Download or read book Reconceptualising Disability for the Contemporary Church written by Frances Mackenney-Jeffs and published by SCM Press. This book was released on 2021-01-29 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Even today, there is still an inherent conflict between the way the Gospels speak about disability, and the attitude of the Church. This book seeks to challenge the assumptions which still exist about disability, assumptions which are reflected within the Church. Blending theory, anthropology, theology, pastoral concerns and the lived experience of people with disabilities, Reconceptualising Disability for the Contemporary Church offers an important and thoughtful challenge to the contemporary Church.
Download or read book Reconceptualising Disability for the Contemporary Church written by Frances MacKenney-Jeffs and published by SCM Press. This book was released on 2021-01-29 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Even today, there is still an inherent conflict between the way the Gospels speak about disability, and the attitude of the Church. This book seeks to challenge the assumptions which still exist about disability, assumptions which are reflected within the Church. Blending theory, anthropology, theology, pastoral concerns and the lived experience of people with disabilities, Reconceptualising Disability for the Contemporary Church offers an important and thoughtful challenge to the contemporary Church.
Download or read book Disability in the Christian Tradition written by Brian Brock and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2012-08-06 with total page 577 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For two millennia Christians have thought about what human impairment is and how faith communities and society should respond to people with perceived impairments. But never has one volume collected the most significant Christian writings on disability. This book fills that gap. Brian Brock and John Swinton's Disability in the Christian Tradition brings together for the first time key writings by thinkers from all periods of Christian history - including Augustine, Aquinas, Julian of Norwich, Luther, Calvin, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Bonhoeffer, Barth, Hauerwas, and more. Fourteen contemporary experts in theology and disability studies guide readers through each era or group of thinkers, offering clear commentary and highlighting important themes.
Download or read book Disability and Christian Theology Embodied Limits and Constructive Possibilities written by Deborah Beth Creamer and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-01-05 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The Disabled Church written by Rebecca F. Spurrier and published by Fordham University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-01 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do communities consent to difference? How do they recognize and create the space and time necessary for the differences and disabilities of those who constitute them? Christian congregations often make assumptions about the shared abilities, practices, and experiences that are necessary for communal worship. The author of this provocative new book takes a hard look at these assumptions through a detailed ethnographic study of an unusual religious community where more than half the congregants live with diagnoses of mental illness, many coming to the church from personal care homes or independent living facilities. Here, people’s participation in worship disrupts and extends the formal orders of worship. Whenever one worships God at Sacred Family Church, there is someone who is doing it differently. Here, the author argues, the central elements and the participation in the symbols of Christian worship raise questions rather than supply clear markers of unity, prompting the question, What do you need in order to have a church that assumes difference at its heart? Based on three years of ethnographic research, The Disabled Church describes how the Sacred Family community, comprising people with very different mental abilities, backgrounds, and resources, sustains and embodies a common religious identity. It explores how an ethic of difference is both helped and hindered by a church’s embodied theology. Paying careful attention to how these congregants improvise forms of access to a common liturgy, this book offers a groundbreaking theology of worship that engages both the fragility and beauty revealed by difference within the church. As liturgy requires consent to difference rather than coercion, an aesthetic approach to differences within Christian liturgy provides a frame for congregations and Christian liturgists to pay attention to the differences and disabilities of worshippers. This book creates a distinctive conversation between critical disability studies, liturgical aesthetics, and ethnographic theology, offering an original perspective on the relationship between beauty and disability within Christian communities. Here is a transformational theological aesthetics of Christian liturgy that prioritizes human difference and argues for the importance of the Disabled Church.
Download or read book Bearing Witness written by Karen O'Donnell and published by SCM Press. This book was released on 2022-08-31 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Much like theology itself, the experience of trauma has the potential to reach into almost any aspect of life, refusing to fit within the tramlines. A follow up to the 2020 volume "Feminist Trauma Theologies", "Bearing Witness" explores further into global, intersectional, and as yet relatively unexplored perspectives. With a particular focus on poverty, gender and sexualities, race and ethnicity, and health in dialogue with trauma theology the book seeks to demonstrate both the far reaching and intersectional nature of trauma, encouraging creative and ground-breaking theological reflections on trauma and constructions of theology in the light of the trauma experience. A unique set of insights into the real-life experience of trauma, the book includes chapters authored by a diverse group of academic theologians, practitioners and activists. The result is a theology which extend far into the public square
Download or read book Human Disability and the Service of God written by Nancy L. Eiesland and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the role of human disability in the service of God and examines how the participation of people with disabilities relate to the scriptures that speak of sin, disability, and healing. Challenges the current practices within the churches, encourages people with disabilities to press for full inclusion, suggests that congregations should re-envision their actual practices in communal life and worship, and presents a selection entitled "Disabling the Lie." Includes topic and name indices.
