Disrupting Stories and Images of the Church

Allen G. Jorgenson is assistant Dean and professor of Systematic Theology at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary.Laura MacGregor is an independent scholar. Thomas E. Reynolds is associate professor of theology at Emmanuel College, of Victoria University.

• Acknowledgements Introduction Section One: Themes in Healing the Church with Disabilities Chapter One: Beyond Saints and Superheroes: A Phenomenological Study of the Spiritual Care Needs of Parents Raising Children with Disabilities Chapter Two: A Place to Belong Chapter Three: Cripping Space in the Sacraments Chapter Four: Beyond Transactional Ministry: Praying and Advocating with Jesus toward JusticeChapter Five: A Lens of Unproductivity: A Theological Hermeneutic for Disability Justice Chapter Six: Three Mothers, Three Stories: Spiritual Abuse, Theodicies, Disability, and ParentingChapter Seven: The Disabled and Eschatological Church Section Two: Disabling Images of the Church Chapter Eight: The Church as Kin (Cruise) ShipChapter Nine: Radical Re-Visioning Through Mad Studies: Advancing Mad-Justice in Faith Communities Chapter Ten: Negotiating Disclosure: To Mask or Not to Mask? Chapter Eleven: The Exclusionary Circle: Analysis and Response Chapter Twelve: The Church as a Rooted Tree, Or: Stayed on Jesus! A Partially-Preached Sermon Chapter Thirteen: Days of Fullness: Warm Bread as a Metaphor for Churches that Include People with Developmental Disabilities Section Three: Interreligious Insights for Disability Theology Chapter Fourteen: The Intersections of Faith, Culture and Disability: A Muslim-Canadian PerspectiveChapter Fifteen: Moments of Spirit: Access and Inclusion in Jewish LivingChapter Sixteen: Navigating the Two Buddhist Perspectives on DisabilityChapter Seventeen: A Sacred Bond: Indigenous Reflections on Disability, Love, and the ChurchChapter Eighteen: The Sacred Body: Exploring the Theologies of Difference in Islam

Disrupting Stories and Images of the Church is a wonderful collection of essays written by people with disabilities and/or family members and close colleagues who are totally honest about the highs and lows of their faith journeys and experiences in congregations. It is, essentially, an “invocation:” a plea and prayer to the people of God to see, accept, and include people with both their differences and similarities. They engross, illuminate, and compel both understanding and imagination, embodying the mantra of the current disability movement: “Nothing about me without me,” pointing paths toward a new us.