focuses on the reception of Norse myth, the transmission of the oral tradition, itsrecording, thereby its codifying, and the subsequent use of this tradition down thecenturies: the Viking legacy; romantic revolutions; Norse myths in the context of therise of racism; and the contemporary appropriation – and misappropriation – of thisNorse legacy. In the conclusion, amongst many profound observations, O’Donoghuenotes how, ‘The adoption of Norse mythology as a badge of supposedly racial identityhas often led to its being associated with pernicious racial doctrines. This, however, isentirely incidental to the substance of the myths themselves . . . Norse mythologycomprises a great pantheon of gods, a huge variety of incident, and the irresistible lure ofsecret knowledge . . . For all these reasons, there can be no end – just as there are nodiscernible beginnings – to the representation of Norse myth in our cultural life’.O’Donoghue’s work is perceptive and insightful; this is an astute academic study, acreditable contribution to the subject, and an enjoyable book to read.

Wimbledon, London Paul Brazier

Creed without Chaos: Exploring Theology in the Writings of Dorothy L. Sayers. By LauraK. Simmons. Pp. 222, Grand Rapids, Baker Academic, 2005, $19.99.

The C. S. Lewis Chronicles: The Indispensable Biography of the Creator of Narnia Full ofLittle-Known Facts, Events & Miscellany. By Colin Duriez. Pp. xiv, 306, London,Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd., 2005, d9.95.

Perilous Realms: Celtic & Norse in Tolkien’s Middle Earth. By Marjorie Burns. Pp. xii,225, London, University of Toronto Press, 2005, d35/d18.

Ask many people to name five British Anglican theologians comparable in terms ofintellectual rigour and charism to continental theologians (whether Reformed,Protestant or Catholic) working in the first half of the twentieth-century and they willstruggle – that is, if they are restricted to official academic theologians or Church ofEngland leaders. They would, however, most likely name one of several so-called laytheologians who to a degree dominated the theological scene in Britain during thatmost fraught and fought over of centuries particularly before, during and after theSecond World War: C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Dorothy L. Sayers, G. K.Chesterton, T. S. Eliot, Charles Williams, and so on. These men and women were ineffect lay theologians; their work was explicitly or implicitly theological, rooted in acreedal orthodoxy which many will argue the official Church of England in somequarters either sought to abandon or was embarrassedly uncomfortable with.Hermann Kutter – Swiss Reformed church leader and theologian, inspirational figureto the young Karl Barth – is recorded as having commented that from time to time ithas pleased God to warn and to comfort his church through the figures and the eventsof secular world history. This was to a degree applicable to the Church of England inthe first half of the twentieth-century. Is this what the Spirit did – fill the perceivedvacuum within English theology by raising up educated men and women outside theofficial ranks of the church to witness to creedal orthodoxy? Most of this English-speaking group of lay theologians died in the 1950s and 1960s, however, their worknever appears to be out-of-print and there has been a large volume of studiespublished on their work, most notably on C. S. Lewis and Tolkien. Furthermore theirwork still reaches a missionary audience most priests/ministers can only dream of. Wehave here three books which represent to a degree current scholarship on this group oflay theologians: C. S. Lewis (Anglican), Dorothy L. Sayers (Anglican) and J. R. R.Tolkien (Roman Catholic).

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Dorothy L. Sayers was better known as a writer of detective stories, yet during theSecond World War her theological writings, broadcasts and plays were as popular,astute and as significant as the apologetics of C. S. Lewis: for example, Creed orChaos? (1940) or The Man Born to be King (1943), to mention but two, and of courseher – for many definitive – translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Laura K. Simmonsnotes in her exploration of the theology in the writings of Sayers (Creed WithoutChaos: Exploring Theology in the Writings of Dorothy L Sayers, Baker Academic,2005) how her source material came from everyday life, from the scriptures and,pertinently, the creeds (in particular the Nicene and Athanasian creeds), but also heruse of Patristic theology. ‘It is always perilous for laymen to meddle with expoundingtheology’, wrote Sayers in a letter in 1937 (p. 11); yet, as Simmons notes, Sayersproved as gifted a lay theologian as she was a detective novelist. She was ‘a woman whowas to attempt, almost single-handed, to put the Church of England back on course’ (p.11). Her private letters and published reviews reveal the theological acumen thatcharacterized her work. Simmons’ work shows amply how Sayers theological writingsserved to restate and clarify doctrine, focusing on traditional or orthodox themes(incarnation, atonement, justice, evil and death), but also everyday themes thatprofessional theologians and churchmen failed to discuss, for example the way wordsand language were used. ‘The Church’, wrote Sayers, ‘had allowed the professionals todo most of her thinking for her . . . reminding Christians that they were the Church’(p. 21). Simmons’ work is in three parts. Part one examines the context of Sayers’work and her convictions – the writer as theologian – particularly focussing on herown assertion that she was rescuing Christianity from ‘slip-slop and fiddle-faddle’ (p.61f), that is, descending into liberalism, religion for its own sake). Part two examinesher theological reflections: the Incarnation and the nature of Christ; the Trinity; sin &evil; redemption & atonement; work, vocation & business ethics; words & language;creativity & art; and women’s issues. Part three is devoted to an assessment of Sayersfor the twenty-first-century: reclaiming Sayers for the people of God. Simmons’ workleave one with the desire to know more – to study the significant theological works ofSayers in more depth, to examine the context of her work, how it relates to othersworking in the same field, certainly now that time has placed such a wide gulf betweenthe era of Sayers, Lewis, Tolkien and today’s world. Sayers was not afraid to tackledifficult theological tasks – Christology, for instance – without seeking refuge in thehuman Jesus. If there is one criticism it is that the index is slim, though Simmons’bibliography is comprehensive.The C. S. Lewis Chronicles: The Indispensable Biography of the Creator of Narnia

