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The Disabled God: Toward a Liberatory Theology of Disability
Draws on themes of the disability-rights movement to identify people with disabilities as members of a socially disadvantaged minority group rather than as individuals who need to adjust. Highlights the hidden history of people with disabilities in church and society. Proclaiming the emancipatory presence of the disabled God, the author maintains the vital importance of the relationship between Christology and social change. Eiesland contends that in the Eucharist, Christians encounter the disabled God and may participate in new imaginations of wholeness and new embodiments of justice.
130 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 1994
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August 18, 2012
Eisland articulates a liberation theology of disability, which means she re-centers Christian theology around the image of the resurrected Jesus, a God with marks of disability in his body. She calls attention to the political struggles of people with disabilities and argues that similar efforts for greater civic participation should be undertaken within the Christian community. A pioneering work, but not a systematic or rigorous work.
March 12, 2021
I think pretty much everyone should read this.
This book was published in 1994 but it started out as Nancy Eiesland’s Master’s thesis at Candler School of Theology. It seems significant that The Americans with Disabilities Act was just passed in 1990. She also writes out of her own experience of lifelong disability.
Eiesland argues that disabled people are a marginalized, minority group that society and churches have a responsibility to include and not discriminate against. The expectation should not be put on the disabled person to adjust and just have to figure it out for themselves as an individual. Disabled people do not need to be “fixed” and that mentality has been very damaging. Sadly, churches in the United States fought to be excluded from the requirements of The Americans with Disabilities Act so they would not have to bring their buildings up to the new accesibility requirements.
Chapter Three: The Body Politics “offers a social framework for reconceiving disability, incorporating the history of the civl rights struggle.” She examines a shift in the sociology of disability where the person with disabilities becomes the subject instead of the object of inquiry which led to “the emergence of the disability rights movement and continues to offer a theoretical construct for empowerment and liberation” for disabled people.
Chapter Four: Carnal Sins - Disability has never been religiously or theologically neutral. Eiesland talks about three themes that illustrate the theological obstacles encountered by people with disabilities seeking inclusion in Christian communities: 1) sin and disability conflation (blames the disability on the person’s sin and/or lack of faith), 2) virtuous suffering, and 3) segregationist charity. Eiesland spends the rest of this chapter talking about a particular case within the American Lutheran Church where their supposed theology of access for disabled people did not match their policies for ministerial qualification that rejected many disabled people as “categorically unsuitable for ordained ministry” (70).
Chapter Five: The Disabled God - This chapter explores the revolutionary implications of the resurrected Christ as the disabled God as a divine affirmation of the wholeness of “nonconventional bodies” (87). She opens by describing an epiphany where she saw God “in a sip-puff wheelchair,” the kind used mostly by quadriplegics. She writes, “I beheld God as a survivor, unpitying and forthright. [...] This theology of liberation emerged from those conversations, our common labor for justice, and corporate reflection on symbol.”
Chapter Six: Sacramental Bodies: The main focus of this chapter is on the centrality of the Eucharist in the symbolic and actual inclusion of disabled people. In the Eucharist the disabled God. In the resurrected Christ, “the nonconventional body is recognized as sacrament” (116).
This book was published in 1994 but it started out as Nancy Eiesland’s Master’s thesis at Candler School of Theology. It seems significant that The Americans with Disabilities Act was just passed in 1990. She also writes out of her own experience of lifelong disability.
Eiesland argues that disabled people are a marginalized, minority group that society and churches have a responsibility to include and not discriminate against. The expectation should not be put on the disabled person to adjust and just have to figure it out for themselves as an individual. Disabled people do not need to be “fixed” and that mentality has been very damaging. Sadly, churches in the United States fought to be excluded from the requirements of The Americans with Disabilities Act so they would not have to bring their buildings up to the new accesibility requirements.
Chapter Three: The Body Politics “offers a social framework for reconceiving disability, incorporating the history of the civl rights struggle.” She examines a shift in the sociology of disability where the person with disabilities becomes the subject instead of the object of inquiry which led to “the emergence of the disability rights movement and continues to offer a theoretical construct for empowerment and liberation” for disabled people.
