Spirit and Politics of Disablement

by Sharon V. Betcher

In this remarkable and incisive work, Sharon Betcher analyzes our world and God's embodied presence in the light of her own disability and the insight it affords. She claims disablement as a site of powerful social and religious critique and reflection. With searing honesty, she reveals how our culture, only recently tolerant and supportive of disabled people, still fears them. The presence of disabled persons stands as a rebuke to our images of body and health, to the distorted values of our consumerist culture, and the globalized economy that embodies those values in unjust structures.

Yet, Betcher claims, disablement has also revealed powerful alternative understandings of the body and body politic, in Scripture, in the actions of Jesus, in the healing work of the Spirit at work in the world. Brimming with insight, Betcher's work is a revelation and a bracing challenge to all Christians.

Genres: Theology, Disability

264 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2007

Reviews

[Daniel Rempel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part theological autobiography, part societal critique, Betcher allows her reader to enter into the life of the disabled body. By doing so, she confronts preconceived ways of being in the world, showing how dominant hegemonic powers continue to marginalized and oppress disabled bodies, even when they do so in the name of compassion and charity. One must not agree with all her theological conclusion to recognize the power of her writing.

[Niamh]

A really fascinating text. I found it a challenge in the way I think about both theology and disability and how they intersect, particularly when it comes to concepts such as wholeness. I suspect this will be a book I continue to come back to.