Sayers Humor
By admin February 11, 2006
Hey Bruce, Dorothy Sayers was super-duper funny too. This contemporary of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien lamented that people in the pews have some serious misconceptions about theology. She attempted to put into words what some of those misconceptions were. Here’s a snippet:
Q.: What does the Church think of the Holy Ghost?
A.: I don’t know exactly. He was never seen or heard of till Whitsunday. There is a sin against him that damns you forever, but nobody knows what it is.
Q.: What is the doctrine of the Trinity?
A.: “The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible and the whole thing incomprehensible.” Something put in by theologians to make it more difficult—nothing to do with daily life or ethics . . .
Q.: What does the Church think of sex?
A.: God made it necessary to the machinery of the world, and tolerates it, provided the parties (a) are married, and (b) get no pleasure out of it.
Sayers, of course, had an orthodox doctrine of God and, I trust, a biblical understanding of sexuality. However, she was a winsome apologist and knew how to get the church thinking about doctrine. Funny stuff. There’s more, but I’ll leave it there . . .