This is a longer passage from near the end of The Mind of the Maker. A lot of the real substance of her conclusions and application is wrapped up in here through:
The artist’s knowledge of his own creative nature is often unconscious; he pursues his mysterious way of life in a strange innocence. If he were consciously to pluck out the heart of his mystery, he might say something like this:
I find in myself a certain pattern which I acknowledge as the law of my true nature, and which corresponds to experience in such a manner that, while my behaviour conforms to the pattern, I can interpret experience in power. I find, further, that the same pattern inheres in my work as in myself; and I also find that theologians attribute to God Himself precisely that pattern of being which I find in my work and in me.
I am inclined to believe, therefore, that this pattern directly corresponds to the actual structure of the living universe, and that it exists in other men as well as in myself; and I conclude that, if other men feel themselves to be powerless in the universe and at odds with it, it is because the pattern of their lives and works has become distorted and no longer corresponds to the universal pattern-because they are, in short, running counter to the law of their nature.
I am confirmed in this belief by the fact that, so far as I conform to the pattern of human society, I feel myself also to be powerless and at odds with the universe; while so far as I conform to the pattern of my true nature, I am at odds with human society, and it with me. If I am right in thinking that human society is out of harmony with the law of its proper nature [Sin!], then my experience again corroborates that of the theologians, who have also perceived this fundamental dislocation in man.
If you ask me what is this pattern which I recognise as the true law of my nature, I can only suggest that it is the pattern of the creative mind-an eternal Idea, manifested in material form by an unresting Energy, with an outpouring of Power that at once inspires, judges, and communicates the work; all these three being one and the same in the mind and one and the same in the work. And this, I observe, is the pattern laid down by the theologians as the pattern of the being of God.
If all this is true, then the mind of the maker and the Mind of the Maker are formed on the same pattern, and all their works are made in their own image.
-Dorothy Sayers, The Mind of the Maker, Ch.11
My comments on this are still being formed, but I have the feeling these conclusions are really important.
Wars, hate, people oppressed, waste, envy. They are all around us. And we often feel powerless to do anything about them. Here, we are the most at odds for what we were created for.
The image of the creator in us is no more pushed down in the dark. Just like (sinful) human society is at odds with the nature of the universe, so are we when when try with all our might to “fix it”. Instead, when we turn in the face of this and continue to create, to make beautiful things with our craft, we are again found in the likeness of the image of God and in line with his will and nature – not just in general, but likely his specific will too.