Download or read book Disability Pastoring for Life Theological Wisdom for Ministering Well written by Brian Brock and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2021-05-18 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leading ethicist and pastoral theologian Brian Brock reflects on the challenge of disability, refuting widely held misconceptions and helping readers respond well to the pastoral implications of disability. Brock, the father of a child with special needs, weaves together theological commentary with narrative reflection, offering rich theological wisdom for shepherding people with disabilities. He shows pastors and ministers-in-training that thinking more closely and theologically about disability is a doorway into a more vibrant and welcoming church life for all Christians.
Download or read book Redefining Perfect written by Amy E. Jacober and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2017-12-05 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Theology and disability have not always had an easy relationship. The interactions have ranged from downright hostile to indifferent or unintentionally excluding over the centuries. This theology book chooses instead to include those with disabilities after more than a decade of consideration and study. This results in a re-examination of major theological topics and the impact on the lives of those with disabilities, their family and friends, and the community at large. The focus of the book is to move the church beyond welcome to inclusion--where those with disabilities move from a guest of the community to equal and valued member of the community. While the book is about the theological inclusion of those with disabilities, its implications reach far beyond. It sets an approach for all people to find a place where they too may live in the fullness of Christian community. Stories of personal encounters are blended with explanations of doctrinal perspectives giving the reader a chance to connect knowledge with wisdom born from real life experience.
Download or read book Disability and the Gospel written by Michael S. Beates and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2012 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring key Bible passages on brokenness and disability to develop helpful principles for believers and churches, this book teaches us to first embrace our own brokenness and then embrace those who are more physically broken.
Download or read book Disability Faith and the Church written by Courtney Wilder Ph.D. and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2016-04-25 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Including both theoretical discussions and practical information for congregational use or pastoral use, this rich, accessible book explores biblical text, historical and theological issues of disability, and examples of successful ministry by people with disabilities. Disability, Faith, and the Church: Inclusion and Accommodation in Contemporary Congregations draws from a range of Christian theologians, denominational statements, writings of people with disabilities, and experiences of successful ministries for people with disabilities to answer the deep need of many Christian communities: to live out their calling by welcoming all people. By focusing on 20th- and 21st-century thinkers and political and religious practices, the book outlines best practices for congregations and supplies practical information that readers can apply in classroom or church settings. The author draws on thinkers from a variety of Christian traditionsincluding Roman Catholicism, Episcopalianism, Lutheranism, and the Reform traditionsto provide a theologically robust discussion that remains accessible to churchgoers without formal theological training. Emphasis is placed on connecting formal theological reflection and the experiences of ordinary people with disabilities to existing congregational practices and denominational statements, thereby enabling readers to decide on the best ways to successfully include people with disabilities into their communities within the rich and diverse Christian theological tradition.
Download or read book Disability and the Church written by Lamar Hardwick and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2021-02-09 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Disability in Medieval Christian Philosophy and Theology written by Scott M. Williams and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-02-13 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book uses the tools of analytic philosophy and close readings of medieval Christian philosophical and theological texts in order to survey what these thinkers said about what today we call ‘disability.’ The chapters also compare what these medieval authors say with modern and contemporary philosophers and theologians of disability. This dual approach enriches our understanding of the history of disability in medieval Christian philosophy and theology and opens up new avenues of research for contemporary scholars working on disability. The volume is divided into three parts. Part One addresses theoretical frameworks regarding disability, particularly on questions about the definition(s) of ‘disability’ and how disability relates to well-being. The chapters are then divided into two further parts in order to reflect ways that medieval philosophers and theologians theorized about disability. Part Two is on disability in this life, and Part Three is on disability in the afterlife. Taken as a whole, these chapters support two general observations. First, these philosophical theologians sometimes resist Greco-Roman ableist views by means of theological and philosophical anti-ableist arguments and counterexamples. Here we find some surprising disability-positive perspectives that are built into different accounts of a happy human life. We also find equal dignity of all human beings no matter ability or disability. Second, some of the seeds for modern and contemporary ableist views were developed in medieval Christian philosophy and theology, especially with regard to personhood and rationality, an intellectualist interpretation of the imago Dei, and the identification of human dignity with the use of reason. This volume surveys disability across a wide range of medieval Christian writers from the time of Augustine up to Francisco Suarez. It will be of interest to scholars and graduate students working in medieval philosophy and theology, or disability studies.
