Midterm Concept Audit

Theological source - scripture

The Bible and its stories, teachings, images, and theological claims.

Theological source - tradition

The accumulated beliefs, interpretations, practices, rituals, and teachings of the Christian community.

Theological source - experience

People's lived experiences, including experiences of disability, discrimination, embodiment, community, and exclusion.

Theological source - reason

Logic, critical thinking, philosophy, and rational analysis.

Disability theology field

A field of theology that examines disability, God, Christianity, and disabled people's lived experiences while challenging ableist assumptions.

Disability theology method

It examines traditional theology through disabled people's experiences and asks how theology can promote dignity, inclusion, and justice.

Moral model

Disability is understood as resulting from moral wrongdoing, sin, or personal failure.

Religious model

Disability is interpreted through religious or spiritual meanings such as testing, blessing, possession, healing, or punishment.

Medical/normalization model

Disability is primarily understood as a biological or medical condition located in the individual.

Social model

Disability is created or intensified by social barriers rather than being only a problem within the individual.

Identity (affirmation) model

Disability is understood as an important identity and form of human diversity that can create pride and community.

Human rights model

Disabled people are understood as having equal rights, dignity, participation, and freedom from discrimination.

Economic model

Disability is examined through employment, productivity, healthcare costs, benefits, and economic participation.

Cultural model

Disability is examined through cultural meanings, language, media, art, religion, and representation.

Charity model

Disabled people are viewed primarily as recipients of help from others.

Limits model

A model recognizing that all humans have limitations and depend on others.

Accessible Theology Method

A method that examines whether theology includes disabled people and takes their lived experiences seriously.

Symbols- how do they work?

Repeated associations can shape how society understands disabled bodies.

Bodies of knowledge

Bodies and lived experiences can be sources of knowledge, not just objects studied by theology.

Subhuman organism

Disabled people were viewed as less than fully human.

Menace to society

Disabled people were portrayed as dangerous or threatening.

Object of pity

Disabled people were viewed mainly as unfortunate people deserving sympathy.

Burden to society

Disabled people were viewed as costly or burdensome.

Object of ridicule

Disabled people were mocked or treated as entertainment.

Eternal child

Disabled adults were treated as permanently childlike and denied full adulthood.

Grotesque/freak

Disabled bodies were portrayed as strange, frightening, or abnormal.

Possessed

Disability was interpreted as evidence of demonic or spiritual possession.

Lacking faith

Disability or illness was interpreted as evidence of insufficient faith.

Holy innocent

Disabled people were viewed as pure or innocent because of their disability.

Caused by sin

Disability was interpreted as punishment for sin.

Prophet

Disabled people were viewed as having special spiritual insight or a message for others.

“Least of these”

Disabled people may be included among those whom Christians are called to serve and care for.

Supercrip

A disabled person is portrayed as extraordinary because they accomplish things despite disability.

Special

Disabled people are portrayed as unusually inspirational, innocent, or extraordinary.

Devalued

Disabled people are considered to have less worth than nondisabled people.

Broken

Disability is treated as making someone defective or incomplete.

Invisible

Disability is ignored, excluded, or made socially unseen.

Romanticized

Disability is portrayed as beautiful or inspirational while ignoring real difficulties.

Social history of disabilities in the U.S.

The changing treatment and understanding of disabled people in the U.S., from institutionalization and charity toward disability rights, independence, accessibility, and self-determination.

Centers for independent living

Organizations emphasizing disability rights, peer support, advocacy, accessibility, and community living.

They challenged institutionalization and promoted disabled people's control over their lives.

Camp Jened

A summer camp for young people with disabilities that helped foster disability community and activism.

ADA (1990)

It established disability discrimination as a civil rights issue under federal law.

It addresses employment, public services, public accommodations, transportation, and telecommunications.

Advocacy

Efforts to change systems, policies, attitudes, and conditions affecting disabled people.

Self-determination

The right and ability to make decisions about one's own life.

The Dignity of Risk

The idea that people should be allowed to make choices and take reasonable risks rather than being overprotected.

Natural Supports

Support provided through ordinary relationships such as family, friends, coworkers, and neighbors.

Supported employment and living

Providing supports that allow disabled people to work in ordinary employment settings and live in community settings of their choice.

Assistive tech

Tools or technology that help people communicate, move, learn, or perform activities.

Universal Design

Designing environments and products to be usable by as many people as possible without special adaptation.

Body Politics

The ways society categorizes, regulates, values, and controls different kinds of bodies.

Disability reveals assumptions about which bodies are considered normal, valuable, or acceptable.

Institutionalization

Placing disabled people in segregated institutions away from the broader community.

It can cause isolation, loss of autonomy, segregation, and abuse.

Rehabilitation

Efforts to help people develop or regain physical, psychological, or social functioning.

Critique of therapeutic and rehab approaches

Rehabilitation can become harmful when its goal is making disabled people conform to nondisabled norms.

Minority group model

A model that understands disabled people as a social minority experiencing discrimination and oppression.

It shifts attention from individual deficits to discrimination, stigma, and social power.

Stigma

A negative social label that causes a person or group to be devalued or marginalized.

Sin-disability conflation

Treating sin and disability as connected or equivalent.

It can make disability a moral judgment and encourage blame or shame.

Virtuous suffering

The belief that suffering can make someone morally or spiritually better.

It can romanticize suffering and discourage efforts to remove unnecessary suffering.

Individualistic/segregationist charity and healing

Helping an individual disabled person without challenging the larger systems creating exclusion.

Providing care while keeping disabled people separate from the broader community.

Disability as a “special interest”

Treating disability as relevant only to disabled people rather than as a concern for the whole community.

Theological implications of the Disabled God

A theological image of God revealed through Christ's disabled/wounded resurrected body.

It challenges the assumption that perfection requires an able-bodied, flawless body.

Resymbolization

Changing the meanings attached to symbols so disability is no longer associated only with sin, brokenness, or deficiency.

Ex: Reinterpreting disability from a symbol of brokenness into a symbol of human embodiment and dignity.

Holding our bodies together (collective)

Recognizing that people are interconnected and communities have responsibilities toward one another.

Communion of justice

A Christian community based on justice, inclusion, equality, and full participation.

Church as communion of struggle

The church should share struggles and work together toward justice and inclusion.

Eucharist as body practice

Accessibility at the Eucharist tests whether the church truly practices bodily inclusion and communion.

“Hidden membership role”

Disabled people may be present in church but limited to receiving care rather than fully participating.

Laying on of hands

A Christian practice of prayer, blessing, or healing through physical touch. Disability theology asks whether it respects disabled people as full participants or treats them as people who need to be “fixed” or healed.

Disart

Art created by disabled people that expresses disability experiences, challenges stereotypes and ableism, and presents disability as a meaningful part of human identity and culture.