Rev Tim Goode - Disability Advisor for the Southwark Diocese
Hermeneutics in a Disabled World
1. Introduction
This is a personal reflection focusing on some of the issues that the Bible has thrown up
since I have engaged with it through the lens of disability. I of course will hardly scratch
the surface in this paper regarding all that can and should be said concerning the Bible’s
relationship with disabled people. I am aware that I am not an academic theologian, so I
apologise in advance for any failings that I may have in putting across my opinions
clearly on the written page. I am also mindful of my own profound inability to do justice
for those with differing impairments and experiences to my own.
My use of the term ‘disabled’ in this paper will refer to those who live with impairment
and who have been disempowered by society and have been held back from fully
flourishing through the actions of others. Given that I wish to stress that disability is
much more about social attitudes and prejudices than it is about physical or mental
impairment, I will also use the term ‘enabled’ to highlight the fact that just as some
people are ‘disabled’ by society, some are also ‘enabled’ by society.
My primary hope is that this paper may encourage us individually and as a church to be
alongside disabled people and they alongside us as we listen and learn from each other
for the benefit of Christ’s church. Historically the church has had a mainly one-way
relationship with disabled people, happy to welcome them in but not to fully participate.
That this legacy has been maintained is primarily down to how scripture has traditionally
been understood. The Theology of Disability alongside the other liberation theologies of
the 20th century challenge many of these traditional understandings as a means
of
liberating those who have been oppressed for far too long and truly look forward to
drawing all into the coming of God’s Kingdom. As a result my hope is that through a
positive engagement with the Theology of Disability the church may celebrate and
nurture the giftedness of all, disabled and enabled.
My own life experience that I bring to bear on this subject is significant in how I have
come to engage with scripture. When I was six I was diagnosed with a bone condition
called Hereditary Multiple Exostoses (HME) which is a rare medical condition in which
multiple bony spurs or lumps (also known as exostoses, or osteochondromas) develop
on the bones of a child. This meant that I spent much of my childhood in and out of
hospital having the bony lumps removed. Thus I had various periods of time physically
well and fully mobile; other times on crutches or in a wheel chair. I experienced at
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Rev Tim Goode - Disability Advisor for the Southwark Diocese
firsthand how differently people projected themselves on to me when I was well and
mobile compared to when I was ill and immobile, and how differently I projected myself
onto others as to what physical state I was in.
Once I arrived at adulthood and had stopped physically growing I had a long period of
good health until I was twenty six. After very frightening symptoms of gradual paralysis I
was diagnosed with a spinal tumor that had grown from one of these bony lumps from
my top rib. The cartilage had grown cancerous and a dumbbell tumor had formed
growing one way through my neck and into my spine and the other way down into my
lungs. Post operatively I was left paralyzed from my chest downwards. After a
considerable spell in hospital and rehabilitation I recovered both sensation and mobility
in my legs, but I have never recovered mobility in my hips, which is why I permanently
rely on crutches today. I also live with scaring in my lungs caused through the excising
of the tumor back in 1996. I have thus spent the last twenty years living with these
impairments and the challenges and opportunities afforded to me as a disabled person.
2. Why a Theology of Disability?
My journey back to faith post tumor has also been a journey into exploring disability
through a theological context. Many passages within scripture have disturbed and
unsettled my own sense of self and questions, such as my own sense of worth in the
eyes of God, have surfaced whilst exploring scripture. During this process I became
aware of my real unease and discomfort at the manner in which disabled people are
engaged with, in the scriptures. The process has informed me not just of biblical
passages which confront understandings of my own physical impairment including, for
example, the many references to the lame and the paralysed, but also to the texts that
challenge those with other impairments unlike my own, including blind people, people
with hearing impairment and hidden impairments such as autism, epilepsy and those
with learning difficulties of varying natures. I began to wonder where the disabled person
finds solace in religious texts that question their very sense of self and align them with
sin, unbelief and lack of faith.
