{"title":"A Holy Mess of a Story: Maternal Reflections on Caregiving, Chaos, and Intellectual Disability","authors":"L. Macgregor","doi":"10.1080/23312521.2021.1932688","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23312521.2021.1932688","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Drawing on Frank’s illness narratives, the mother of a profoundly disabled son argues that Vanier and Nouwen’s descriptions of caregiving conform to the socially mandated quest narrative requiring stories of triumph. Their stories of spiritual growth have become a master text colonizing the experiences of mothers caring for children with intellectual disabilities, particularly among faith communities. Rather than a journey of spiritual growth, research indicates that the lives of mothers often resemble a chaos narrative of spiritual confusion, paradoxically fused with joy. Providing effective spiritual care requires that faith communities honor anti-narratives of caregiving chaos.","PeriodicalId":38120,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Disability and Religion","volume":"25 1","pages":"124 - 137"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82241650","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Minority Body: A Theory of Disability. Elizabeth Barnes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016) xii + 200pp. Hardback, £25 ISBN, 978-0-1987-3258-7","authors":"B. Brock","doi":"10.1080/23312521.2021.1930625","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23312521.2021.1930625","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":38120,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Disability and Religion","volume":"17 1","pages":"315 - 316"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90410895","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Persistent Pain and Promised Perfection:The Significance of an Embodied Eschatologyof Disability","authors":"M. A. Walker","doi":"10.1080/23312521.2021.1925199","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23312521.2021.1925199","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract People with disabilities experience different kinds of pain. That said, they are told in the Jewish and Christian scriptures that, in Heaven, their experiences of suffering will be relieved, and their disabilities normalized. Is that true, or will suffering (as distinct from pain) be allowed to persist in the afterlife? In order to explore this question, this paper will perform three tasks using biblical reflection, scholarly discourse, and autoethnographic narrative. First, it will define disability both as a physiological phenomenon and as a social construct, and similarly identify ableism, pain, and perfection; its definitions of pain will depend on Sarah Coakley’s polyvalent 2007 description. Second, having affirmed Jesus’ definition of perfection from Matthew 5:43–48, the essay will use scholarly reflections on pain and disability, Kathy Black’s explorations of a Gospel healing-narrative, and some of the author’s life-experiences, to demonstrate that kind of perfection. Third and finally, it will expand on that definition of perfection by drawing on both Amos Yong’s Christian meditations on resurrection, and Sharon Betcher’s postcolonial paradigm of illness as a creative matrix that promotes wholeness.","PeriodicalId":38120,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Disability and Religion","volume":"20 1","pages":"108 - 123"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77738067","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Anne Katherine Shurley, Pastoral Care and Intellectual Disability: A Person-Centred Approach","authors":"Wen-Pin Leow","doi":"10.1080/23312521.2021.1925201","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23312521.2021.1925201","url":null,"abstract":"This book is written to address the issue of how pastoral care can be undertaken for and together with people with intellectual disabilities. Shurley’s approach to pastoral care is grounded in Bart...","PeriodicalId":38120,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Disability and Religion","volume":"88 1","pages":"355 - 356"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75416522","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Christian Laes, Disabilities and the Disabled in the Roman World","authors":"Wen-Pin Leow","doi":"10.1080/23312521.2021.1925202","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23312521.2021.1925202","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":38120,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Disability and Religion","volume":"14 1","pages":"455 - 456"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76472642","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Disability in the Hebrew Bible: A Literature Review","authors":"K. Jones","doi":"10.1080/23312521.2021.1911739","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23312521.2021.1911739","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article charts the emergent engagement of scholars with disability in the Hebrew Bible, highlighting key aspects of the major edited works and monographs in the field. The HB contains numerous texts which focus on disability, sometimes in reference to particular characters, but also in wider tropes without being located in an individual’s body. Scholarship in disability in the HB is a complex and dynamic endeavor, but has value within critical studies of the HB. To close, I offer some suggestions on further growth areas in the discipline.","PeriodicalId":38120,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Disability and Religion","volume":"52 1","pages":"363 - 373"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88676172","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Disability and New Testament Studies: Reflections, Trajectories, and Possibilities","authors":"Isaac T. Soon","doi":"10.1080/23312521.2021.1911737","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23312521.2021.1911737","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article offers a survey and assessment of the state of New Testament scholarship and disability studies. It provides some critical reflections on the current trends and trajectories of the field and potential futures for it to progress further. While some work has been done on the Catholic Epistles, Revelation, and Paul, the majority of focus has been on the canonical Gospels. Studies often encompass meta-critical, historical, literary, or theological focuses. A number of problems have been raised, such as the question of lived disabled experience in antiquity, anachronism, and ableism within the field itself. Still, there