Arthur's Call: A journey of faith in the face of severe learning disability

by Frances Young

In this long awaited book, key themes from Frances Young's earlier work - motherhood, suffering, disability, meaning and love - re-emerge in a richer and deeper melody. The cries of anguish and why are taken up into a new-found trust and joy. She draws us into the beauty and strength of a love which faces all the challenges and yet celebrates the wonder of Arthur's life and vocation. If you are someone grappling with the hard questions about God, life and things going wrong, this book is for you.' Deborah Ford, Hospital Chaplain at Cambridge University Hospitals

182 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 15, 2014

About the author

The Reverend Frances Margaret Young, OBE, FBA (born 1939) is Edward Cadbury Professor Emeritus at the University of Birmingham, as well as an ordained minister in the Methodist Church (UK). Young was the first Methodist and first women to preach at a Church of England General Synod when she addressed that body in 2005; she was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1998 for her theological work.

Reviews

[Thomas Creedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deeply moving, with some profound theological reflection. Shows it’s age in uncritical reliance on Jean Vanier - who is now disgraced in a way that undermines some of the work here - but would make a good conversation for Reinders etc. A book I will revisit and one to include in a hopeful PhD. Young is a provocative thinker - I didn’t agree with a lot, but she is clear and calm and clearly deeply affected by the reading of Scripture and honest reflection on reality.

[Niamh]

This contains material from Face to Face which I have read and have concerns with. She keeps some of those sections but there is a greater sense that she does see her son's life as worth living. I do think that she believed that in her previous work but it seems much more explicit here.
I did find her interpretation of the cross as being connected to tragedy and disability interesting even if I have a lot of questions and concerns.