Disability and religious diversity
Book Description
This groundbreaking collection brings together diverse voices to explore one of humanity's most profound intersections: where faith meets disability and chronic illness. Editor Darla Y. Schumm has assembled scholars, practitioners, and individuals with lived experience to examine how the world's major religious traditions understand, represent, and respond to disability.
Through varied methodological approaches including ethnography, historical analysis, personal narrative, and theological investigation, contributors reveal how different faith communities have shaped attitudes toward disability throughout history and in contemporary practice. The collection draws extensively from disability studies scholarship, creating a rich comparative framework that spans multiple cultures, religions, and academic disciplines.
What makes this work particularly powerful is its authentic perspective. Many contributors write from their own experiences of living with disability or chronic illness, offering insights that bridge academic theory with lived reality. Their voices illuminate how religious communities can both challenge and perpetuate societal attitudes toward disability.
This interdisciplinary exploration appeals to readers across multiple communities: those within disability communities seeking spiritual understanding, scholars in religious and cultural studies, healthcare and social service professionals, and religious practitioners from various traditions. The collection offers valuable perspectives for anyone interested in how faith traditions can foster greater inclusion and understanding.
By examining these intersections through multiple religious lenses, the book opens pathways for deeper compassion and more inclusive spiritual communities.
Who Is This For?
📖 Reading Level: Medium (200-400 pages) (~6 hours)
📄 Length: 234 pages
What You'll Discover
- ✓ Explore RELIGION / General
- ✓ Explore Religious aspects
- ✓ Explore RELIGION / Christian Theology / General
- ✓ Explore Disabilities
- ✓ Explore RELIGION / Islam / General
- ✓ Explore Human body, religious aspects
- ✓ Explore RELIGION / History
- ✓ Explore Chronic diseases
