Disability advocates and Church theologians will lead a conference to rethink practical Christian understandings of disability and limitation and what they might tell us about being human. Source: ACU.
Australian Catholic University’s Institute of Religion and Critical Inquiry, together with The Loyola Institute, will host “Idol Talk? In the Image of the Disabled God: Disability, the Imago Dei and Practical Consequences” at ACU’s Melbourne campus, on May 22-23.
The conference follows the presentation of An Unlimited Joy to the General Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops in 2022, a document containing the contributions of more than 30 faithful with disabilities from five continents.
One of the document’s contributors, Fr Justin Glyn SJ, general counsel to the Jesuits’ Australian Province, is an architect of the Idol Talk conference.
A priest, civil lawyer, and canon lawyer who “sees the world as a fuzzy blur”, Fr Glyn has written and consulted extensively on disability, the Image of God, and the Incarnation.
Born with nystagmus, a condition that causes rapid involuntary movement of his eyes, Fr Glyn said the upcoming conference would invite deeper theological reflection on God’s design of the human person where all people, not simply those with disabilities, were considered as being limited.
Institute researcher Kylie Crabbe is one of the conference organisers and is leading an Australian Research Council funded project studying the early Christian context of biblical treatments of ability and disability.
Associate Professor Crabbe said the conference would be a landmark opportunity for deepening the Christian understanding of disability.
“We are missing out on the richness of Christian tradition when we presume narrow accounts of the nature of human experience,” Professor Crabbe said.
“This includes the experiences found within the Bible, where limitation and disability is prevalent and Jesus himself embraces infirmity.”
Dr Philip McCosker, director of the IRCI’s Religion and Theology research program, said: “As we navigate major transitions within the Church and beyond, we will try to build on Pope Francis’s critical legacy of rethinking Church and life from the outside in, from the bottom up, putting peripheries at the centre.”
Details and registrations: Idol Talk? In the Image of the Disabled God: Disability, the Imago Dei and Practical Consequences.
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Pathbreaking conference aims to reimagine disability in the Church (ACU)
