This book is an excellent starting place for people interested in the history of disability advocacy and its intersection with the Christian tradition.
Written by a Catholic Dominican, Copious Hosting posits a “theology of access” rooted in the history of the disability rights movement and centered in liturgical participation. As with many books on disability, the author admits to being a “secondary consumer” of disability culture, but such an admission is itself an important inclusion.
The book makes a number of important distinctions early: There are many definitions of disability, and many loci of oppression of people with disabilities. Weiss Block includes both the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) definition of disability, a cultural definition whereby the “interaction between individual and environment is disrupted,” as well as a concise rendering of the social model: disability as a “socially constructed form of biological reality.” Without choosing a lane, Weiss Block is sure to insist that disability is not a category that we all inhabit. We are not all “differently-abled.”
A significant portion of the book is devoted to charting the history of disability visibility and activism in the United States, starting with Rosemary Kennedy and the post-war era and extending to the “present day” (the book was published in 2002). Weiss Block hones in on the values of the modern Disability Rights Movement: “Consumer control,” advocacy, self-determination, supports, the difference between normalization and valorization, and “the dignity of risk.” These values are important in both professional and familial contexts: Part of intrinsic dignity is recognizing that disability “solutions” must be based on the wishes of disabled people, and disabled people ought to be empowered to take risks and make decisions to the extent that they can and wish to.
In the section on types of ableist oppression, Weiss Block names eugenics, paternalism, domination, and particularly, language. She outlines a number of linguistic choices made when discussing disability that betray “low expectations” of disabled life. Words like “burden,” “subhuman,” “menace,” “pity,” “sick,” and “grotesque” have all been used across history to describe disabled life; nowadays, language can take on a subversive role, but can also be more insidious. Think terms like “crip” or “special.”
None of this work is specifically religious in nature, but it provides crucial and oft-forgotten context to theological work. When the book shifts to the Christian tradition about halfway through, readers are already primed to attend to linguistic bias that so often crops up in Christian interpretation.
Weiss Block explicitly names “heteronormativity” as a lens for how disability is viewed in Church spaces, a move reminiscent of scholars at the intersection of feminism, queerness, and disability.
Still, the book stops short of constructing a robust disability theology. Ultimately, Weiss Block argues that disability is a mystery that teaches us something about God, but that something is not named. Weiss Block argues that the theological solution is not even necessarily one of liberation. The main work to be done, in the eyes of Copious Hosting, is to increase access, particularly to the liturgy and sacraments.
Here, the book takes a particularly Catholic position, as the notion of accessibility to the sacraments is bound up in notions of sin, formation, and worthiness. Copious Hosting points readers to the Church’s specific documents on the rules of the liturgy, but does not name specific programs.
Weiss Block names teachings that ought to inform such a program, were it to exist: Christ as an “eschatological gift” bringing hope to humanity, Christ as implicitly relational, the Holy Spirit as advocate, and Church as a model for inclusive community. As I read this proposal, I immediately thought of the SPRED program here in my native Chicago. CLICK HERE to learn more about SPRED.
Ultimately, this book is more historical than theological, but it is a robust, all-in-one welcome to the field, and is my personal favorite to recommend people just starting to think about disability, justice, and Church. It’s written in an accessible and direct way, with broad but firm consideration of various perspectives on disability-as-identity.