"The Scandalous Evangelism of Dorothy L. Sayers" with Dr. Crystal Downing

2600 Cleveland Ave NW,Canton OH 44709

10 November, 2022

Description

On November 10th at 7:00 pm, we welcome all to join the Malone community as we hear from Prof. Crystal Downing, co-director of the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College, about "The Scandalous Evangelism of Dorothy L. Sayers" and her friendship with C.S. Lewis. Known today primarily as a leading light of the golden age of detective fiction, Dorothy Sayers also wrote important essays and works of Christian apologia and worldview. Prof. Downing will draw for her talk from her recently published book: Subversive: Christ, Culture, and the Shocking Dorothy L. Sayers. The book explores the various ways Sayers speaks to Christians in the 21st century, from indifferent “nones” to passionate promulgators of polarizing rhetoric. Sayers, the book shows, can shock people into seeing the radically subversive truth of Christian orthodoxy in new ways. Bio: Dr. Crystal Downing is also the author of Writing Performances: The Stages of Dorothy L. Sayers (Palgrave 2004), was granted the Barbara Reynolds Award for best Sayers scholarship in 2009 by the international Dorothy L. Sayers Society. Sayers also informed her next two books, How Postmodernism Serves (My) Faith and Changing Signs of Truth (IVP Academic 2006 & 2012), which explore the relationship between cultural studies and Christianity. Crystal’s fourth book, Salvation from Cinema: The Medium Is the Message (Routledge 2016), assesses the field of “religion and film,” encouraging people of faith to acquaint themselves with film theory in order to better understand movies—not only as cultural statements but also as works of art.