Why Disability Studies Needs to Take Religion Seriously
Journal Title: Religions - Year 2017, Vol 8, Issue 9
Abstract
Religion and theology are central ways that many people make sense of the world and their own place in that world. But the insights of critical studies of religion, or what is sometimes positioned as religious studies as opposed to theology, are scarce in disability literature. This article suggests some of the costs of this oversight and some of the benefits of including religion. First, this article discusses how some past scholarly engagements of disability and religion have misrepresented and denigrated Judaism. Second, it argues that Judaism paints different disabilities in quite different ways, and that we cannot coherently talk about “disability in Judaism” as if it is a single thing. Third, it discusses the medical model and the social model, and shows how one Jewish woman’s writing on pain complicates how we might think about these models. In this way, the article shows how religious studies can both help remedy past mistakes and bring new insights to disability studies.
Authors and Affiliations
Sarah Imhoff
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP25779
- DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/rel8090186
- Views 300
- Downloads 11
Drama & Demigods: Kingship and Charisma in Shakespeare’s England
Shakespearean charisma, with its medieval roots in both religion and politics, served as a precursor to Max Weber’s later understanding of the term. The on-stage portrayal of charismatic kingship in the twilight of the...
Habermas and Religious Communication: The Insufficiency of the Translation Proviso
Much has been debated and written about the translation proviso, its implications, and its rationality. At its core, it is about communication and a transition in religious communication that means it can become secula...
Integration of Spirituality and Religion in the Care of Patients with Severe Mental Disorders
Spirituality and religiousness (S/R) are resources for finding meaning and hope in suffering and have been identified as key components in the process of psychological recovery. However, religion may also be associated...
Five-Factor Structure of the Spiritual Transcendence Scale and Its Relationship with Clinical Psychological Distress in Emerging Adults
This study examined the factor structure of the Spiritual Transcendence Scale (STS) and its relation to clinically significant psychological distress in 644 (445 female) emerging adults from a private, Catholic univers...
Strange Bedfellows: Meditations on the Indispensable Virtues of Confusion, Mindfulness and Humor in the Neuroscientific and Cognitive Study of Esoteric and Contemplative Traditions
Several recent publications in the study of esoteric traditions have drawn together insights from scholars of religions and philosophy, contemplative communities, metaphor and conceptual blend theories, cognitive scien...