David B. Mcewan – författare

In the Gospels we encounter many people who were shunned by their society because they lived with some form of impairment. In stark contrast, Jesus embraces these people and offers compassion without condescension, relationship without ulterior motive, and provides them with practical help. Subsequent history has rarely matched his ministry, particularly for people living with intellectual impairment and their families. Based on personal interviews with a number of families who have children living with intellectual impairment, two major challenges constantly impacted them--a longing for people to treat their child as a person and to form genuine friendships with them. Written from a Wesleyan perspective, this book seeks to address these two issues from a theological and pastoral perspective. It offers practical help for anyone to initiate and develop healthy friendships with people who live with moderate to severe intellectual impairment, their families, and carers.

During the last 40 years a considerable amount of scholarly attention has been given to John Wesley's way of doing theology. There is extensive debate within Wesleyan circles (particularly in North America) regarding the conception and utility of his theological method, usually identified as the Wesleyan quadrilateral (Scripture, reason, tradition and experience). Many claim it is a unique and fruitful model, with invaluable application for the church today. In this book, Wesley's theological methodology is uncovered from the perspective of his holistic vision of the God-human relationship being centred in love and defined by the qualities of trust and passion, rather than an intellectual comprehension of propositional truths about God. Accordingly, pastoral theology is much more important than academic, systematic theology for Christian experience and spiritual formation. In Wesley's theological method Scripture, reason, community ethos and Christian experience are utilised in an interconnected dynamic network, energised by the presence of the Holy Spirit. God is clearly the sole theological authority and the elements of the system are the means he uses for communication with his people.