Chapter Four: Carnal Sins - Disability has never been religiously or theologically neutral. Eiesland talks about three themes that illustrate the theological obstacles encountered by people with disabilities seeking inclusion in Christian communities: 1) sin and disability conflation (blames the disability on the person’s sin and/or lack of faith), 2) virtuous suffering, and 3) segregationist charity. Eiesland spends the rest of this chapter talking about a particular case within the American Lutheran Church where their supposed theology of access for disabled people did not match their policies for ministerial qualification that rejected many disabled people as “categorically unsuitable for ordained ministry” (70).
Chapter Five: The Disabled God - This chapter explores the revolutionary implications of the resurrected Christ as the disabled God as a divine affirmation of the wholeness of “nonconventional bodies” (87). She opens by describing an epiphany where she saw God “in a sip-puff wheelchair,” the kind used mostly by quadriplegics. She writes, “I beheld God as a survivor, unpitying and forthright. [...] This theology of liberation emerged from those conversations, our common labor for justice, and corporate reflection on symbol.”
Chapter Six: Sacramental Bodies: The main focus of this chapter is on the centrality of the Eucharist in the symbolic and actual inclusion of disabled people. In the Eucharist the disabled God. In the resurrected Christ, “the nonconventional body is recognized as sacrament” (116).
May 15, 2015
The profound thesis of this book is "In the Eucharist, we encounter the disabled God, who displayed the signs of disability, not as a demonstration of failure and defect, but in affirmation of connection and strength."
This 21 year old work of theology was groundbreaking in its presentation of a theology of disability and its call for the church to become a "communion of justice, a communion of struggle."
Eiesland gives a history of the disability rights movement and the church's struggles with disability, including how many theological concepts and worship practices further discrimination and injustice toward persons with disabilities. In the final two chapters, on the disabled God and the Eucharist, she gives important theological hints. Hints, in that they are not fully developed in this work, but suggest exciting and promising directions for rethinking our concepts of God and communion. For example, I liked this bit on the resurrection:
"Christ's resurrection offers hope that our nonconventional, and sometimes difficult, bodies participate fully in the imago Dei and that God whose nature is love and who is on the side of justice and solidarity is touched by our experience. God is changed by the experience of being a disabled body. This is what the Christian hope of resurrection means."
This 21 year old work of theology was groundbreaking in its presentation of a theology of disability and its call for the church to become a "communion of justice, a communion of struggle."
Eiesland gives a history of the disability rights movement and the church's struggles with disability, including how many theological concepts and worship practices further discrimination and injustice toward persons with disabilities. In the final two chapters, on the disabled God and the Eucharist, she gives important theological hints. Hints, in that they are not fully developed in this work, but suggest exciting and promising directions for rethinking our concepts of God and communion. For example, I liked this bit on the resurrection:
"Christ's resurrection offers hope that our nonconventional, and sometimes difficult, bodies participate fully in the imago Dei and that God whose nature is love and who is on the side of justice and solidarity is touched by our experience. God is changed by the experience of being a disabled body. This is what the Christian hope of resurrection means."
August 31, 2017
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.
June 7, 2023
it’s 4.5!!!! nancy just sucker punched me into a new dimension that i didn’t have any sort of context for, and i am so grateful!!!
December 14, 2024
This is often considered to be the landmark book on disability theology, and it does truly have such value that it should be remembered for all times. Although, as I write that, I come to realize the sadness of that statement. So, instead, I do hope that there is a day that this book is not needed. A day where the Church recognizes how important all disabled people are. A day where every church is ADA accessible. A day where we do remember Jesus as our disabled God. In the acknowledgements, Eiesland wrote, “Beginning during many long hospital stays in my childhood, I long cherished the mistaken notion that books were for escape. Through the years, educators have changed my mind. Books should inspire action; good books may even help us live better lives, individually and collectively.” Yeah. That. This book is just a starting place for change, but as a good book, it can do that.
December 31, 2019
How do we interpret disability – as something from God’s good creation, or as a tragic aspect of the fall? Traditionally, Christianity has interpreted disability as the latter, and society has agreed. The ‘medical model’ of disability theory is that disability is something that needs to be fixed in a person, through the help of medicine, and Eiesland provides a thorough and damning overview of the damaging effects this approach has had in America. As she lists the ways that disabled people have been demonised or excluded, it is clear that the church is thoroughly mixed up in this, as in the US churches fought to be excluded from disability equality laws so they wouldn’t have to adapt their buildings.
