Articles
- "Beyond Ramps and Special Seating: Practicing a Black Liberation Theology of Disability" by Kendrick Kemp "The biggest blow to my progress has not been the two strokes or the limitations I now live with; what is most debilitating is the cultural reception that limits my identity. In response to having my identity shift from the plural to the singular, I have adopted a framework that fuses Black Liberation Theology and a Theology of Disability. A Black Liberation Theology of Disability acknowledges that we all navigate limitations and live with disabilities. Our challenge is to find a way to succeed in spite of them."
- "Disabled Motherhood in an African Community': Towards an African Women Theology of Disability" by Sinenhlanhla S. Chisale "The politics of culture, motherhood and mothering in some African communities highlight the tensions that exist in the broader feminist theology agenda. There are emerging politics between the able and disabled feminist theologians where the binary of ability or disability is ambiguously theologised. Written from a feminist theology of disability, this qualitative study sought to understand and describe the struggles women with visual impairment face to be accepted as being fit for motherhood. Emerging qualitative themes are used to develop towards an African women theology of disability that responds to the plight of women with disabilities. The findings indicate that women with disabilities are constantly challenging and protesting ableism perceptions of motherhood by falling pregnant, giving birth and nurturing their children. They argue that the binary perceptions of ability and disability are informed by patriarchal ideologies and able-bodied women’s fears of being associated with the vulnerability of disability."
- "Theological Accessibility: The Contribution of Disability" by Deborah Creamer Religious institutions and communities that have embraced the cause of disability have invested a great deal of energy in struggles against architectural barriers, including the elevated pulpit. Valuing this engagement but also recognizing that access to physical space is only a first step in a project of accessibility, this paper claims that it is time to open the entire breadth of religious traditions to an "accessibility audit." Not only does such an examination highlight potential barriers — challenges of scripture and metaphor, for example — but it also suggests new theological possibilities in which disability is not simply a consumer or an evaluator of tradition but rather a constructive element that offers new options for theological reflection. This paper briefly reviews the disability theology models that have been offered to date (the Accessible God by Jennie Weiss Block, the Inclusive God by Kathy Black, and the Disabled God by Nancy Eiesland), highlighting ways in which these proposals make significant contributions to the breadth and depth of Christian theological reflection. This analysis shows that the value of disability theology is confined neither to people with disabilities nor to the arena of religion, but rather, as has been the case with other liberation theologies, has the potential to affect wider worlds and fields of study as well.
Finding More Articles
To find more, simply search for "theology" and "disability" through the ATLA Religion Database and use the limiters on the left to select articles, full-text online, and peer-reviewed journals.
