Abstract
Though Nancy Eiesland’s The Disabled God first introduced the identification of Jesus as disabled in 1994, sustained reflection on the person and work of Christ as disabled remains a mostly untapped wellspring for theological reflection in disability theology. Sitting with Christ’s disabled performativity, I identify Christ as disabled in both person and work, noting that recognizing disability in Christ’s person influences understandings of Christ’s work and vice versa. Establishing my use of the cultural model of disability, which I expand for use in constructive theology with Judith Butler’s notion of performativity, I examine resonances of the Disabled Christ in disability biblical studies, Augustine’s The City of God, and Julian of Norwich’s Showings. Next, I address assumptions that Jesus’ is only identified as disabled insofar as Christ takes on human nature in the Incarnation by proposing that kenosis is disabling. Reading Julian’s Parable of the Servant with narrative prosthesis and the feminist kenosis debate, I argue for kenosis as the emptying of hegemonic normalcy through the empowering performance of divine love in the shape of disability. Finally, I explore the Disabled Christ’s work of atonement by laying out Girard’s analysis of mimetic theory and scapegoating, offering critiques and possibilities for Girard’s work in a constructive disability theology. Following a discussion of Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo and Julian of Norwich’s atonement theology, I conclude by constructing an atonement theology in which Christ atones humanity to God through the disabled performance of Home, a Home found within the body of the Disabled Christ.
Degree Date
Spring 2021
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Department
Religious Studies
Advisor
D. Stephen Long
Second Advisor
Jaime Clark-Soles
Third Advisor
Natalia Marandiuc
Fourth Advisor
Thomas E. Reynolds
Fifth Advisor
Jeremy Schipper
Subject Area
Religion, Theology/Religious Education
Number of Pages
413
Format
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Recommended Citation
Hancock, Lisa, "Jesus Christ, Revelation of Love: A Christology of the Disabled Christ" (2021). Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations. 30.
https://scholar.smu.edu/religious_studies_etds/30
