Christianity and Disability

This chapter is geared toward physicians and medical practitioners and offers practical insights into how Christian theodicies, scriptural interpretation, and theological ideas can inform understandings of disability, mental illness, persons with disabilities, wellness, and patient care. Assuming a Triune understanding of God as unique to the Christian faith and worldview, the chapter critiques biblical interpretations and theologies that have emphasized the “problem of disability, " linked disability or mental illness with sin or evil, or positioned disability as something that must be overcome through treatment or cure. Instead the chapter argues that persons with disabilities are created in the image of God, called by Jesus, and equipped by the Spirit for human flourishing. Rather than constructing a comprehensive theology of disability, this chapter offers a provisional definition of disability and ideas for faithful ways of interpreting and engaging Christian scripture, as well as theology, and aids practitioners in understanding how Christian faith can be a resource in meaning making, healing, agency, and flourishing for persons with disabilities.