-
Speaking With Us, Not For Us: Neurodiversity, Theology and Justice
- Author(s):
- Naomi Lawson Jacobs (see profile)
- Date:
- 2023
- Group(s):
- Critical Disability Studies, Religious Studies
- Subject(s):
- Theology, Practical, Disability studies, Autism, Neurodiversity
- Item Type:
- Article
- Tag(s):
- autoethnography, critical autism studies, autism theology, critical disability theory, epistemic injustice
- Permanent URL:
- https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:57707/
- Abstract:
- To belong in the Christian tradition, we must be able to contribute to it. Yet neurodivergent Christians have rarely been enabled to tell our own stories about ourselves as a vital part of God’s (neuro)diverse creation. In common with other autism research, academic theology is framed by pathologizing clinical paradigms of autism; neurodivergent people’s situated knowledge about ourselves has not always been valued in the field. In this aut-ethnography, I use reflections from a decade of engaging with autism theology – often a painful experience of Othering – to frame a response informed by critical autism and neurodiversity studies. Drawing on lived theology from autistic research participants, I consider what our neurodiversity theologies have to offer to academic theology. Finally, I ask how theologians can do justly by speaking with, not for, neurodivergent people. [Preprint submitted to the Journal of Disability & Religion special issue on neurodiversity and theological education]
- Metadata:
- xml
- Status:
- Published
- Last Updated:
- 5 months ago
- License:
- Attribution
preprint_manuscript.pdf