The Christian gospel compels humanity to embrace deeper ways of being human together that will overcome false divisions and exclusions in search of flourishing and graced communities. Presenting both short narratives emerging out of theological reflection on experience and analytical essays arising from engagement in scholarly conversations Theology and the Experience of Disability is a conscious attempt to develop theology by and with people with disabilities instead of theology about people with disabilities. A mixture of academic, professional, practical, and/or lived experience is brought to the topic in search of constructive multi-disciplinary proposals for church and society. The result is an interdisciplinary engagement with the constructive possibilities that emerge from a distinctly Christian understanding of disability as lived experience.
"While the struggle for disability rights has transformed secular ethics and public policy, traditional Christian teaching has been slow to account for disability in its theological imagination. Amos Yong crafts both a theology of disability and a theology informed by disability. The result is a Christian theology that not only connects with our present social, medical, and scientific understanding of disability but also one that empowers a set of best practices appropriate to our late modern context"--Publisher description.
Attention to embodiment and the religious significance of bodies is one of the most significant shifts in contemporary theology. In the midst of this, however, experiences of disability have received little attention. This book explores possibilities for theological engagement with disability, focusing on three primary alternatives: challenging existing theological models to engage with the disabled body, considering possibilities for a disability liberation theology, and exploring new theological options based on an understanding of the unsurprisingness of human limits. The overarching perspective of this book is that limits are an unavoidable aspect of being human, a fact we often seem to forget or deny. Yet not only do all humans experience limits, most of us also experience limits that take the form of disability at some point in our lives; in this way, disability is more "normal" than non-disability. If we take such experiences seriously and refuse to reduce them to mere instances of suffering, we discover insights that are lost when we take a perfect or generic body as our starting point for theological reflections. While possible applications of this insight are vast, this work focuses on two areas of particular interest: theological anthropology and metaphors for God. This project challenges theology to consider the undeniable diversity of human embodiment. It also enriches previous disability work by providing an alternative to the dominant medical and minority models, both of which fail to acknowledge the full diversity of disability experiences. Most notably, this project offers new images and possibilities for theological construction that attend appropriately and creatively to diversity in human embodiment.
Disability and spirituality have traditionally been understood as two distinct spheres: disability is physical and thus belongs to health care professionals, while spirituality is religious and belongs to the church, synagogue, or mosque and their theologians, clergy, rabbis, and imams. This division leads to stunted theoretical understanding, limited collaboration, and segregated practices, all of which contribute to a lack of capacity to see people with disabilities as whole human beings and full members of a diverse human family. Contesting the assumptions that separate disability and spirituality, William Gaventa argues for the integration of these two worlds. As Gaventa shows, the quest to understand disability inevitably leads from historical and scientific models into the world of spirituality--to the ways that values, attitudes, and beliefs shape our understanding of the meaning of disability. The reverse is also true. The path to understanding spirituality is a journey that leads to disability--to experiences of limitation and vulnerability, where the core questions of what it means to be human are often starkly and profoundly clear. In Disability and Spirituality Gaventa constructs this whole and human path before turning to examine spirituality in the lives of those individuals with disabilities, their families and those providing care, their friends and extended relationships, and finally the communities to which we all belong. At each point Gaventa shows that disability and spirituality are part of one another from the very beginning of creation. Recovering wholeness encompasses their reunion--a cohesion that changes our vision and enables us to everyone as fully human.
A re-examination of Jewish scripture and teachings about disabilities Few people are untouched by the issue of disability, whether personally or through a friend or relative. Jewish Perspectives on Theology and the Human Experience of Disability shares moving insights from around the world and across the broad spectrum of Judaism on how and why the Jewish community is incomplete without the presence and participation of the disabled. Authors representing each of the three main movements of JudaismOrthodox, Conservative, and Reformexamine theology, scripture, ethics, practical theology, religious education, and personal experience to understand and apply the lessons and wisdom of the past to issues of the present. Authors from Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia reflect on their theological understandings of specific disabilities and on disability as a whole. Jewish Perspectives on Theology and the Human Experience of Disability re-examines tradition, teachings, and beliefs to shatter stereotypes of Judaism and common interpretations of scripture. This unique book addresses several disabilities (blindness, deafness, intellectual disabilities, autism, learning disabilities), and a wide range of topics, including human rights and disabilities, Jewish laws concerning niddah, misconceptions about disabilities in the Hebrew Bible, Jewish community programs to include people with disabilities, and the need to educate American Jews about Jewish genetic diseases. Jewish Perspectives on Theology and the Human Experience of Disability examines: three methods that allow Jews who are blind to participate in the Torah service the spiritual needs of people with learning disabilities the attitude of Jewish Law toward marriage and parenthood on people with intellectual disabilities how the rabbis of the Mishnah incorporated Greco-Roman beliefs about the connections between hearing, speech, and intelligence into Jewish law a sampling of opinions issued on matters concerning disabilities by the Responsa Committee of the Central Conference of American Rabbis how the Jewish sages have made participation by people with disabilities possible and much more Jewish Perspectives on Theology and the Human Experience of Disability also includes reviews of Judaism and Disability: Portrayals in Ancient Texts from the Tanach through the Bavil and Disability in Jewish Law, as well as comprehensive resource collections. This book is an essential read for clergy and lay leaders involved in the support of people with disabilities, for the families of people with disabilities, and for anyone working with the disabled.
Disability is not a boundary to holiness, because God is with us. But it can sometimes be an obstacle to full participation in the life of the Church, simply because many do not understand what is needed to help people with disabilities overcome any physical, mental, or interpersonal challenges they may face in church and in leading an Orthodox Christian life. This book addresses the question from theological, practical, and experiential perspectives, giving individuals and families with disabilities the opportunity to voice their needs and suggest some things the rest of us can do to make them welcome in the household of God.
Responding to how little theological research has been done on intellectual (as opposed to physical) disability, this book asks, on behalf of individuals with profound intellectual disabilities, what it means to be human. That question has traditionally been answered with an emphasis on an intellectual capacity--the ability to employ concepts or to make moral choices--and has ignored the value of individuals who lack such intellectual capacities. The author suggests, rather, that human being be understood in terms of participation in relationships of mutual responsiveness, which includes but is not limited to intellectual forms of communicating. She supports her argument by developing a phenomenology of how an individual with a profound intellectual disability relates, drawn from her clinical experience as a physical therapist. She thereby demonstrates that these individuals participate in relationships of mutual responsiveness, though in nonsymbolic, bodily ways. To be human, to image God, she argues, is to respond to the world around us in any number of ways, bodily or symbolically. Such an understanding does not exclude people with intellectual disabilities but rather includes them among those who participate in the image of God.
Critical Reflections on Stanley Hauerwas' Theology of Disability: Disabling Society, Enabling Theology examines the influential writings of one of the most important contemporary theologians. Over the past thirty years, Time Magazine Theologian of the Year (2001) Dr. Stanley Hauerwas has consistently presented a theological position which values the deep theological significance of people with developmental disabilities, as well as their importance to the life and the faithfulness of the church. Ten key Hauerwas essays on disability are brought together in a single volumeessays which reflect and illustrate his thinking on the theology of disability, along with responses to each essay from multidisciplinary authoritative sources including Jean Vanier, Michael Bérubé, John O'Brien and Ray S. Anderson.
Pastor Lamar Hardwick was thirty-six years old when he found out he was on the autism spectrum. This revelation prompted him to reconsider the church's responsibilities to the disabled community. Insisting that the good news of Jesus affirms God's image in all people, Hardwick offers practical steps and strategies to build stronger, truly inclusive communities of faith.
