The village of Trosly-Breuil in northern France is home to one of the world's thirty-four L'Arche communities, where people with and without intellectual disabilities live and work together. In 2007 the impressive group of social scientists and theologians who contribute to this book gathered there to respond to a question posed by the worldwide community's cofounder, Jean Vanier: "What have people with disabilities taught me?"

Editor Hans Reinders emphasizes that the purpose of these analyses and reflections is not to set those with disabilities apart. He explains that it is not their being disabled that makes them special, but rather that sharing their experience enables us to see things that we otherwise readily ignore - and to understand the fullness of what it means to be human.