The social model of disability theory, on the other hand, says that disability is neither necessarily good nor bad. Instead, it is society that disables people, not their bodies. For example, if every door handle and lightswitch was low and the world was paved with ramps, wheelchair users and little people would be advantaged, whereas average-height people would be disadvantaged. Eiesland integrates this theory with theology, exploring what it means for disabled people to be made in God’s image.
The result is a liberation theology of disability. She envisions God as mobilising in a sip-puff wheelchair, where the wheelchair is controlled with your mouth (if you don’t have use of your hands). She also explores Jesus’ resurrected body, suggesting that his scars show a disabled body, not only redeeming it but celebrating it. The book also has chapters on the implications for worship together and taking communion.
Someone recommended this book to me saying, ‘This one’s a game changer’ – and it really is. Whenever someone talks about disability theology, you can bet this book is at the top of their mind. Her analysis of the problems of traditional Christian and societal views of disability is brilliant, and although I think there are some flaws in her interpretation of Jesus’ post-resurrection body as disabled, the images themselves are enough to provoke an interesting discussion on how we see God and the disabled body. Highly recommended.
The social model of disability theory, on the other hand, says that disability is neither necessarily good nor bad. Instead, it is society that disables people, not their bodies. For example, if every door handle and lightswitch was low and the world was paved with ramps, wheelchair users and little people would be advantaged, whereas average-height people would be disadvantaged. Eiesland integrates this theory with theology, exploring what it means for disabled people to be made in God’s image.
The result is a liberation theology of disability. She envisions God as mobilising in a sip-puff wheelchair, where the wheelchair is controlled with your mouth (if you don’t have use of your hands). She also explores Jesus’ resurrected body, suggesting that his scars show a disabled body, not only redeeming it but celebrating it. The book also has chapters on the implications for worship together and taking communion.
Someone recommended this book to me saying, ‘This one’s a game changer’ – and it really is. Whenever someone talks about disability theology, you can bet this book is at the top of their mind. Her analysis of the problems of traditional Christian and societal views of disability is brilliant, and although I think there are some flaws in her interpretation of Jesus’ post-resurrection body as disabled, the images themselves are enough to provoke an interesting discussion on how we see God and the disabled body. Highly recommended.
May 9, 2021
An extremely thought provoking book. This book, which started off as Eiesland’s Master degree dissertation, looks at disabled people and the Church. She explores how historically disabled people have been excluded from society and the Church either completely or viewed as disabled as a result of sin. She also explores how the onus is put on the disabled person as they are seen often as an object of charity, an object to be cured or sinful and not seen as individuals with autonomy who can be active participants in the Church or even as members of the Church family. Building on intersectionality and the social model of disability versus the medical model- she looks at how these can be applied within theology and the Church. Having set up her argument well and backed up with evidence, Eiesland makes quite a profound point; Jesus himself became disabled. She points out that being on the cross, tortured etc would lead to a disabled body and that even after the resurrection he still bore marks from the cross. With this in mind she challenges the Church’s approach of segregation, exclusion and othering.
While this work is now 27 years old (interestingly came about around the same time as the ADA), I’ve never read anything else quite like it. I shall be pondering it for quite a while. Definitely something I feel more people could do with reading, even if just to make them more aware of the exclusion and challenges disabled people face. Radical, challenging and very well argued.
While this work is now 27 years old (interestingly came about around the same time as the ADA), I’ve never read anything else quite like it. I shall be pondering it for quite a while. Definitely something I feel more people could do with reading, even if just to make them more aware of the exclusion and challenges disabled people face. Radical, challenging and very well argued.
June 16, 2023
4.5 only because I want more! Left me with questions and points I need to just keep on mulling over probably forever.
December 9, 2021
The sad thing is that this is an eye opener for me. This should be in the forefront in the fight for social justice. Social is inclusive and the disabled need Justice as well.
February 9, 2015
Interesting concept. Don't agree with everything she says, but an interesting concept nonetheless. I do agree that in the incarnation God took limits upon Himself. She goes further to say that the cross shows a God who is not all powerful and is most interested in relationality rather than redemption. This and other things about the nature of God and the nature of humanity I disagreed with.