The language of metaphor became a particular focus for me, especially the use of
impairments, such as blindness, as a metaphor of sin, unbelief and lack of faith. For
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example we read that the inhabitants of Sodom were struck down with blindness and in
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Genesis 19:11
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Rev Tim Goode - Disability Advisor for the Southwark Diocese
Zephaniah we read that the people of Israel were warned that because of their sins they
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would “walk like the blind” . In Isaiah we discover that “We grope like blind men along a
wall, feeling our way like those whose sight has gone3.”
Neither does it improve when we approach the New Testament. In the Acts of the
Apostles, we find Elymas, who opposed the gospel, is punished with blindness4 and the
question and answer, “How can the blind lead the blind? They would both fall into a
ditch!” that we find quoted in St Matthew’s Gospel5. Particularly distressing though is
Matthew 23 where Jesus is reported to have used expressions such as blind guides,
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blind Pharisees and blind fools . The final example is particularly pertinent. It leads me to
wonder if we should not translate the text as ‘stupid fools’ or ‘ridiculous fools’ or ‘silly
fools’ rather than to have Jesus use the term ‘blind fools’ which turns a particular
impairment into a term of abuse.
The Theology of Disability came into being as a response against the alignment of
disability with sin, unbelief and lack of faith. It is a liberation theology to be placed
alongside the feminist and black liberation theologies of the second half of the 20th
century and truly found its voice in response to the demand by many in society that
those who returned home mentally and physically shattered by the ravages of two world
wars were not hidden from view in institutions, but fully integrated and welcomed back
totally into society.
Thus over the intervening seventy years or so the hermeneutical approaches of Western
theologians, rooted in an economically and socially dominant culture, have come to be
challenged by feminist theologians, black theologians and disability theologians
regarding the West’s engagement with scripture from a primarily Western patriarchal
affluent viewpoint. The concern being that through this dominant viewpoint disabled
people have come to be viewed as less valued, less important and less worthy in the
eyes of the church than those who are viewed as able; something we also see
emphasised in the poorly thought through theologies of healing that result, where
churches and evangelists desire to cure disabled people in the often misguided
understanding that disabled people are less than perfect in God’s eyes. This particular
2
Zephaniah 1:17
Isaiah 59:10
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Acts 13:6-11
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Matthew 15:14
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Matthew 23: 16, 17, 24 and 26
3
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Rev Tim Goode - Disability Advisor for the Southwark Diocese
theology of healing articulates a distorted image of God as tyrant, picking and choosing
who is cursed and who is cured based either on the power of prayer, the sin, the lack of
faith or unbelief of the particular individual, or the overriding will of God.
I believe that the challenges facing disabled people are on a par with the challenges that
people faced and still face regarding economic oppression, racism, sexism and
homophobia. As a result disability becomes a valid and vital perspective from which to
interpret scripture for the benefit of all. After all is said and done, the experience of
disability is a profoundly human experience that can affect any one at any time,
transcending as it does categories of gender, race, sexuality, economic class or cultural
background. Anyone who is intending to work within the pastoral sphere will need be
aware of, understand and be sensitive to the experiences of disabled people; hence the
need for a theology of disability to help guide us through the challenges of engaging with
scripture from this perspective.
I wish therefore to proceed by particularly focusing on two hermeneutical challenges that
may be found within the Biblical texts; that of cultural experience and the possible inbuilt
scriptural prejudice that results from one’s cultural experience and use both the creation
of community and the healing narratives of the Gospels as the prisms through which
light may be shone on these areas.
3. Theology of Disability and the building of the Kingdom
The creation and nurturing of community is a major theme in all scripture, from the
narratives around Abraham and Moses through to the letters of St Paul. Experiences of
disability have significant links to the deepest streams of biblical thought around issues
surrounding community, both for disabled people and the communities to which they
belong. For disability touches on issues around community identity; the meaning of
redemption and transformation and most importantly on the very image that we have of
God and what it means to be human beings, made in the image and likeness of God.
