Disability in Religious Thought and Practice

Disability is a fact of human life. Members of every community and congregation are disabled—from birth, from age, or intermittently throughout their lifespans.
But what is disability and how does it affect our spiritual communities? What do we gain—and lose—by fitting our wildly varying bodies into simplistic dis/ability binaries? How has disability served as justification for exclusion and abuse and what does it look like to strive for autonomy and equality?

This syncronous online course will address these questions in three major areas: disability and crip theory, disability in sacred texts, and religious movements for disability inclusion and justice. These will be considered from multiple perspectives and in the context of multiple religious traditions and communities.

The format includes one hour per week of asynchronous pre-recorded lecture and two hours of synchronous mixed lecture and seminar-style discussion.

Work includes regular written reading reflections, participation in in-class discussions, and a final project.

Degrees: MDiv and MASC
Thresholds: 1 (LIFE IN RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY AND INTERFAITH ENGAGEMENT); 3 (SACRED TEXT AND INTERPRETATION); 6 (Theo/alogy in Culture and Context); 7 (Educating for Wholeness and Liberation)
MFC Competencies: 4 (Social Justice in the Public Square); 8 (Theology)

Enrollment Max: 20. Auditors excluded.