The Man Born to be King: Wade Annotated Edition

by Dorothy L. Sayers

Publisher:

IVP Academic

, 2023

Overview

From December 1941 until October 1942, the BBC broadcast a series of radio dramas written by Dorothy L. Sayers. Against the backdrop of World War II, the plays presented twelve episodes in the life and ministry of Jesus, from the visit of the magi to his death and resurrection, collectively affirming the kingship of Christ.

Noted for their use of colloquial English as part of Sayers’s effort to bring the Gospels to life in a new way for listeners, the plays were both controversial and incredibly successful, bolstering the morale of the country during the war. They were subsequently published in 1943, and they stand among Sayers’s most beloved works to this day.

In this new critical and annotated edition, scholar Kathryn Wehr brings fresh insights to the plays, their background, Sayers’s creative process, and the ongoing significance of the life of Christ today. Listen again, or for the first time, to the story of the man who was born to be—and still is—king.

Key Features

• Features plays presented in twelve episodes on the life and ministry of Jesus
• Brings fresh insights to the plays, their background, Sayers's creative process, and the ongoing significance of the life of Christ today

Contents

• Editor’s General Introduction
• Title Page of 1943 Edition
• Dedicatory: The Makers
• Foreword by Dr. J. W. Welch
• Author’s Introduction
• Production Note by Val Gielgud
• Note on Music
• The Man Born to be King
• 1. Kings in Judaea
• 2. The King’s Herald
• 3. A Certain Nobleman
• 4. The Heirs to the Kingdom
• 5. The Bread of Heaven
• 6. The Feast of Tabernacles
• 7. The Light and the Life
• 8. Royal Progress
• 9. The King’s Supper
• 10. The Princes of this World
• 11. King of Sorrows
• 12. The King Comes to His Own

Praise for the Print Edition

C. S. Lewis admired The Man Born to be King so much that he reread it every year during Holy Week: ‘It stands up to this very particular kind of test extremely well.’ This fresh edition of Sayers’s cycle of plays will allow a new generation of readers to get into the same annual habit and thus be reminded of the dramatic verve, the intense human immediacy of the gospel story, otherwise so often dulled by the film of familiarity. Kathryn Wehr is to be congratulated on her fine scholarship and warmly thanked for performing such a welcome public service.

—Michael Ward, University of Oxford, coeditor of The Cambridge Companion to C. S. Lewis

It is great to see a new edition of The Man Born to be King with notes. Both scholars and general readers will learn a lot from the critical apparatus as well as from enjoying these remarkable plays, whose message about the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world is certainly still relevant today.

—Suzanne Bray, professor of British literature and civilization at Lille Catholic University

Product Details

• Title: The Man Born to Be King: Wade Annotated Edition
• Author: Dorothy L. Sayers
• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Print Publication Date: 2023
• Pages: 420
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Resource ID: LLS:MNBRNBWNNTTDDTN
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-07-21T15:04:56Z

About Dorothy L. Sayers

Dorothy Leigh Sayers was a renowned English crime writer, poet, playwright, essayist, translator and Christian humanist. She was also a student of classical and modern languages. She is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between World War I and World War II that feature English aristocrat and amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. However, Sayers herself considered her translation of Dante’s Divina Commedia to be her best work.