Stereotypes and lost confidence

ARCHBISHOP
A novel
By Michele Guinness
Hodder & Stoughton, 543 pages. £16.99
ISBN 978 1 444 753 363

Michele Guinness has ventured into the territory of fiction writing with her latest book, Archbishop.

The writing may not suit those with a literary bent, but it does immerse the reader into the world of the non-conservative Anglican ‘evangelical’ and for this reason may be worth reading. It is written by an insider who knows about the machinations of the Church of England and examines them from parish to synod. A realist fantasy, it charts the rise of Vicky Burnham-Woods from theology student to Archbishop of Canterbury in 2020. Her story is played out through a series of flashbacks that, as a literary device, has mixed success.

Female in Canterbury

Despite the premise that this is about the first female Archbishop of Canterbury, women’s ministry is not the dominant issue. The gender debate is presented in rather clichéd terms, with conservative evangelicals being stereotyped as misogynists who build a whole doctrine on just one text (1 Tim 2:12). There is even a group called ‘React’, which must surely be based on ‘Reform’ and is presented as being very ungracious and somewhat bullying (to see ourselves as others see us!). Vicky is a feminist who wants no limits on her career, but does not want to compromise her femininity and as a result is often conflicted in her family relationships, particularly in her marriage. This portrait will not please ardent feminists, who have already complained on Twitter about the novel’s conservative portrayal of women, despite its central premise.

Too ambitious?

Guinness is conservative regarding homosexuality. In places she shows a lot of sympathy towards gay characters, although the storyline concerning her lesbian friend does fall into a negative stereotype despite the eventual reconciliation. A lot of her characters are rather flat and hard to distinguish, probably because she was too ambitious in her scope. The issues range from persecution of Christians, gay marriage and the refusal of the C of E to conduct same-sex weddings, the proposed disestablishment of the C of E, lay leaders officiating at communion, and the African Anglican churches response to a female archbishop. Added to this was alcoholism, adultery, medical negligence, cancer, financial and political corruption and media slurs. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that this novel is not about women’s ministry but what some consider ministry should be: in Vicky’s words ‘the Bible speaks not so much of our going up to heaven, but of our task in bringing heaven down to earth’. Vicky’s ministry proves its relevance through setting up social housing, credit unions, family support clubs, food and furniture banks, advice and job centres, and childcare support through Christian entrepreneurialism. Her ultimate achievement as archbishop is to provide an alternative welfare system through the church – The Well. At one point the fact that this might be at the expense of the spiritual is raised, but not dealt with.

In the novel, Vicky’s relationship with God was lost at times; instead, pragmatism and religion took over. I found myself shouting at the book saying – pray about it! It was particularly sad that prayer and scripture were not at the heart of her marriage. Her main influence was her mentor, who directed her to the theologian Jürgen Moltmann; it is the theology of Moltmann, with frequent references to the mystic Evelyn Underhill, that underpins the whole narrative.

Not a great advert

This novel is not a great advert for the life of faith or the gospel. It presents Christians with their flaws and the church as corrupt, but is not good at showing the transformation that the gospel brings. The church’s mission is predominately portrayed as the need to bring social justice to our world. Michele Guinness has said she hopes her book will give readers ‘a new confidence in our ability to contribute to the breakthrough of the kingdom of God into a world that so badly needs that kind of hope and light’ and it may spur some on to social action. But for me this book exposes a church that has lost confidence in proclaiming the message of first importance, that Christ died for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.