by archenland_knight » April 6th, 2009, 8:58 pm
I tend to agree with Bluegoat. Whatever you think about women priests or women in authority in general, this issue is one in which Lewis was rather uncharacteristically irrational. He just seemed to think it inherently bad, and never really offered much in the way of argument for it. Even what he offered in Mere Christianity was rather thin.
His characterization of the female head of "Experiment House" in "The Silver Chair" seems to imply that the mere fact that she was a woman should have made it clear she would be a lousy leader.
However, queens seem to be excepted from his distaste for female authority. (I can't prove it, but I get the distinct impression from his work that Lewis was a Monarchist. I could be wrong about that.) To queens he gives reverence due their royal authority, though he makes it quite clear that kings should have even more authority. In CoN, King Edmund seems to outrank the older Queen Susan, though this is never explicitly stated.
However, I would not call this "Anti-Female" bias. Only in the modern, western world does the statement, "This group of people should not be alowed to rise to positions of authority" equate to "This group of people is inferior." In the modern, western world, authority is taken as a sign of superiority. This is an error of our culture, and one so ingrained into us that I despair of ever seeing it corrected.
To be clear, I do not share Lewis' views, or what I perceive to be his views, in general on women in authority. But it should be clear that he does not equate a position of authority with superiority.
Romans 5:8 "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."