Jesus’ ministry confronts the major issues of exclusion and access, which are at the
heart of community building. I am not just focusing on the physical obstacles that are so
much part of daily life for disabled people - obstacles that exclude, such as steps,
narrow doors, lack of Braille or BSL interpreters, poor public transport; but also obstacles
of attitude such as fear, ignorance, patronisation and prejudice which prevent many
disabled people from taking their rightful place at the community table. The ability to
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Rev Tim Goode - Disability Advisor for the Southwark Diocese
participate in one’s community freely also touches on issues of justice and dignity, of
equity and equality. Conversely the barriers to full participation in community can induce
acute suffering and erode a person’s sense of identity and well being.
These categories of inclusion and equity sit at the heart of our biblical understanding of
justice and right relationship, ones that promotes equality and harmony within
community. They find their roots in the concept of Shalom, found in Isaiah 65, which
views the eschatological Israel as one in which death is defeated and all are at peace.
4. The Theology of Disability and the Healing Narratives.
The healing narratives of Jesus that we find in the Gospels are an understandable
challenge to disabled people, though I am happy to concur that through each healing
narrative the messianic power of Jesus to heal is revealed and therefore each healing
narrative of Jesus has an intrinsic Christological understanding. What is particularly
interesting and Gerd Theissen7 focuses on this in his excellent book, The Miracle Stories
of the Early Christian Tradition, is the particular focus, prevalent in all Jesus’ healing
narratives, on ‘boundary crossing’. Jesus’ healing narratives draw people from beyond
the margins of community life - the outcast, the rejected, the abandoned, - and invites
them back into the centre to take their entitled place within the community.
Therefore
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Jesus touching the skin of the leper in St Mark’s Gospel represents not only healing, but
more importantly an act of solidarity, bridging for all time the boundary between life and
death that is so clearly stated in the 13th chapter of Leviticus9. There are countless other
examples of ‘boundary crossing’: the healing of the Syro-Phoenician
woman’s
daughter10, the healing of the centurion’s servant11 and the liberation of the woman bent
double in Luke 13 to name but three.12
The inherent inclusive thrust of Jesus’ healing ministry is confirmed by the fact that the
same context of drawing people back into community from the margins is revealed
through incidents of dynamic reconciliation and inclusion that involve no healing or
physical transformation.
One only needs to read Jesus’ inaugural preaching in the
7
Theissen, G., 1983. The Miracle Stories of the Early Christian Tradition, Philadelphia: Fortress
Mark 1:41
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Leviticus 13: 2-17
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Mark 7: 24-30
11
Matthew 8: 5-13
12
Luke 13: 10-17
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Rev Tim Goode - Disability Advisor for the Southwark Diocese
synagogue in Nazareth found in Luke 413 or Jesus’ calling of Levi in Mark 214 to observe
healing being used as a metaphor for the inclusion of disabled people, the Gentile and
the tax collector into the Kingdom of God. Thus Jesus’ healing narratives become acts
of transformation, of solidarity and inclusion. This is profound Good News for disabled
people for whom many are still forced to live on the margins of society.
The Christological message of the healing narratives found in the synoptic gospels and
even more in John suggests that they are primarily revealing the fundamental reality of
God’s relationship to humanity. We experience examples of Christ’s compassion, his
commitment to justice, his attentiveness to all who find themselves on the margins of
communities. The healing narratives draw together particularly those
deemed
diminished amongst the children of Israel as a revelation not just about values and
nature of Jesus, but ultimately about God. Thus in John’s Gospel the healing stories
become ‘signs’ of the incarnate God in the word Jesus.
One of the questions one may ask of the biblical text is, ‘What is the lived experience of
the writer?’ This is particularly pertinent when someone is writing about disabled people.
Does the experience of the writer interfere with or not do justice to the lived experience
of disabled people, especially if the writer does not have any experience of living with
impairment? This is a question that particularly comes to my mind when regarding the
four Gospel writers. Does their shared use of impairments as metaphor in the healing
narratives betray a societal lack of understanding of, or lack of serious interest in, those
who actually experience the impairment as described? It is not a question that I have
been come across in the theologies of the past. The Theology of Disability, coming out
of the liberation theologies of the early twentieth century, has proceeded to bring this
question to the fore with exciting and liberating results.
