Creed or Chaos
Dorothy L. Sayers looks deeply into the controversial topic of the church's downfall including how and why dogma plays a vital role in ones distrust in the spiritual strength of Christianity. "Creed or Chaos" focuses on dogma as such a doctrine of faith proclaimed by the church and it's misinterpretation as an ideology. In "The Greatest Drama Ever Staged is The Official Creed of Christendom," Sayers specifically references the assurance of the demise of the church as a result of the preacher's insistence upon doctrine or "dull dogma." Although, she insists that it is in fact the opposite in that the negation of the importance of dogma is responsible for the downfall. In the same article Sayers battles the deliberation of God and Jesus being both one in the same. It is clear that the notion of the God Jesus resurrection from the dead is something difficult to comprehend. However, if God did rise from the dead, then man rose as well because they were essentially one and the same person. What is the individual to think of this? The compelling story of God's resurrection is one that is preached and told repeatedly and sincerely in the church. Also, according to the church, God created us perfectly free to
In Paul Tillich's "Ultimate Concern" he examines the regular desires and concerns of life, and deliberates that there is actually one concern above all, an ultimate and infinite concern. Ultimate concern is an abstract translation of the great commandment in which the religious concern is ultimate and takes precedent above all others. At the same time, the ultimate concern is unconditional, independent above all and makes all others preliminary. disbelieve in him as much as one should choose. All together the reason for the death of Jesus was completely a rebottle of his honesty by the Jew's from their disbelief. There is in fact a doctrine that holds all the remarkable stories of the God Jesus as a man and as the immortal being that rose from the dead. It was essentially up to the church to portray these documentations in such a way that would compel the public to believe and to remain faithful. However is was apparently the church's fault for not compelling the individual in such a way that dogma would be much more than solely an "ideology." This is the drama. Sayers says, "that is man should play the tyrant over God and find him a better man than himself" that that would be an incredible drama in itself. Also, on the other hand with God as the tyrant over man or with man as the tyrant over man dismal stories of oppression and human futility would be created. This is an explanation striving for one's acceptance of God as the almighty and one that should be inevitably understood, along with ones beliefs absorbed by the church through an undeniable dogma. This connection is related to the understanding of the divine/human relationship. Martin Buber's "I-Thou" relationship theory is an explanation of the irreplaceable relationship between God and man. Buber places this relationship in the category of "I-Thou" which includes trust and mutual concern. With God as the "Eternal Thou" he possesses and can know in mutual relationship with man although not as an object of knowledge. Sayers believes that if an "average man" is to be interested in a relationship with Christ, that dogma will provide that interest. In Sayers's address delivered in Derby, England in the spring of 1940, it is clear that since her article written two years prior her interest has progressed and led to a deeper interpretation of dogmatic theology versus ones lifestyle. She begins with an explanation of what she believes the people are experiencing. She denounces the public of waging a war of religion, "a life-and-death" battle between Christian and pagan. The question of freed
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Approximate Word count = 1751
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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