C.S. Lewis on a Female Archbishop of Canterbury
Door Jam: October 6, 2025
The Door Jam is a place to squeeze in articles about C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, their work, adaptations of their fantasy worlds, news from other franchises, and interesting articles. Unless otherwise stated, I’m not endorsing (or criticizing) any of these but merely sharing them with you.
There hasn’t been much Narnia movie news, but Lewis’ non-fiction writing remains relevant for our modern issues.
Last week, the Church of England announced that Sarah Mullally would be the new Archbishop of Canterbury. Mullally will be the first woman to serve as the most senior bishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion. Her appointment sparked controversy, especially among more conservative global Anglicans.
According to the BBC, women have only been serving as priests for 30 years. “Women were first ordained priests in the Church in 1994, while the first female bishop appointments followed 20 years later in 2014.”
However, this was already a live issue in Lewis’ day. So much so, he wrote an essay responding to the call to allow women to serve as priests. “Priestesses in the Church,” republished in God in the Dock, shows us how he would approach the issue.
Lewis wrote that this was not about men and women being “equal.” He accepted that as a truth, but that “unless ‘equal’ means ‘interchangeable,’ equality makes nothing for the priesthood of women. And the kind of equality which implies that the equals are interchangeable (like counters or identical machines) is, among humans, a legal fiction.”
He argued that God intentionally chose male language to describe Himself and chose male figures to serve as representatives on earth. “We have no authority to take the living and semitive figures which God has painted on the canvas of nature and shift them about as if they were mere geometrical figures.”
Lewis is very particular that this calling and choosing does not mean superiority or stand as a reason for boasting among men. “I am crushingly aware how inadequate most of us are, in our actual and historical individualities, to fill the place prepared for us.”
But that doesn’t change what God has done. “We men may often make very bad priests. That is because we are insufficiently masculine. It is no cure to call in those who are not masculine at all. A given man may make a very bad husband; you cannot mend matters by trying to reverse the roles.”
Someone may or may not agree with Lewis’ reasoning, but his writing makes it very clear that one of the most famous Anglican lay theologians would be opposed to Mullally’s appointment.
Sources:
“Priestesses in the Church,” God in the Dock
Not Safe But Good
C.S. Lewis quote of the week
Humanity does not pass through phases as a train passes through stations: being alive, it has the privilege of always moving yet never leaving anything behind. Whatever we have been, in some sort we are still.
Tumnus’ bookshelf
Books by or about Lewis or Tolkien
These collections as ebooks have been invaluable to me. I have and will always prefer to own and read physical books. But having digital copies allows me to search for quotes much more easily.
This collection is one of the best because it contains all three volumes of Lewis’ letters, in addition to Surprised by Joy, A Grief Observed, and other works.
If you have these physical books already, this is a great help in finding quotes or information. If you don’t have these books, this is the perfect opportunity to explore even more of Lewis.
The C. S. Lewis Collection: Biographical Works (ebook) — $1.99 (98% off, normally $89.99)
Other books on sale:
A Preface to Paradise Lost (ebook) by C.S. Lewis — $2.99 (83% off, normally $17.99)
Studies in Words (ebook) by C.S. Lewis — $1.99 (72% off, normally $6.99)
The Children Of Húrin (ebook) by J.R.R. Tolkien — $1.99 (83% off, normally $11.99)
Behind the Wardrobe
Sneak peek at the bonus articles
Paid subscribers will see stories on Narnia’s composer meeting with one of the great movie score composers of all time, a place that did not inspire Narnia or Middle-earth (no matter what they claim), a Narnia-inspired Irish Christmas concert from the Gettys, a long-simmering feud between Lewis and a former student, God in The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien feud with cars, lots of news on The Rings of Power, including how much it will cost Amazon if they decide to end the series before completing five seasons, and more.
