Going Even Further with Autism: The Kenotic Foundations of Communication

Abstract

I am in Joanna Leidenhag’s debt for so clearly describing how my account of doxology asks a new question in order to advance current scholarly discussions about the contribution of people with disabilities to the life of the church: “How do we receive those who bear the label ‘disabled’ or ‘autistic,’ as a word of judgment from the Spirit calling the church into the likeness of Christ, whilst simultaneously empowering those same people to be fully enveloped in the loving arms of mother church? Brock has offered us a ‘doxological approach’ in order to combine the best of both inclusivity and prophecy and to avoid the twin pitfalls of marginalization and romanticization.” A strikingly precise encapsulation of a theological proposal in which I am deeply invested.