Full of Little-Known Facts, Events & Miscellany (DLT, 2005) is not a traditionalbiography, however, it is a very useful addition to the corpus on Lewis: the standardtext by Roger Lancelyn Green and Walter Hooper (1974; revised and expanded 2002)or the ‘alternative’ by AN Wilson (1990), as well as Lewis’ own autobiographicalwritings. Each chapter opens with a short biographical sketch of a dozen pages ormore (childhood; schooling; Oxford and WW1; Tolkien; WW2; Narnia, Cambridge,etc.), then the bulk of each chapter is arranged like a card index with strict adherenceto chronology down to the month and day. This is broken up by text sectioned-off,which fills in the ancillary detail that many contemporary readers may not know –often about the unusual terminology and anachronistic practices of Oxbridge colleges(!). Often the level of detail and research is unnerving, and it is at this point that itfinally transcends the classic biographical texts. Therefore it does have a place on theshelf next to other more substantial biographies and books on Lewis. What is missingis a comprehensive and detailed index at the back of the book. The only way to findout about a particular period or aspect of Lewis’ life and work is to knowapproximately when it occurred, then go to the year and work through month, week,day; otherwise it falls down as a reference work, and is too short and thin to competewith the standard biographies. This flaw notwithstanding (which could be corrected if

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sales prove sufficient for a second edition), it is a useful work to consult in simplyfinding out about details of Lewis’ life.J. R. R. Tolkien is possibly the least explicitly evangelical writer in this group of lay

theologians. A childhood convert with his mother to Roman Catholicism, his massivemythological work The Lord of the Rings does not appear not explicitly Christian, yetreflects the cosmic reality and eschatological weight that underpin the gospel: sin andevil, truth and justice, commitment andmission, and above all love – essentially agaph(altruistic, self-sacrificing love) and filia (friendship). Indeed Frodo’s mission andability to hold on in the darkness, to believe and trust that all shall be well, are in manyways indicative of the Christian life. Middle Earth may be a fantasy world but it isshot through with a sobering realism that reflects our sublapsarian dilemma. MajorieBurns’ Perilous Dreams Celtic and Norse in Tolkien’s Middle Earth is the mostspecialist of these three books. Burns’ work does address the criticism that thenorthern aspects of Tolkien’s fiction have long deserved closer study. In terms ofreferences, bibliography and index this is a significant academic study, well orderedand organized and accessible to the inquiring mind. What does Burns examine?Initially the two norths and their English blend; skin-changing in more than one sense,the complexity of Beorn; bridges, gates, and doors; Iceland andMiddle-Earth; spidersand evil red eyes: the shadow sides of Gandalf and Galadriel; wisewomen,shieldmaidens, nymphs, and goddesses; eating, devouring, sacrifice, and ultimatejust deserts.Tolkien was acutely aware of the power of myth. Perilous Realms serves to focus on

an in-depth analysis of sources, language and character, which allows Burns to showthe fusion (to use Tolkien’s term) of Norse and Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic inThe Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, this despite the cultural, linguistic andgeographic divergence across North-Western Europe prior to the dominance of aLatin scholasticism. As a philologist and expert in literature and mythology ProfessorTolkien knew and used this complex web centring on this fusion of Celtic and Norse.His use of Beowulf is clear and evident but it takes Burns’ critical perception tountangle and map the other sources. Burns expounds on this interpretative sourceanalysis, building on the work of Douglas Parker whose initial work was publishednot long after the emergence of the third and final volume of The Lord of the Rings. Animportant critical facet of this work is the way Burns explicates how Tolkien’smythological characters are much more complicated than are often popularly takento be, characters that are a mix of light and dark, as they are in their Celtic-Norsesource characters. What is more Burns brings forward material from relativelyobscure Celtic texts.Perilous Realms also shows how the north is an important trope: like many