October 3, 2024
As a work that began as a masters thesis and morphed into a well-regarded theological text, I think this deserves a high amount of praise for the incisive and astute manner in which Eiesland writes. Now 30 years past the initial publication, The Disabled God continues to be an important introductory text on disability theology. Like all theological texts, however, this is not without its problems.
First, this text deserves to have the history of disability rights and justice centered as an addendum or retrospective introduction in a new edition. We are currently 30 years removed from this, but Eiesland was writing only 4 years after the passage of the ADA - a law which faced considerable opposition from certain church groups. The legendary 504 sit-in was only 17 years prior. We are as far from The Disabled God now (2024) as she was from the early Kennedy administration's early forays into disability research (Eunice would found the Special Olympics in 1968, a mere 24 years before publication). In the 80s and into the early 90s, the only theologians doing significant work in this intersection were Hauerwas and Young, so Eiesland's work was not only relatively novel, it was on the cusp of an important shift in the American imagination. It is hard today to remember the massive social changes happening re: disability throughout the 30 years prior to this text, but those changes add a much needed layer of context.
Were I to offer a more detailed intro, I would also include greater emphasis on the shift from a medical perspective of disability to one of rights and legality. Eiesland's work in naming this shift is more important than her text shows at first glance, and the framing of bodies as political symbols helps weave an important thread throughout the work. Likewise, a reminder of the importance of collapsing the hierarchy of 'centered' and 'marginal' in eccelsiology (Chapt. 4) deserves additional highlighting. This is the primary value of the text in my opinion, and the emphasis on disability experience as source of theological insight is a close second.
Chapter 5 contains her famed revelation, that she “saw God in a sip-puff wheelchair, that is the chair used mostly by quadriplegics... Not an omnipotent, self-sufficient God, but neither a pitiable, suffering servant. In this moment, I beheld God as a survivor, unpitying and forthright. I recognized the incarnate Christ in the image of those judged ‘not feasible,’ ‘unemployable,’ with ‘questionable quality of life.’ Here was God for me.”
This is a classic in many ways, although not one that always stands up to intense dogmatic scrutiny. From a pastoral perspective, it offers an incredible insight into an incredibly important aspect of human experience in ways that would aid congregants and ministers alike. From a methodological perspective, it is interesting, although not something to use as a base. From a constructive perspective, it is again interesting, but somewhat light. Rather, this shines as a social text, holding a mirror up to our own continued lack of support for disabled participation and just inclusion and forcing us to ask why we have been so quick to forget this clear challenge.
A few critiques: this is a text rooted in the experience of physical disability in construct with intellectualism, leaving very little in the way of liberation for folks with intellectual/developmental disabilities (which Eiesland notes, at least). The text, in reaching for a God who saves *now* and not in some Heaven with "perfected" bodies is a worthy resistance to the sort of theologically-bereft platitudes one might hear at a funeral for a disabled person (I.e. "now that he's dead, I bet he's glad to be out of that wheelchair and is running around Heaven right now!"). This, however, offers no balm to those facing chronic pain and illness, for whom bodily resurrection is a hope rather than a condemnation. Finally, Eiesland's construction of disability seems incongruous with her exploration of the wounded body of the resurrected Christ; rather than disabled, Jesus is more 'super-abled' in His miraculous abilities. Scars and wounds do not carry the social barriers that disability experiences do, and even if so, Jesus only faced those between death and ascension rather than over the course of a life.
Overall, well worth the read. It is a necessary part of the disability theology canon, and perhaps the most seminal text for the subfield. It provides a context for nearly every book in the intersection since, and deserves a place in the 'famous modern theology books hall of fame.'
First, this text deserves to have the history of disability rights and justice centered as an addendum or retrospective introduction in a new edition. We are currently 30 years removed from this, but Eiesland was writing only 4 years after the passage of the ADA - a law which faced considerable opposition from certain church groups. The legendary 504 sit-in was only 17 years prior. We are as far from The Disabled God now (2024) as she was from the early Kennedy administration's early forays into disability research (Eunice would found the Special Olympics in 1968, a mere 24 years before publication). In the 80s and into the early 90s, the only theologians doing significant work in this intersection were Hauerwas and Young, so Eiesland's work was not only relatively novel, it was on the cusp of an important shift in the American imagination. It is hard today to remember the massive social changes happening re: disability throughout the 30 years prior to this text, but those changes add a much needed layer of context.
