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Although this book is, in one sense, about Dorothy L. Sayers, it
significance is theological rather than biographical. Since the
mid-Twentieth Century, and the period when Anglican theology
appeared to be shaping Britain's post-War reconstruction in many
respects, it has generally been true that the church's commitment
to social action remained whilst its grasp of the theological
foundations for that action withered. The theological seriousness,
and the deep philosophical, theological and social arguments that
Sayers and her associates adduced for the church's social
engagement, were largely forgotten as the Church of England tended
to seek relevance in preference to theological authenticity. This
lack of theological depth made it easy for the church to revert to
an inward-looking pietism from the 1980s onwards which had little
if anything to say about the Christian vision of a good society. By
turning the spotlight on Sayers's contribution here, Fletcher shows
how the theological seriousness of her period was not the preserve
of bishops and clergy but could be, and was, integral to the
reflections of a highly intelligent lay woman who saw very clearly
how Christian faith could permeate the story of the world, humanity
and the created order.
Saint Benedict for Boomers is based on the idea that no one can
retire from being a Christian; we are to love God and our neighbor
throughout our life. And it recognizes that aging presents us with
change, loss, and death, as well as new growth and opportunities
for deep gladness and peace. The Christian vocation is valid when
we are healthy and strong and when we are weak and sick. Taking
Saint Benedict of Nursia as a guide, Christine Fletcher insists
that those in the autumn of their lives still have much to
contribute to society and to those around them, even when they are
ill and dependent. Benedict's wisdom is perennial, and it remains
helpful to those who negotiate new challenges in living well,
preserving bodily health, discerning purpose in new stages of
living, deepening faith, and ultimately, facing sickness and death.
How do we reconnect our faith and our life and move beyond being
hour-a-week Christians? In 24/7 Christian, Christine Fletcher
brings the riches of the Second Vatican Council with its teachings
on the universal call to holiness, the freedom of conscience, and
the role of the laity in the world together with the wisdom of the
Rule of St. Benedict to provide a practical guide to becoming a
Christian 24/7. Fletcher shows the importance of Catholics' faith
in meeting the challenges facing people today, including climate
change, global inequality, and family breakdown.
The Artist and the Trinity aims to create a Christian theology of
work based on Dorothy L. Sayers' analogy of the Trinity to the
process of artistic creation. Sayers' analogy gives us an account
of the person that does not collapse into the atomism of the
individual of modern liberal capitalism, but is fully relational.
By putting Sayers into dialogue with Alasdair MacIntyre, the book
develops a fully Trinitarian theology of work that accounts for the
interdependence of human beings, and for the ethical requirements
of caring for the weak, the young, and the old in a way that is
gender neutral. "Dorothy Sayers was one of the bright stars of the
Anglo-Catholic literary firmament in England. . . . Among Sayers's
great gifts was the ability to show the light orthodox Christian
doctrine sheds on both artistic 'making' and the everyday 'doing'
for which we need ethics in a workaday world. Christine Fletcher's
typically robust yet engaging study succeeds brilliantly in
demonstrating for a new generation what Sayers was about." --Aidan
Nichols Blackfriars, Cambridge "Professor Fletcher has written in
an engaging style about a neglected dimension of the contribution
of Dorothy L. Sayers to serious thinking about work (demolishing
some myths about gender on the way). Moreover, she confidently
displays Sayers's theological versatility in being at once faithful
to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, while illuminating it for
the meaning of work, so central to the lives of human beings."
--Ann Loades University of Durham "Karl Barth was right: Dorothy
Sayers was one of the best and most lucid lay theologians of the
twentieth century, especially on that difficult topic of the
Trinity. Christine Fletcher has not only given us a book on Sayers
that is as clear and as illuminating as the books by her subject;
she has also done something more: she has given us a practical
theology. This is a book one can actually put to work." --Edward T.
Oakes, SJ University of St. Mary of the Lake Christine M. Fletcher
is Assistant Professor of Theology at Benedictine University,
Lisle, Illinois. She is the author of numerous articles on the
ethics of work and on Dorothy L. Sayers.
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