Download or read book God Beyond Words written by Jill Harshaw and published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. This book was released on 2016-07-01 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Shortlisted for the Michael Ramsay Prize 2019* In this groundbreaking book, Jill Harshaw explores the spiritual experiences of people with profound intellectual disabilities with regard to their capacity to enjoy life-giving spiritual experiences in their own right. The author expertly argues that our thinking of spiritual life needs to start not with our assumptions about people who are unable to speak for themselves, but with what we can know about God. Stimulating a much-needed discussion, this book explains why we need to respect individuals with profound intellectual disabilities as spiritual persons, and stop seeing them simply as care-receivers or uncomfortable reminders of human vulnerability. Calling for a more critical approach in practical theology, this book invites a deeper, genuinely inter-disciplinary dialogue between new and traditional theological fields, and asks why, after more than 30 years of intellectual disability theology, the impact on church life remains minimal so that debates around the right to basic inclusion continue to dominate. The questions raised in this book not only move the discussion forward, but will spark a change on how the Church approaches inclusiveness.
Download or read book The Social Contexts of Disability Ministry written by Albert A. Herzog and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2017-09-29 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides pastors, seminarians, and interested laity with the background necessary to understand the need for disability ministry and the contexts out of which the church’s ministry among people with disabilities must emerge. This is true not only for descriptions of ministries over the past sixty years, but also the challenges disability poses for biblical studies, church history, Christian theology, and ethics. Insights are gained not only from mainstream secular and religious sources but from evangelical and other conservative materials. The blending of items from different religious resources reveals just how ubiquitous disability is and the need for disability ministry—now and for many years into the future. The book’s format is such that either it can serve as a text for courses on disability ministry, or individual chapters can be employed in various courses on selected topics in biblical studies, history, theology, and ethics. Pastors and lay leaders will enjoy the depth of coverage for each topic. This is a book about a serious subject, for serious readers. Its materials are designed to inform, stimulate, and promote disability ministry as a topic worthy of serious study.
Download or read book Reaching out and Bringing In written by David W Anderson and published by WestBowPress. This book was released on 2013-04-17 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reaching Out and Bringing In is designed to help pastors and church leaders develop a biblical perspective on disability and the churchs role in ministering to individuals and families affected by disability a must-read for those who minister to and with persons with disabilities, and even as a Bible study for all Christians. Dana Croxton, founder of Enable Ministries Dr. Andersons book challenges the church community to reach out to people and families affected by disability, and to consider ways the church can minister to and with people with disabilities. The book includes insightful and relevant questions at the end of each chapter, making it perfect for reading and discussion by church staff, church boards, and in small group or Sunday school settings. Brian Funk, area director, Joni and Friends Eastern Pennsylvania, Lancaster Dr. Anderson sounds a wakeup call to the church. The books call for personal heart change is coupled with a challenge to the church to greater action and intentional outreach. Vonn Dornbush, DMin, pastor of missions and outreach, Calvary Church, Roseville, Minnesota
Download or read book Church and Disability written by Samuel George and published by . This book was released on 2021-01-02 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book invites us to approach disability as a window for the church to revision its mission and ministry differently. In this process, the were not only see the face of the other differently but also experiences its being alternatively, welcoming the disabled without prejudice with an alternative vision. In this rudical vision, we affirm Gods preferential option for the disabled. The power of God is manifested in the impaired giants of the vulnerable through the abundant grace of God where the vulnerability of the disabled can function as a catalyst for the transformation and liberation of Gods Creation in its totality.