are a number of potential futures for the field, especially in dialogue with adjacent fields to biblical studies like second temple Jewish studies and classics.","PeriodicalId":38120,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Disability and Religion","volume":"78 1","pages":"374 - 387"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86663483","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Faith and Disability: Engaging Theologically","authors":"Thomas L. Boehm","doi":"10.1080/23312521.2021.1901638","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23312521.2021.1901638","url":null,"abstract":"One feature that often marks conversations about faith and disability is the wide variety of stakeholders involved. It is not uncommon for theologians and academics, pastors and clergy, special educators and researchers, medical professionals and social service providers, families and individuals with disabilities to interact and converse about disability and specifically how disability relates to flourishing. Each of the various stakeholders, especially the individual with disability, brings something unique and important to the conversation. While this diversity and variety of perspectives can enrich the conversation, it can also complexify it. As conversations at the intersection of faith and disability have increased, so have the variety of faith perspectives brought to bear on thinking critically about disability. Different religions have their own sacred texts and traditions that offer different ideas about the origin and meaning of disability that can uniquely shape and suggest different responses to people with disability and their role in society. I have devoted my professional life to challenging what I call the “disability as tragedy narrative.” This narrative assumes that the experience of having a disability is best described in terms of a tragedy. Thus, when a child is born with a congenital disability, like Down syndrome or cerebral palsy, the assumption that a tragedy has occurred typically overshadows the inclination to rejoice at the miracle of a new life. Similarly, viewing an acquired disability through the lens of tragedy, such as an amputated limb or brain injury, can narrowly frame that experience in ways that can interfere with adaptive coping and healing. On all these fronts, it is clear that faith reshapes how one understands and responds to disability in important ways. This special issue explores disability through a lens of faith, and specifically, faith in the God of the bible. The articles in this issue, therefore, address disability through a biblical lens by engaging this topic theologically. A companion special issue will extend these scripturally oriented reflections by engaging faith and disability empirically and practically. While different faiths may look at disability differently depending on their sacred texts and traditions, the articles in this issue explore the following four core questions with an eye toward biblical and theological reflection about disability from a broad Christian perspective.","PeriodicalId":38120,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Disability and Religion","volume":"121 1","pages":"360 - 362"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77738775","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cognitive Disability and the Hebrew Bible","authors":"A. Sloane","doi":"10.1080/23312521.2021.1911736","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23312521.2021.1911736","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Knowledge is a major theme in the Hebrew Bible, and raises both challenges and possibilities for theology and cognitive disability. This paper will focus on these issues with particular reference to disability theology, and the Psalter. Pervasive negative portrayals of ignorance and folly, of dullness of mind or heart, become problematic in light of cognitive disability. I will suggest that these negative construals pertain to willed ignorance, rather than those who live with cognitive disabilities. On the other hand, cognitive disability encourages broader reflections on YHWH’s care for those who are vulnerable and marginalized, whatever form that might take. In social conditions such as ours, where cognitive agency is so prized, those with cognitive disabilities are weak and vulnerable—orphaned, so to speak, by our institutions and practices. The Psalms, in particular, remind us that God cares for them—and so should we. Cognitive disability may also help us rethink our assumptions, and so gain fresh insight from biblical texts in relation to identity, vulnerability and agency (and its absence), and the need to name human brokenness and avail ourselves of the resources Scripture gives us to address it. Finally, dealing with people with cognitive disabilities requires that we reconsider our epistemology and the values inherent in it. If the knowledge of God is (fundamentally) relationship with God and not mere cognition, then we must consider both how people with cognitive disabilities might exemplify that knowledge, and how their patterns of knowing might contribute to the fullness of human knowing.","PeriodicalId":38120,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Disability and Religion","volume":"25 1","pages":"412 - 426"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75933348","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Communication, Agency, and the Relational Self in ASD and the Letters of Paul","authors":"Susan Eastman","doi":"10.1080/23312521.2021.1911743","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/23312521.2021.1911743","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The experience and reflections of people on the autism spectrum act as a “context of discovery” about human communication and agency, in conversation with a robust theological account drawn from Paul’s depiction of personhood in relationship to sin and salvation. I claim that autism is not an exception to understanding the self as a self-in-relation; it is a unique and therefore illuminating instantiation of self-in-relation. The testimonies of autistic people render visible two key aspects of human personhood that are shared by both so-called “neurotypical” and “non-neurotypical” people: the priority of embodied interpersonal connection for the development of human communication and agency, and the risk and vulnerability of such connection.","PeriodicalId":38120,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Disability and Religion","volume":"6 1","pages":"427 - 450"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85108729","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}