Were I to offer a more detailed intro, I would also include greater emphasis on the shift from a medical perspective of disability to one of rights and legality. Eiesland's work in naming this shift is more important than her text shows at first glance, and the framing of bodies as political symbols helps weave an important thread throughout the work. Likewise, a reminder of the importance of collapsing the hierarchy of 'centered' and 'marginal' in eccelsiology (Chapt. 4) deserves additional highlighting. This is the primary value of the text in my opinion, and the emphasis on disability experience as source of theological insight is a close second.
Chapter 5 contains her famed revelation, that she “saw God in a sip-puff wheelchair, that is the chair used mostly by quadriplegics... Not an omnipotent, self-sufficient God, but neither a pitiable, suffering servant. In this moment, I beheld God as a survivor, unpitying and forthright. I recognized the incarnate Christ in the image of those judged ‘not feasible,’ ‘unemployable,’ with ‘questionable quality of life.’ Here was God for me.”
This is a classic in many ways, although not one that always stands up to intense dogmatic scrutiny. From a pastoral perspective, it offers an incredible insight into an incredibly important aspect of human experience in ways that would aid congregants and ministers alike. From a methodological perspective, it is interesting, although not something to use as a base. From a constructive perspective, it is again interesting, but somewhat light. Rather, this shines as a social text, holding a mirror up to our own continued lack of support for disabled participation and just inclusion and forcing us to ask why we have been so quick to forget this clear challenge.
A few critiques: this is a text rooted in the experience of physical disability in construct with intellectualism, leaving very little in the way of liberation for folks with intellectual/developmental disabilities (which Eiesland notes, at least). The text, in reaching for a God who saves *now* and not in some Heaven with "perfected" bodies is a worthy resistance to the sort of theologically-bereft platitudes one might hear at a funeral for a disabled person (I.e. "now that he's dead, I bet he's glad to be out of that wheelchair and is running around Heaven right now!"). This, however, offers no balm to those facing chronic pain and illness, for whom bodily resurrection is a hope rather than a condemnation. Finally, Eiesland's construction of disability seems incongruous with her exploration of the wounded body of the resurrected Christ; rather than disabled, Jesus is more 'super-abled' in His miraculous abilities. Scars and wounds do not carry the social barriers that disability experiences do, and even if so, Jesus only faced those between death and ascension rather than over the course of a life.
Overall, well worth the read. It is a necessary part of the disability theology canon, and perhaps the most seminal text for the subfield. It provides a context for nearly every book in the intersection since, and deserves a place in the 'famous modern theology books hall of fame.'
March 15, 2021
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.
March 7, 2024
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.
November 11, 2022
There’s a lot to like here. I think various pieces presented here are helpful and significant for reflecting theologically on how the church treats those with disabilities. The discussion on the Eucharist in particular is worth reading the book for.
The broader vision being cast brings those pieces together in a way that I’m less sure of. I question the full buy-in to the minority group framework as a way to define people with disabilities, and think besides actual discrimination and prejudice there are challenges that come from the nature of able-bodied and disabled people living in community that aren’t actually unjust or malicious, but are just challenges.
The broader vision being cast brings those pieces together in a way that I’m less sure of. I question the full buy-in to the minority group framework as a way to define people with disabilities, and think besides actual discrimination and prejudice there are challenges that come from the nature of able-bodied and disabled people living in community that aren’t actually unjust or malicious, but are just challenges.
June 3, 2020
Succinctly written, compelling, and convicting, for good reason this is foundational reading for disability theology and contemporary ecclesiology. As Eiesland says, "The church is impoverished without our presence [i.e., people with disabilities]. Our narratives and bodies make clear that ordinary lives incorporate contingency and difficulty... Christ has brought us grace and, in turn, makes us a grace to others as physical beings."
December 28, 2020
A dense, challenging, and thought provoking work. Grateful to have read it though, since it is the nexus point of my two academic careers: ministry and special education.
It is only a beginning work, there is more to learn as we listen to individuals of faith with disabilities speak of their experiences and their needs.
It is only a beginning work, there is more to learn as we listen to individuals of faith with disabilities speak of their experiences and their needs.
