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ninjakiwi12's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Fun(ny) fact(s): This is another book I read for my paper on female theologians with disability, with Eiesland being the main voice representing our time (along with Nancy Mairs, but Baylor libraries does not have many of her works...).
Favorite quote/image:"Here is the resurrected Christ making good on the incarnational proclamation that God would be with us, embodied as we are, incorporating the fullness of human contingency and ordinary life into God. In presenting his impaired hands and feet to his startled friends, the resurrected Jesus is revealed as the disabled God. Jesus, the resurrected Savior, calls for his frightened companions to recognize the marks of impairment their own connection with God, their own salvation. In doing so, the disabled God is also the revealer of a new humanity. The disabled God is not only the One from heaven but the revelation of true personhood, underscoring the reality that full personhood is fully compatible with the experience of disability." (pg. 100)
Honorable mention: "Jesus Christ, the disabled God, is not a romanticized notion of 'overcomer' God.
Instead here is God as survivor...the image of survivor here evoked is that of a simple, unself-pitying, honest body, for whom the limits of power are palpable, but not tragic. The disabled God embodies the ability to see clearly the complexity and the ‘mixed blessing’ of life and bodies, without living in despair. This revelation is of a God for us who celebrates joy and experiences pain not separately in time or space, but simultaneously." (pg. 102-103)
Why: Again, I wrote a paper on this topic, so I could write so much on the impact that this book has had on me academically and personally. I will refrain from redoing that to say that Eiseland first presents a brief overview of disability and ways that the church has maintained a disabling theology steeped in ableism and oppression of people with disabilities, pointing to the need for a liberatory theology of disability. However, she takes her work a step further. Instead of merely inviting the church to better see its disabled brothers and sisters as fully human, she writes about how God is a disabled God, offering a model for people with disabilities to live in their bodies, not transcend them, a way to be a survivor, not a conqueror, rooted in the body of Jesus Christ.
Favorite quote/image:"Here is the resurrected Christ making good on the incarnational proclamation that God would be with us, embodied as we are, incorporating the fullness of human contingency and ordinary life into God. In presenting his impaired hands and feet to his startled friends, the resurrected Jesus is revealed as the disabled God. Jesus, the resurrected Savior, calls for his frightened companions to recognize the marks of impairment their own connection with God, their own salvation. In doing so, the disabled God is also the revealer of a new humanity. The disabled God is not only the One from heaven but the revelation of true personhood, underscoring the reality that full personhood is fully compatible with the experience of disability." (pg. 100)
Honorable mention: "Jesus Christ, the disabled God, is not a romanticized notion of 'overcomer' God.
Instead here is God as survivor...the image of survivor here evoked is that of a simple, unself-pitying, honest body, for whom the limits of power are palpable, but not tragic. The disabled God embodies the ability to see clearly the complexity and the ‘mixed blessing’ of life and bodies, without living in despair. This revelation is of a God for us who celebrates joy and experiences pain not separately in time or space, but simultaneously." (pg. 102-103)
Why: Again, I wrote a paper on this topic, so I could write so much on the impact that this book has had on me academically and personally. I will refrain from redoing that to say that Eiseland first presents a brief overview of disability and ways that the church has maintained a disabling theology steeped in ableism and oppression of people with disabilities, pointing to the need for a liberatory theology of disability. However, she takes her work a step further. Instead of merely inviting the church to better see its disabled brothers and sisters as fully human, she writes about how God is a disabled God, offering a model for people with disabilities to live in their bodies, not transcend them, a way to be a survivor, not a conqueror, rooted in the body of Jesus Christ.
choirqueer's review
4.0
This is an important book with a lot of important things to say. I felt like it could have comprised more diversity -- the two people whose narratives are shared are both white cisgender women, which the author acknowledges, but including more perspectives would have provided a more compelling and relatable text. The book wasn't as helpful to me as it might be for someone who is Christian (which I am not), but it was useful to have read it and to get this perspective on disability theology which affirmed a lot of the issues that have come up for me in predominantly-Christian spaces that are optimized for TAB (temporarily able-bodied) people and not for disabled people like me. I am definitely eager for more recommendations on this topic, especially those which represent a wider diversity of racial, gender, and religious perspectives.
bethmalena's review
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
Felt a bit dated, didn’t talk directly about theology until the second half. Still glad I read it for a few great quotes.
jakewritesbooks's review
4.0
Despite being a clergy person, I don’t read a lot of theology texts in my spare time. Reading is a leisure activity for me and I much prefer a good mystery or historical tome to something explicitly theological.
