural revenge Mr. Perry thought God would take for what he would call our sin. It does seem so ridiculous, doesn’t it? As if God or Nature would trouble about us, with all those millions and millions of worlds to see to. Besides, our love is the natural thing-it’s the Gorgon who is unnatural and abnormal. Probably that’s his punishment. He denies me love, and our love is Nature’s revenge on him. But, of course, he wouldn’t see it that way. …
“… Oh, Petra, I am so frightened. Darling, something dreadful has happened. I’m sure -I’m almost quite sure. Do you remember when I said Nature couldn’t revenge herself? Oh, but she can and has, Petra. What shall I do? I’ve tried things, but it’s no good. Petra, you’ve got to help me. I never thought of this – we were so careful – but something must have gone wrong. Petra, darling, I can’t face it. I shall kill myself. He’ll find out- he must find out, and he’ll be so cruel, and it will all be too terrible. …”

• Dorothy L. Sayers and Eustace Roberts, The Documents in the Case

“The word ‘punishment’ for sin has become so corrupted that it ought never to be used. But once we have established the true doctrine of man’s nature, the true nature of judgment becomes startlingly clear and rational. It is the inevitable consequence of man’s attempt to regulate life and society on a system that runs counter to the facts of his own nature.”

• Dorothy L. Sayers, from an essay, “Creed or Chaos?”

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

Dorothy L Sayers wrote this story with the help of Robert Eustace, a pen name for Dr. Eustace Robert Barton, a physician and expert in the new science that is revealed in the book.  Dr. Barton used another pen name, Eustace Robert Rawlings in other books.

The Harrisons lived downstairs.  Mr. Harwood Lathom had lived upstairs, sharing a flat with an aspiring author named Munting.  Munting married his fiancé and moved out, but Lathom had an affair with Mrs. Harrison.  He soon moved to Paris and the painting he had made of Mrs. Harrison made him a rising star in the art world.  But Mrs. Harrison had entered in the affair in that her husband ignored her.

The quote from The Documents in the Case are snippets from letters between two lovers.  Mr. Harrison died after eating poisonous mushrooms.  But the man was a mushroom expert.  What he did not know was that synthetically made mushrooms that were identical to the edible kind had been mixed with the good ones.  The entire book is an epistolary novel, the story laid out in the love letters between Mrs. Harrison and Mr. Lathom.  The letters were found when Mr. Harrison’s son from a previous marriage was unsatisfied by the accidental death proclamation.  Thus, the title of the book.

With the Documents in the Case and the advent of a scope that uses polarized light (polariscope) to detect a racemic mixture, the case was solved.  Racemic mixtures rarely occur in nature, equal numbers of spiral molecules that are mirror images of each other.  Thus, they proved the mushrooms were synthetic and poisonous.  They were not picked in nature as Mr. Harrison had thought.

Dorothy L Sayers commented on her book.  She liked the Christian argument and crossover with a Christian moral story and the science.  But in retrospect, the style they had chosen did not give her the chance to develop the characters fully and the plot flowed in spurts from one letter to the next.  She felt she could have done better.  While Ms. Sayers collaborated on a few books among the members of the Detection Club, this was her only work with “Robert Eustace.”  But it may be that her feeling of a lack of character development was that this was her first novel without Lord Peter.

But look at the first paragraph in the quote.  The two conspirators in murder are arguing that God’s Law is wrong because they feel good in their affair.  And then, ignoring one commandment for their own sense of pleasure, they plot a murder.  Once you have passed judgment on God’s Law as being flawed, then none of the commandments are safe.

And so it is with us.

When we make the decision of who is guilty, and we take revenge to exact our own justice, then we have not exacted proper justice.

As I occasionally write, that is above my pay grade.

Mrs. Harrison swore a vow to love, honor, etc. until death do they part.  She did none of those things.  She had an affair with a younger man because she felt ignored.  Was that abusive?  She felt they would be found out, but if her husband neglected her as she said, then the finding out would never happen.  Was that a crossover from Edgar Allen Poe, the Tell Tale Heart?  Was it a guilty conscience?  But how can you have a conscience when you excuse adultery and murder because you were bored?

Dorthy L Sayers actually crafted the plot after something in the news several years before, weaving the good doctor’s knowledge of new scientific lab equipment into the story.

Closing Prayer

Father, guide me.  Help us to forgive, Lord.  We may see something is wrong and with the proper number of witnesses we can try to rebuke and correct in a loving manner, to bring someone back onto the right path in following You, but, Lord, we must never take justice into our own hands.  And when we have sinned, may we recognize it as sin and repent.  You will never accept our excuses.  But when we confess and repent, You will wash the slate clean.  You are God, and we are not.  You will stand in judgment, and we will be judged.  It can never be the other way around outside those among us who are on a jury or sitting at the bench as judge.  And Lord, please guide them in their duties.
In Thy Name I pray.
Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.