December 17, 2019
Groundbreaking. Complex, deeply nuanced, and full of hope, Eisland’s dissertation is a very precious work of theology that I will refer to again and again. As a person with a disability, her scholarship and her writing mean a great deal to me.
January 17, 2025
An excellent working-out of the logic of liberation theology and social-systemic critique in the context of disability. If anything, I with Eisland spent more time fleshing out the image of the “Disabled God” in the resurrected Christ, and exploring it in relation to other forms of disability.
January 20, 2019
Great food for thought and action.
November 26, 2019
This was the book that really got the ball rolling for disability theology. She presents a liberation theology of disability that focuses on Jesus as the Disabled God.
December 1, 2019
Challenging exploration of embodiment and the way that intersects with our ways of thinking about God.
May 24, 2021
So important
March 12, 2022
A phenomenal entry point for deconstructing ableism in the church.
did-not-finish
February 10, 2025DNF at 20 pages, way too wordy.
July 2, 2025
Iconic! Only note is it’s very focused on physical disabilities but Eiesland is a legend
August 22, 2024
I had been wanting to read The Disabled God: Toward A Liberatory Theology of Disability by Nancy Eiesland for a long time. I finally managed to get around to reading this book. I shouldn't have delayed for so long. This book may only be 139 pages in length but the power is in the brevity and the words Ms. Eiesland uses. For far too long, too many people with disabilities have had, at one time or another, had to endure the cruel denunciation by strangers that their disability was a punishment of some sort for the sins of the family. Poor understanding of the Scriptures at the very least! On more than one occasion, I've had people say they will pray for a cure for me. As someone with a disability, I had to ask them that through these naïve, but well-intentioned, people suggesting God made a mistake through their prayer-based cures? I usually received a mumbled response. They clearly didn't see people with disabilities as creations of God, but an aberration. Over the years, my own view of the Almighty has become far more expansive. Ms. Eiesland's book takes it to the next step: God is also disabled. On this point, God is everything and everyone. By the same token, everything and everyone is God regardless of how one refers to the Almighty. Ms. Eiesland provides a thoughtful recap of the Christian Church's dubious treatment and understanding of people with disabilities in the past. It's an honest and balanced analysis. As for a disabled God, when Jesus was crucified and rose three days later, he was disabled. This book is powerful. It provides the solace and proof that the Almighty is there for everyone and that no one is left out. This book is available in accessible formats from the Centre for Equitable Library Access in Canada and Bookshare in the United States. This book is highly recommended.
June 14, 2022
The Disabled God was recommended to me by an amazing friend and missionary. There's no way around it - this book was an arduous read! My head spun slightly with the thick syntax of spiritual theology woven into disability ideology. It took awhile to get into it, but I came around in the end!
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My one disclaimer: I don’t believe every Christian-labeled dialogue that I read or hear, just as I don’t shut the door on a concept just because it’s new to me. I believe God works in the grey and am not a passive recipient of my faith. I don’t know enough about liberatory theology to claim it, but simply share points of interest from the book.
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The late author, Nancy Eiesland, posits this writing around the body. She reflects how Christian theology oft misrepresents disability which, in turn, can create imbalanced and othered church practices.
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She paints this picture of the disabled God: “In presenting his impaired hands and feet to his startled friends [disciples], the resurrected Jesus is revealed as the disabled God…to recognize in the marks of impairment their own connection with God…the revelation of true personhood, underscoring the reality that full personhood is fully compatible with the experience of disability.”
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By this, she equalizes the impaired body with the full body.
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So here, the essence of the liberatory theology of disability is revealed. It is rooted in liberation from inception as opposed to being an exception. In other words, it recognizes “the limits of our bodies and an acceptance of limits as the truth of being human.”
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Additionally to this is her deconstruction of the spiritual platitude that all people are disabled. “While all people do experience sin, not all people face architectural segregation and discrimination on the basis of disability.”
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This is a sparse summation considering I earmarked nearly 20 pages! No matter your faith or spiritual view, I hope it gave you a unique layer of thought to ponder.
⠀⠀
My one disclaimer: I don’t believe every Christian-labeled dialogue that I read or hear, just as I don’t shut the door on a concept just because it’s new to me. I believe God works in the grey and am not a passive recipient of my faith. I don’t know enough about liberatory theology to claim it, but simply share points of interest from the book.