The Theology of Disability and the Phenomenological Model.
With the modern renaissance of practical theology and the rapid emergence of the social
sciences and their related professions coming out of the Second World War, education,
social work, nursing and other related groups have developed new models of training
and insight that have combined academic study and field work, theoretical and critical
models and induction into practice. It is natural that theological study would and should
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14
Luke 4: 16-29
Mark 2: 13-17
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Rev Tim Goode - Disability Advisor for the Southwark Diocese
borrow from these new insights and skills that have informed the caring professions. As
a result there have sprung up a variety of models of engagement with disabled people.
These have included the ‘charity’ model, the ‘medical’ model and the ‘social’ model. The
‘social’ model has had a profound impact on the practical lives of those living with
disabilities in terms of rights of access and the failure of society to implement these
‘rights’ in the past and has revealed a failure of our shared cultural attitudes to enable
the flourishing of disabled people.
Yet I believe that none of these models have fully bridged the cultural gap between the
disabled and abled. More recently though Professor John M Hull, Emeritus Professor of
Religious Education at the University of Birmingham who was himself completely blind,
brought to the theological table the discipline of Phenomenology, which is the detailed
examination and analysis of mental states, to bear on his theological thinking in the area
of disability and his engagement with Scripture. The Phenomenological Model asks us to
analyse experiences of disabled people and seeks to reveal not the way society treats
them, but attempts to discover the ‘inner life’ – what the specific life experience is of the
person with the particular impairment. Thus though we know we cannot ever fully
experience life through another person’s eyes; though we know we cannot fully bring to
bear the inner life experience of another person into our own life, we can and should
strive to do so. This is achieved through being alongside and actively listening to the
narrative of the other. For John Hull it is through practising the Phenomenological Model
that we learn that ‘The broken body on the cross and the fracture of the sacramental
bread, the broken church in a broken world are symbolised and overcome in the broken
body of the disabled disciple.’
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The Phenomenological Model challenges our past hermeneutical studies
by
encouraging us to search into the inner minds of the writers of the biblical texts and
question their cultural assumptions, especially within the context of disability. Is there
any evidence that the biblical writers had any personal experience of disability? Is there
any evidence that the biblical writers fully entered into what it is to be disabled? Is there
any evidence that the biblical writers actively listened to the narratives of the disabled
people? Is there any evidence that the biblical writers looked at the societal and cultural
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Hull,
John.
https://faithinhealth.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/theology-of-disability-health-and-
healing-15 conference.pdf
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Rev Tim Goode - Disability Advisor for the Southwark Diocese
disadvantages that disabled people suffered in their time and place? Is there any
evidence that the biblical writers observed the giftedness of disabled people and their
unique observance of the world in which they lived? Is there any evidence that the
biblical writers ever stopped and consciously learnt from the disabled people? These are
questions that we need to ask of the text as we search to grasp the deeper meaning of
the Jesus’ ministry. This will never be an exact methodology, but questioning the cultural
and societal norms of the world that the biblical writers inhabited does enable disabled
people to forge a way through the potentially damaging texts of the Bible. Through this
process we can surmise, of their own understanding of the world they inhabited, what
was projected onto the texts they were writing.
What is revelatory is that through this process the all embracing inclusive love of God as
revealed through Christ manages to shine through in new and revealing ways; ways that
embrace both enabled and disabled people and challenges the learnt language of
disability for our time and for future generations. We see this most at work in the Bible
when we contrast the more explicit experiences of St Paul with the implicit societal
norms of the Gospel writers.
