But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.

• Luke 12:5

Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

• Luke 12:15

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

• Luke 16:13

SPOILER ALERT WARNING

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

“’It isn’t, really,’ replied Parker, seriously. ‘Dope-runners are murderers, fifty times over. They slay hundreds of people, soul and body, besides indirectly causing all sorts of crimes among the victims. Compared with that, slugging one inconsiderable pip-squeak over the head is almost meritorious.’
“’Really, Charles! for a man of your religious upbringing, your outlook is positively enlightened.’
“’Not so irreligious, either. “Fear not him that killeth, but him that hath power to cast into hell” [Luke 12:5]. How about it?’
“’How indeed? Hang the one and give the other a few weeks in jail- or, if of good social position, bind him over or put him on remand for six months under promise of good behaviour.’
“Parker made a wry mouth.
“’I know, old man, I know. But where would be the good of hanging the wretched victims or the smaller fry? There would always be others. We want the top people. Take even this man, Milligan, who’s a pest of the first water -with no excuse for it, because he isn’t an addict himself- but suppose we punish him here and now. They’d only start again, with a new distributor and a new house for him to run his show in, and what would anybody gain by that?’
“’Exactly,’ said Wimsey. ‘And how much better off will you be, even if you catch the man above Milligan? The same thing will apply.’
“Parker made a hopeless gesture.
“’I don’t know, Peter. It’s no good worrying about it. My job is to catch the heads of the gangs if I can, and, after that, as many as possible of the little people. I can’t overthrow cities and burn the population.’
“‘”Tis the Last Judgment’s fire must cure this place,” said Wimsey, ‘calcine its clods and set its prisoners free.’”

• Dorothy L. Sayers, Murder Must Advertise

Note: In the last statement, Lord Peter quotes Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.

“I suppose that if happiness could be mailed direct to the public at half a crown a packet, there would still be many people too lazy, too indifferent or too cautious to purchase a postal-order and sign on the dotted line. As it is, though ‘a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possessed’ [Luke 12:15], the life of commerce does; and manufacturers are under the necessity of disposing of such comparatively unattractive commodities as boot-polish, butter beans, steel filing-cabinets, purgatives, laundry-soaps, vacuum-cleaners, tinned fish, sock-suspenders, clarified fats, sponge-rubber, saucepans, scouring-powders and gadgets for slicing raw carrots into patterns, in order to keep going the monstrous perpetual-motion machine that maintains the fabric of modern civilisation. It is the advertisement writer’s job to persuade the world that these things are, in fact, happiness, temporarily disguised under protean and slightly unexpected forms.”

• Dorothy L. Sayers, The Psychology of Advertising, article in the Spectator, November 1937

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 novel had me confused.  It was supposed to be a Lord Peter Wimsey novel, but I had read halfway through the book, and Lord Peter had never appeared.  But then, the central character in a story about an advertising firm does something outside his normal schedule.  He disappears from his apartment and without being seen, he moves through back alleys to a rendezvous.

And here is the spoiler for the first half of the book, the rendezvous is with Bunter, Lord Peter’s valet.  Lord Peter laments how he does not think he can go on with this charade much longer.

Later, still undercover, the advertising firm is in a cricket match, and Lord Peter had been a star in the sport when in school.  When it was his turn to bat, he worked very hard to get enough runs to win, but he struggled to let it seem almost accidental.

In reading this book and then reading the backstory, I found out that Dorothy L Sayers was hired as a copywriter for an advertising company.  She worked for them from 1922 until 1929, although some state 1921 to 1931.  If the 1929 date is correct, it took the sale of her first four novels to convince her that being a novelist could earn her a decent living.  She was a founding member of the detection club in 1930, with her first two collaborations with the club producing a novel where she wrote a chapter and edited the entire novel in 1931.  The other collaboration was a collection of novellas.

But she was also an avid cricket fan.  Nothing beats watching a cricket match to understand how the game is played, but her description of the game, especially in how Lord Peter failed to do his best, gives you an excellent description of the sport.  You just need some general idea of the layout to visualize it.

But Ms. Sayers shows how greed works in this novel.  A lot of money is never enough.  There is always room for more money.  Thus, money does not satisfy the greedy person.

I heard a lecture from my boss one time.  He explained that my wages were not a satisfier.  No matter how much money I was paid, I would never be satisfied.  Thus, I was not going to get a pay increase that year.  But this logic only works for a person who is greedy, like my boss who got a really nice pay increase by not giving me one at all, along with a few others in the department.  We all got his lecture.  But the other thing that made the boss’ lecture fall on deaf ears was that I did not earn enough to keep up with the bills at that point.  We were sinking into debt just to buy groceries and pay the electric bill.

Note: I did have a boss once who took his pay increase and divided it among us who worked for him.  Another person who did not understand the other boss’ argument.  This boss was not greedy, and he knew we needed the money.  He was satisfied.

But since greedy people are never satisfied, an advertisement executive would say anything in an ad campaign to make another dollar.  And once you have said “anything” to make a dollar, it does not take much encouragement to DO “anything” to make a dollar.

It was a bit of self-cleansing for Dorothy L Sayers to write this novel.

I am not saying all advertisers are wicked, but the greedy ones probably cross that line with regularity.  It becomes less about the truth and more about what you can get away with.

Closing Prayer

Father, guide me.  Help me keep my eyes on You, Lord.  You give me enough.  I praise Your Name as my provider and my Lord.  If I got more than I have now, Lord, please let me use that extra to glorify You.  I may not have all the essentials.  No financial advisor would think I have enough with which to retire, but that happened more than a decade ago, and I do just fine.  Looming changes in the near future are things I rely upon You to take care of.  I trust You.
In Thy Name I pray.
Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.