BOOK REVIEW
This 176 page book, which includes a chapter study guide, is
reflective of Yong’s engaging personal speaking style and is targeted to the
layperson and local church pastor. Yong,
the J. Rodman Williams Professor of Theology at Regent University School of
Divinity, revisits the same themes found in his earlier systematic work
entitled Theology and Down Syndrome (2008),
yet does so in a manner more accessible for most readers. While a few of the million dollar theological
words remain, they are appropriately defined in context and would not hinder
the reader from comprehension.
Yong defines his presuppositions early on: people with disabilities
are created in the image of God, they are people first, and they are not evil
blemishes to be eliminated or fixed into normal. He posits that most people read their normal
experiences into the Biblical narrative, resulting in the social marginalization
of people with disabilities; it is only by recognizing the inherent prejudices
that the Biblical reader understands how these passages actually indicate God
has fully welcomed people with disabilities into full social inclusion and
joint ministry. Yong continues that it
is the person (and church structures) without disabilities that must be saved
from practicing discrimination.
Yong moves out of his comfort zone of systematic theology
into the realm of biblical theology to make his point. His line of argument extends from the First
Testament with Job, Jacob and Mephibosheth into the New Testament with Zacheus,
the Ethiopian Eunuch and Paul. By
asserting that people with disabilities are central to the redemptive history gospel
accounts, he concludes that they are also fully part of the post-Pentecost church
age and must be a vital functioning part of the body of Christ in order for the
church to accomplish its mission.
Yong completes his work with a re-examination of
resurrection life. Many normate
understandings presume that resurrected beings have no direct links to the
disabled bodies of this age and therefore should be fixed on this side of
eternity. Yong rejects this perspective
by looking at the resurrected, yet nail scarred body of Christ. He boldly claims since people marked with
disabilities do have a place in God’s new creation even more so should there be
a place for them in the church today.
Yong’s positions are a welcome refrain to those within the
disability family. They also cause
appropriate discomfort for those persons outside (or even very close) to that
community, yet not currently disabled themselves. Yong has delicately balanced two evangelical strands
of tradition – a yearning for liberation and a yearning for wholeness. His brief comments on the concept of the
church as one body with many members reveal excellent points, but a full scale
discussion of how the gifts are fully appropriated without discrimination
within the body has not yet been fully developed. It is this resulting tension which reveals
much more work can be done.
This book is a must read for all pastors and those that
minister alongside people with disabilities.
It lays an excellent Biblical foundation on why disability ministry
should exist within the local church.
With the enclosed study questions, it can easily be adapted into a small
group Bible study for those in your church who wish to catch the vision of a
disabled-inclusive congregation.
The Bible, Disability, and the Church: A New Vision of thePeople of God. Amos Yong (Grand Rapids,
MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 2011). 176 pp. Paperback, $20.00,
ISBN: 978-0-8028-6608-0.
