Many early Anabaptists held the concept of Gelassenheit near to the heart of their understanding ... more Many early Anabaptists held the concept of Gelassenheit near to the heart of their understanding of theology and ethics. However, Gelassenheit has become a term that may be used colloquially but has largely fallen out of scholarly discourse. This essay attempts to reclaim an understanding of it for contemporary Anabaptism while at the same time showing the liberatory power that it can have for understanding the places and roles of people with intellectual disabilities in our communities today. The author brings Gelassenheit into a particular realm of the ethical and suggests where it may find a place in the world of disability theology. There has never been a consensus on what exactly is meant by the term Gelassenheit. While scholars agree that it was used widely among early Anabaptists-particularly those from a "mystical" stream-how various individuals employed it was slightly nuanced. 1 Additionally, the difficulty in coming to a precise understanding of Gelassenheit today is compounded by the fact that it does not easily translate into English. Indeed, in an essay attempting to recover an understanding of Gelassenheit for 20th-century Anabaptists, Robert Friedmann noted up to fifteen different possible English renderings of the word. 2 Friedmann, like many who came after him, settled 1 See Walter Klaassen, "'Gelassenheit' and Creation, " The Conrad Grebel Review 9, no. 1 (1991): 23-35. Klaassen begins the arduous task of assessing and explicating the various nuanced views of early Anabaptist understandings of Gelassenheit, but more work must be done to fully recognize the breadth of usage across the early radical reformers. 2 Friedmann lists the following terms as possible renderings:
The Journal of the Christian Institute on Disability, 2019
This paper engages both the work of Karl Barth and Jean Vanier to show how, read together, they p... more This paper engages both the work of Karl Barth and Jean Vanier to show how, read together, they provide an account of why persons with disabilities must be included within the life of the church. Barth and Vanier provide a rationale that insists that persons with disabilities must not be excluded and that in radically including persons with disabilities in our communities, we embark on a journey towards greater human flourishing, both for persons with impairments and those without. Daniel Rempel is a PhD student at the University of Aberdeen. Prior to that, Daniel worked as a disability support worker for just over four years, first at a day program for adults with disabilities, and more recently in a home with three gentlemen with intellectual and physical disabilities. Daniel_Rempel@
Throughout its history, the church has done a poor job including persons with disability. This ha... more Throughout its history, the church has done a poor job including persons with disability. This has often been the result of implicit understandings of rationalism or ableism within modern western society. Additionally, within the Christian tradition, there has been a trend to assume a link between disability and sin. In an attempt to reconcile the problem of inclusion and disability, many theologians have recently begun crafting theologies of liberation, access, and inclusion. However, many of these theologies of disability have not been inclusive of persons with profound intellectual disability, as many theologies of liberation and access assume a particular amount of purposive self agency, or the ability of a person to speak and act for themselves. Thus, even within these theologies of disability that attempt to provide a rationale for the inclusion of persons with disability, persons with profound intellectual disability remain actively barred from inclusion and participation. In this thesis, I combat the exclusion of persons with disability, as well as the implicit assumptions of rationalism, ableism, and the perceived link between sin and disability, by attempting to understand persons with disability first through the lens of theological anthropology. I examine the relational theological anthropology of Karl Barth, which understands humanity not through any innate capacities or abilities, but through the person of Jesus Christ, as a way of crafting a framework for disability theology. Additionally, Barth's anthropology is grounded in his doctrine of election, which I also examine. However, in Barth's corpus, he does not explicitly examine some of the questions surrounding persons with disability. Thus, to bridge the gap between disability and Barth's theological anthropology and doctrine of election, I place Barth in conversation with Jean Vanier, identifying similarities between Barth and Vanier that will help us to come to a more holistic understanding of inclusion and disability.
Many early Anabaptists held the concept of Gelassenheit near to the heart of their understanding ... more Many early Anabaptists held the concept of Gelassenheit near to the heart of their understanding of theology and ethics. However, Gelassenheit has become a term that may be used colloquially but has largely fallen out of scholarly discourse. This essay attempts to reclaim an understanding of it for contemporary Anabaptism while at the same time showing the liberatory power that it can have for understanding the places and roles of people with intellectual disabilities in our communities today. The author brings Gelassenheit into a particular realm of the ethical and suggests where it may find a place in the world of disability theology. There has never been a consensus on what exactly is meant by the term Gelassenheit. While scholars agree that it was used widely among early Anabaptists-particularly those from a "mystical" stream-how various individuals employed it was slightly nuanced. 1 Additionally, the difficulty in coming to a precise understanding of Gelassenheit today is compounded by the fact that it does not easily translate into English. Indeed, in an essay attempting to recover an understanding of Gelassenheit for 20th-century Anabaptists, Robert Friedmann noted up to fifteen different possible English renderings of the word. 2 Friedmann, like many who came after him, settled 1 See Walter Klaassen, "'Gelassenheit' and Creation, " The Conrad Grebel Review 9, no. 1 (1991): 23-35. Klaassen begins the arduous task of assessing and explicating the various nuanced views of early Anabaptist understandings of Gelassenheit, but more work must be done to fully recognize the breadth of usage across the early radical reformers. 2 Friedmann lists the following terms as possible renderings:
The Journal of the Christian Institute on Disability, 2019
This paper engages both the work of Karl Barth and Jean Vanier to show how, read together, they p... more This paper engages both the work of Karl Barth and Jean Vanier to show how, read together, they provide an account of why persons with disabilities must be included within the life of the church. Barth and Vanier provide a rationale that insists that persons with disabilities must not be excluded and that in radically including persons with disabilities in our communities, we embark on a journey towards greater human flourishing, both for persons with impairments and those without. Daniel Rempel is a PhD student at the University of Aberdeen. Prior to that, Daniel worked as a disability support worker for just over four years, first at a day program for adults with disabilities, and more recently in a home with three gentlemen with intellectual and physical disabilities. Daniel_Rempel@
Throughout its history, the church has done a poor job including persons with disability. This ha... more Throughout its history, the church has done a poor job including persons with disability. This has often been the result of implicit understandings of rationalism or ableism within modern western society. Additionally, within the Christian tradition, there has been a trend to assume a link between disability and sin. In an attempt to reconcile the problem of inclusion and disability, many theologians have recently begun crafting theologies of liberation, access, and inclusion. However, many of these theologies of disability have not been inclusive of persons with profound intellectual disability, as many theologies of liberation and access assume a particular amount of purposive self agency, or the ability of a person to speak and act for themselves. Thus, even within these theologies of disability that attempt to provide a rationale for the inclusion of persons with disability, persons with profound intellectual disability remain actively barred from inclusion and participation. In this thesis, I combat the exclusion of persons with disability, as well as the implicit assumptions of rationalism, ableism, and the perceived link between sin and disability, by attempting to understand persons with disability first through the lens of theological anthropology. I examine the relational theological anthropology of Karl Barth, which understands humanity not through any innate capacities or abilities, but through the person of Jesus Christ, as a way of crafting a framework for disability theology. Additionally, Barth's anthropology is grounded in his doctrine of election, which I also examine. However, in Barth's corpus, he does not explicitly examine some of the questions surrounding persons with disability. Thus, to bridge the gap between disability and Barth's theological anthropology and doctrine of election, I place Barth in conversation with Jean Vanier, identifying similarities between Barth and Vanier that will help us to come to a more holistic understanding of inclusion and disability.
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