Disability and a theology of hope

I am going to look at some real problems we have, not problems associated with disability but problems that perhaps feed some of the discriminatory attitudes that are attached to lives of disability. I have picked out four problems, what I want to call dis-eases, feeling ill at ease: first, the dis-ease of loneliness; second, the dis-ease of idolising autonomy and power; third, the dis-ease of distrust of the heart; and fourth, the dis-ease of the search for ephemeral perfection. Problems that all contribute to a growing sense of hopelessness. Just to be clear, these are real problems that are had by people whether or not they have a disability. I am going to parallel each of these problems with an insight based on the experience of living with disability, and specifically intellectual disability, but an experience enriched by theology. I am going to offer a different perspective of people with disabilities, one that shows not only how people with disabilities can challenge today’s thinking but also how they can help save people from despair. This all may seem topsy-turvey, the wrong way round. But I really do think that we are missing something significant if we only focus on what is going wrong through society’s attitude to people with disabilities.