When I do read theology, I prefer to fill the gaps in my knowledge. Disability theology is a big piece of that. I know little about disability liberation theology, even less about the Disabled Rights Movement that was and is active in the United States. When I reached out for suggestions, the one people kept coming back to is Dr. Nancy L. Eisland’s The Disabled God. So I decided to grab a copy and get to learning.
I’ve read some criticisms of the book, a few of them fair. The book is not a comprehensive look at disability in the human experience, nor is intersectional at all. Dr. Eisland acknowledges as much in the beginning. The latter is a fair criticism: Dr. Eisland recounts her experience of having access to a machine that helped her body. This might not have been the case for low income folks, especially ones who are non-white such as her. Intersectionality is essential to understanding any kind of marginalization; disability certainly included.
But the former is not necessarily fair. Disability is a broad tent and there’s no way any one person can speak in a manner that encompasses all experiences. This is an introductory book; an examination of social and ecclesial shortcomings and a suggestion to push in a different direction.
To that end, I think Dr. Eisland does a good job. She outlines in broad strokes the historical advancement of Disability justice in the United States, as well as the stagnancy of the institutional church, particularly through the lens of the old American Lutheran Church.
She then dips into theology, first by challenging symbolic attachment to disability (the brave suffering model usually attached to disabled folks) and then continuing with her thesis: that Jesus was wounded and thus disabled at the crucifixion and that He remained so after the death and resurrection shows that His disability welcomes disability into the Imago Dei, the image of God (hence, the title of her book). She then extends this to communion: the practice of literally consuming Christ’s disabled body.
I think those are really good arguments and could go along with them. I wish she had gone deeper into other Scriptural examples of marginalized identity in Imago Dei imagery but she makes her point. If nothing else, it’s food for theo-thought to help able bodied folks reform their (our, my) own prejudices and structures of power.
Again, this isn’t a world class comprehensive theological tome but it is a great starting point for understanding disability theology. And that’s perfectly fine.
When I do read theology, I prefer to fill the gaps in my knowledge. Disability theology is a big piece of that. I know little about disability liberation theology, even less about the Disabled Rights Movement that was and is active in the United States. When I reached out for suggestions, the one people kept coming back to is Dr. Nancy L. Eisland’s The Disabled God. So I decided to grab a copy and get to learning.
I’ve read some criticisms of the book, a few of them fair. The book is not a comprehensive look at disability in the human experience, nor is intersectional at all. Dr. Eisland acknowledges as much in the beginning. The latter is a fair criticism: Dr. Eisland recounts her experience of having access to a machine that helped her body. This might not have been the case for low income folks, especially ones who are non-white such as her. Intersectionality is essential to understanding any kind of marginalization; disability certainly included.
But the former is not necessarily fair. Disability is a broad tent and there’s no way any one person can speak in a manner that encompasses all experiences. This is an introductory book; an examination of social and ecclesial shortcomings and a suggestion to push in a different direction.
To that end, I think Dr. Eisland does a good job. She outlines in broad strokes the historical advancement of Disability justice in the United States, as well as the stagnancy of the institutional church, particularly through the lens of the old American Lutheran Church.
She then dips into theology, first by challenging symbolic attachment to disability (the brave suffering model usually attached to disabled folks) and then continuing with her thesis: that Jesus was wounded and thus disabled at the crucifixion and that He remained so after the death and resurrection shows that His disability welcomes disability into the Imago Dei, the image of God (hence, the title of her book). She then extends this to communion: the practice of literally consuming Christ’s disabled body.
I think those are really good arguments and could go along with them. I wish she had gone deeper into other Scriptural examples of marginalized identity in Imago Dei imagery but she makes her point. If nothing else, it’s food for theo-thought to help able bodied folks reform their (our, my) own prejudices and structures of power.
Again, this isn’t a world class comprehensive theological tome but it is a great starting point for understanding disability theology. And that’s perfectly fine.