Chapter Five - C. S. Lewis (1898–1963): On Gender

Summary

For the purposes of what is necessarily merely an introductory essay in reading Lewis on ‘gender’, the term is to be taken to refer to the relationship of the ‘feminine’ to the ‘masculine’ and vice versa. We assume that one cannot be understood without the other. Lewis himself lived through a period of immense change in what we would now call ‘gender relationships’, and we can draw attention to but a few examples of his views. We need to note also that, given his resistance to the merits and growth of some of the ‘social sciences’, one cannot imagine that he personally would have been sympathetic to the development of ‘gender studies’ which took place after his death. In such studies, attention to ‘masculinity’ is as yet still coming into focus, not least in the study of the Christian tradition in all its complexities.

We can recall, for example, that it was axiomatic in the church of Lewis's baptism, the Church of Ireland, part of the Anglican Communion, that very few were able to take seriously those women who believed themselves to have a vocation to ordination. So whilst women could be baptised, confirmed, forgiven, exchange vows with a male in marriage, receive communion, chrism or a blessing, and like any other baptised person, could baptise someone in extreme circumstances, they would never be able to confirm anyone, pronounce divine forgiveness, celebrate communion, chrismate or bless someone. Whether they could read scripture in public, let alone give an address or preach to a ‘mixed’ audience, was contentious across different churches, as indeed remains the case in our own time. Only in 1944 was Florence Li Tim-Oi ordained by the Anglican bishop of Hong Kong to serve Christians in China, otherwise bereft of priestly ministry. She ceased to act as a priest in 1948 when her bishop's actions were condemned by his fellow-bishops at the Lambeth Conference, though her ordination was eventually recognised within the Hong Kong diocese in 1970. In due course some provinces of the Anglican Communion accepted the ordination of women to the priesthood, including the Church of England itself in 1992.

The vigour of the debate about the ordination of women in the twentieth century was virtually inevitable given the changes of attitude to gender in other areas of life, such as access to university education.