Romantic writers before him in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuries, Tolkienused the north as a powerful image. Burns traces this, how it is often seen as a reactionto a southern sophistication associated with progress. It is important to rememberhow both C. S. Lewis and Tolkien – as were many others associated with them – wereweaned and nurtured on Northern Romanticism: William Morris, Wagner, ArthurRackham, et al. – though as an adult Tolkien ‘bitterly deplored Hitler’s ruining,perverting, misapplying . . . that noble northern spirit’ (p. 19).The significant question for many is how you reconcile Tolkien the orthodox

creedal Christian, with this vast panoply of Celtic-Norse mythology, Pagan beliefsystem, culture and world view? Burns tackles this in her final chapter which also actsas a conclusion: is this fusion as Tolkien believed, or confusion? And, pertinently, isTolkien a Christian believer or a crier of Nordic doom? Burns presents Tolkien as acomplex person and academic, a man who finally is both a pessimist and an optimist,characteristics even contradictions that come across in his work. ‘He is a Christianbeliever whose answer lies in a ‘‘beyond’’ (a beyond that may as well be thought of as

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westward over the Sea). At the same time on this plane Tolkien is very much a Norsemanand adheres to a Norseman’s creed. His message, then, is a double one. It speaks of doomand inevitable battle and it speaks of eternal peace’ (p. 178).

Wimbledon, England Paul Brazier

The Moral Vision of Iris Murdoch. By Heather Widdows. Pp. viii, 182, Aldershot:Ashgate, 2005, $99.95.

Although Iris Murdoch is probably best known for her 26 novels, in recent years therehas been a growing interest in her philosophical work, especially since the publicationofMetaphysics as a Guide to Morals in 1992. As many have observed, however, muchof Murdoch’s philosophical writing is neither clear nor systematic. The aim ofHeather Widdows’ book is therefore ‘to present Murdoch’s philosophy in a thematicand systematic way in the hope that this type of presentation will provide the readerwith far easier access to her ideas’ (p. 13). The book includes chapters on the ‘innerlife’ of the moral subject, the relationship between fact and value, the nature of theGood, moral pilgrimage towards the Good, and the roles of art and religion in livingthe moral life. In my view, Widdows is largely successful in her attempt to give asystematic account of Murdoch’s views, set in their historical and philosophicalcontext, and this is no mean achievement. There are, perhaps, a few instances ofunnecessary repetition but, given the nature of Murdoch’s writing, this is difficult toavoid.The book is not primarily a critical analysis of Murdoch’s position, although the

critical element increases towards the end of the book and is the main feature of thefinal chapter. Widdows suggests that Murdoch has been an important influence on atleast two recent developments in moral philosophy. Firstly, her rejection of the fact-value distinction and her employment of a moral realism derived from Plato havecontributed towards the revival of moral realism in the second half of the twentiethcentury. Secondly, her analysis of the inner life of the moral subject shows that thepicture of the individual who uses a formula to calculate each moral decision withoutmaking any attempt to improve the self which makes the decision is only one of anumber of possible pictures, and this has led to the development of virtue ethics.Widdows points out that Murdoch has had a significant impact on a number ofcurrent thinkers, including Alasdair MacIntyre, Charles Taylor, John MacDowelland Stanley Hauerwas.I would, however, question some aspects of Widdows’ assessment of Murdoch’s

constructive philosophy which, she claims, many may find ‘too much to swallow’(p. 160). Widdows suggests that, for Murdoch, the Good is ‘the guiding principle ofthe moral life and the ultimate reality’ (p. 71). She claims that Murdoch offers twoarguments for the reality of the Good – the argument from perfection, and a versionof the ontological argument. According to the argument from perfection (perhapsbetter characterised as an argument to perfection), every example of goodness weencounter can be seen to be imperfect; we can therefore infer a standard of perfectionagainst which goodness is measured. Murdoch’s ontological argument suggests thatthe existence of the Good is necessary because it concerns an aspect of human lifewhich cannot be ‘thought away’, and that this is supported by our experience ofdegrees of goodness. The two arguments are, in fact, very similar, as Widdows admits(p. 80). We might therefore suggest that there are not two arguments for Murdoch’sGood but one, a version of the ontological argument which attempts to support thenecessary existence of the Good on the basis of human experience which pointstowards a standard of perfection.

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