⠀⠀
The late author, Nancy Eiesland, posits this writing around the body. She reflects how Christian theology oft misrepresents disability which, in turn, can create imbalanced and othered church practices.
⠀⠀
She paints this picture of the disabled God: “In presenting his impaired hands and feet to his startled friends [disciples], the resurrected Jesus is revealed as the disabled God…to recognize in the marks of impairment their own connection with God…the revelation of true personhood, underscoring the reality that full personhood is fully compatible with the experience of disability.”
⠀⠀
By this, she equalizes the impaired body with the full body.
⠀⠀
So here, the essence of the liberatory theology of disability is revealed. It is rooted in liberation from inception as opposed to being an exception. In other words, it recognizes “the limits of our bodies and an acceptance of limits as the truth of being human.”
⠀⠀
Additionally to this is her deconstruction of the spiritual platitude that all people are disabled. “While all people do experience sin, not all people face architectural segregation and discrimination on the basis of disability.”
⠀⠀
This is a sparse summation considering I earmarked nearly 20 pages! No matter your faith or spiritual view, I hope it gave you a unique layer of thought to ponder.
Read
May 4, 2016I may have first heard about this book when I read Deaf Theology (itself a 2007 book) in 2010. I finally read The Disabled God (which came out in 1994) in early 2015 -- after Emily Rapp talked about it in
Poster Child: A Memoir
.
Reading a ground-breaking book more than 20 years after its publication, when I've read much in the ensuing literature, is basically a recipe for disappointment; and because I don't have any sense of what the landscape was like when this book came out (I was 11), I can't really judge it on its own merits.
Given the title, I expected this book to do more in terms of actually fleshing out a theology of a disabled God. The image of God in a sip-puff wheelchair is I think what is most often cited from this book, and it doesn't arrive until Chapter 5 (of 6), and doesn't get elaborated on much.
The book builds up to that with an overview of how disability has been thought of and treated out in the world (as well as discussion of the ADA and case studies of individual disabled women) and also how disability has been deployed in the Christian tradition. I can imagine why this build-up felt necessary, but given the position from which I was encountering the book, I wanted more about the Disabled God of the title. She gets into the theology in the last 2 chapters, and I did appreciate that, even while much of it is familiar to me (e.g., the Resurrected Christ retained the wounds of crucifixion), but I was still bummed that it was a relatively small portion of the book as a whole.
Reading a ground-breaking book more than 20 years after its publication, when I've read much in the ensuing literature, is basically a recipe for disappointment; and because I don't have any sense of what the landscape was like when this book came out (I was 11), I can't really judge it on its own merits.
Given the title, I expected this book to do more in terms of actually fleshing out a theology of a disabled God. The image of God in a sip-puff wheelchair is I think what is most often cited from this book, and it doesn't arrive until Chapter 5 (of 6), and doesn't get elaborated on much.
The book builds up to that with an overview of how disability has been thought of and treated out in the world (as well as discussion of the ADA and case studies of individual disabled women) and also how disability has been deployed in the Christian tradition. I can imagine why this build-up felt necessary, but given the position from which I was encountering the book, I wanted more about the Disabled God of the title. She gets into the theology in the last 2 chapters, and I did appreciate that, even while much of it is familiar to me (e.g., the Resurrected Christ retained the wounds of crucifixion), but I was still bummed that it was a relatively small portion of the book as a whole.
February 10, 2021
Nancy Eiesland writes a compelling first-hand account of the frustrations she experienced as a person who was marginalized from full participation in her denominational fellowship because of her disability. In her presentation of Jesus Christ as The Disabled God (who retained the wounds of crucifixion in a body that was no longer constrained by the material world), she offers some compelling theological challenges to contemporary religious views on human wholeness and healing. She also well-supports an assessment that the church has not honestly confronted its own response to disability. The status quo, she says, effectively nullifies claims that all humans (regardless of form or ability) are in-fact truly welcomed. Eiesland's commentary is a well-supported and credible account, strengthened by testimony contributed from other believers with disabilities. This is an academic title which should interest readers of ethics, religious studies, and human rights. That said, the reading is rather sanitized and straight-forward, so it may not be satisfying to those who, like this reviewer, enjoy a more vibrant and imaginative brand of story telling.
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