Kirk VanGilder – författare

De-Ableizing Religion and Disability gathers new scholarship engaging both critical disability studies frameworks and the field of religious studies. In adopting decolonizing stances, authors engage a variety of global religious contexts to interrogate and identify new avenues at the intersection of disability and religion.The book explores the themes of survival, resistance, and flourishing as persons with disabilities in relation to religion across a diversity of contexts. Part 1 examines lived experiences including Black disabled Americans’ stories, religious trauma frameworks in Canada, the impact of war and colonialism on Buddhist empowerment discourse in Sri Lanka, gender fluid mediums in Vietnamese Mother Goddess religion, and ableism among food pantries. Part 2 seeks to de-ableize readings of scripture including comparative Qur’anic and Christian healing narratives and their implications for professional practice, reading Hebrew and Christian scriptures through the lens of Mad Studies, and debilitating violence in gospel narratives. Part 3 interrogates methods in religious studies by examining the material and corporeal study of religion (MCSR) in relation to special needs ministries, ambiguities of the DSM-V and “religious delusion,” disability and faith in the writings of Frederick Douglass’s, and a call to more fully integrate disability studies with Black religious studies.This cutting-edge volume will enrich the understanding of the complex relationship between disability and religion for scholars, researchers, and those seeking justice and flourishing for persons with disabilities.

De-Ableizing Religion and Disability gathers new scholarship engaging both critical disability studies frameworks and the field of religious studies. In adopting decolonizing stances, authors engage a variety of global religious contexts to interrogate and identify new avenues at the intersection of disability and religion.The book explores the themes of survival, resistance, and flourishing as persons with disabilities in relation to religion across a diversity of contexts. Part 1 examines lived experiences including Black disabled Americans’ stories, religious trauma frameworks in Canada, the impact of war and colonialism on Buddhist empowerment discourse in Sri Lanka, gender fluid mediums in Vietnamese Mother Goddess religion, and ableism among food pantries. Part 2 seeks to de-ableize readings of scripture including comparative Qur’anic and Christian healing narratives and their implications for professional practice, reading Hebrew and Christian scriptures through the lens of Mad Studies, and debilitating violence in gospel narratives. Part 3 interrogates methods in religious studies by examining the material and corporeal study of religion (MCSR) in relation to special needs ministries, ambiguities of the DSM-V and “religious delusion,” disability and faith in the writings of Frederick Douglass’s, and a call to more fully integrate disability studies with Black religious studies.This cutting-edge volume will enrich the understanding of the complex relationship between disability and religion for scholars, researchers, and those seeking justice and flourishing for persons with disabilities.

Missiological calls for self-theologizing among faith communities present the field of practical theology with a challenge to develop methodological approaches that address the complexities of cross-cultural, practical theological research. Although a variety of approaches can be considered critical correlative practical theology, existing methods are often built on assumptions that limit their use in subaltern contexts. Kirk VanGilder addresses these concerns by analyzing existing theological methodologies with sustained attention to a community of Deaf Zimbabwean women struggling to develop their own agency in relation to child rearing practices. He explores a variety of theological approaches from practical theology, mission oriented theologians, theology among Deaf communities, and African women's theology in relationship to the challenges presented by subaltern communities such as Deaf Zimbabwean women. Rather than frame a comprehensive methodology, VanGilder proposes attitudes and guideposts to reorient practical theological researchers who wish to engender self-theologizing agency in subaltern communities.