6. When we are weak we are strong
It was through Paul’s personal reflection on his own weakness that he found strength
and in doing so opened himself to be transformed. The Phenomenological Model
encourages us to follow a similar journey to that of Paul; to be open to and reflect on our
own vulnerabilities as well as our giftedness and enable both to be used to express
God’s glory. St Paul’s theology is rooted in the redemptive progression of moving from
death to life, from alienation to forgiveness, from exclusion to inclusion; all of which
draws us into the mission of Jesus and the very nature of God. Paul’s personal
experience of bodily weakness helped him to formulate and elaborate his profound
wisdom of the cross. This paradoxical wisdom of the cross found its ultimate expression
in the fact that God chose to redeem the world through a crucified Messiah and was vital
in making Paul relook at the history of Israel and his own religious convictions which in
turn led him to proclaim the Gospel to the Gentiles.
In 2 Corinthians 4: 7-12 Paul brilliantly clarifies his theology of ‘weakness’:
‘But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this
extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted
in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;
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persecuted,
Rev Tim Goode - Disability Advisor for the Southwark Diocese
but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the
death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.
For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that
the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in
us, but life in you.
Here we have one of the most insightful passages in the whole of the Bible, one that
connects profoundly with the experience of disabled people. The on-going struggle for
dignity, for equity, for inclusion by disabled people is a prophetic sign for the whole
Christian church of the truth of the Gospel; that the fact that some people are fully
dependant on the care and support of others draws us all into the reality of our own state
of dependence before the reality of God.
Paul articulates his theology of weakness through his similar theology of the body found
in 1 Corinthians 12. And when we explore the Paul’s theology of the body in 1
Corinthians 12 the question that comes to my mind is: ‘What kind of body Paul is
thinking about?’ Is he describing a body like we find in De Vinci’s ‘Vitruvian Man’, a
figure of perfect human proportions without any mark of imperfection, or is he actually
describing, as I believe, the crucified and resurrected Body of Christ; a body that is
healed but not cured; a body that still carries the wounds of the crucifixion; a body where
all our vulnerabilities and gifts, our impairments and abilities can find their rest; a body
that does not define itself as disabled or enabled? Paul’s theologies of weakness and
body warn the church that it can never truly be the Body of the crucified and resurrected
Christ unless it fully includes disabled people or any of the those found on the margins;
for we have, sitting at the right hand of the Father, the Messiah, the Son of God, a
disabled man in human terms and physical perfection in the eyes of God.
Conclusion
Practicing hermeneutics through the lens of a theology of disability encourages us to
enter more deeply into the truth of God’s strength found in human weakness.
The Theology of Disability helps to reinforce God’s transformative and transfiguring
community of the Body of Christ through revealing the healing narratives as a clarion call
for inclusion and as a radical reimagining of society without margins, revealing our
shared commonality as children all made in the image and likeness of God.
The Theology of Disability moves the church away from purely discovering how to
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Rev Tim Goode - Disability Advisor for the Southwark Diocese
minister to disabled people - important though that is - to being open and vulnerable
enough to be ministered to, transformed and ultimately healed by them.
A Theology of Disability draws us into our shared calling, to enable the
human
flourishing of the other, mirroring God’s selfless, sacrificial love for each one of us, in
order to build up God’s Kingdom here on earth.
The Theology of Disability ultimately leads us all, regardless of gender, colour, sexuality,
status, to our true home found in the crucified and resurrected Body of Christ; a home
where we all find our rest and one which reveals that in the Kingdom of God there is no
disabled and enabled, just as there is no Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female.
Rev Timothy Goode
Disability Advisor to the Southwark Diocese. May 2015
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Rev Tim Goode - Disability Advisor for the Southwark Diocese
Bibliography
Ballard, Paul and Pritchard, John Practical Theology in Action, SPCK 1996. Hull, John
M., In the Beginning There was Darkness, SCM Press 2001.
Hull, John M, Disability - The Inclusive Church Resourse, Darton, Longman and Todd.
2014.
McCloughry, Roy and Morris, Wayne, Making a World of Difference - Christian
Reflections on Disability. SPCK 2002
Theissen, Gerd, The Miracle Stories of the Early Christian Tradition, Philadelphia:
Fortress 1983.
Volf, Miroslav, Exclusion and Embrace Abingdon Press Nashville 1996
Website
Hull, John M . https://faithinhealth.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/theology-of-disabilityhealth- and-healing-conference.pdf
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