The disabled God : toward a liberatory theology of disability

Integrating Intellectual With Personal, Political And Spiritual, The Author Defines A Liberatory Theology For The Disabled. Coming To Terms -- Accessible Theological Method -- The Social Construction Of Disability -- Coming To Terms -- Bodies Of Knowledge -- Diane Devries -- Nancy Mairs -- Toward A Liberatory Theology : Themes From Our Lives -- The Body Politics. New Bodies : Veterans And Children With Disabilities -- Managed Bodies : Vocational And Medical Rehabilitation -- Political Bodies : The Growth Of A Civil Rights Movement -- Bodies In Society : Sociological Paradigms Of Disability -- Toward A Liberatory Theology : Empowering Frameworks -- Carnal Sins. -- Disabling Theology -- An American Tragedy -- Liberating Commitment And Consistency -- The Disabled God. -- On Incarnating Liberation -- Acting Out And Holding Our Bodies Together -- The Disabled God -- Theological Implications Of The Disabled God -- Bearing Our Bodies -- Sacramental Bodies. -- The Church As Communion Of Struggle -- Eucharist As Body Practice -- Laying On Of Hands -- A Eucharistic Practice. Nancy L. Eiesland. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 129-136) And Index. Draws on themes of the disability-rights movement to identify people with disabilities as members of a socially disadvantaged minority group rather than as individuals who need to adjust. Highlights the hidden history of people with disabilities in church and society. Proclaiming the emancipatory presence of the disabled God, the author maintains the vital importance of the relationship between Christology and social change. Eiesland contends that in the Eucharist, Christians encounter the disabled God and may participate in new imaginations of wholeness and new embodiments of justice. The author, who is disabled, argues that the "hidden history" of nonconventional bodies living ordinary lives with grace and dignity, disgust and disillusion, can make both a theological and pastoral contribution. She affirms that bodies in trouble, that lumber and plod their way through life, are in full continuity with humans' ordinary lives, filled with blessings and curses.