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FAITH THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

Subject: Theology of the Disabled
Topic: Church as Inclusive Community: Ecclesiology from Disability
Perspective
Presenter: Joycy Tunyi
Class: MTH 1 Ethics Department

Evaluator: Dr. Matthew C. Varghese

1. Introduction:

Within the Church, everyone claims and believe that humans are created in the image of
God and after God created humanity, God declared us to be very good. This declaration
means that we all bear the image of God, regardless of health, wealth, power, status, class,
race, nationality etc. It defines that we all bear the image of God regardless of physical,
development or mental ability. As our nation has grown and matured and continued
advancing, we all have come to a crossroads where we have been forced to acknowledge
that we all are far from reaching the ideals of equality, inclusion and diversity. The Church
must take the lead in the discussion of diversity and ultimately disability. Since people with
disabilities are the largest minority group in the world and the singularly most missed voice
in the Church, the church must contend for its future by reframing its resolve to live up to
the lofty. Persons with mental illness are not defined by their illness, they are persons just
like us with the same spiritual hopes and needs like the abled people. In this paper, we will
discuss certain topics in ephemeral from the Disabled perspective which are Church as an
inclusive community, Ecclesiology, Imago Dei and the Body of Christ.

2. Church as an inclusive community:

John Gray carried the concept of the Kingdom of God to explain Church as an inclusive
community. The Biblical concept of the Kingdom of God is not a state which may be fully
realized even by those who commit themselves to the sovereignty of God, nor a
programme which they may adequately fulfil by their organized efforts. The Kingdom is
rather the dynamic power of God as Sovereign, encouraging response, challenging,
arresting, bringing new life, realising new potential, inspiring new hope, opening new
horizons for endeavour in His service. He says that the Kingdom has been offered to all and
more specifically many have responded, but in varying degree. He states that the Kingdom
of God will always remain a higher ideal than the Church. 1 Jena illustrates that since God
loves the world, all the human beings and everything in this world, the Church’s
1
John Gray, The Biblical Doctrine of the Reign of God (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1979), 369.

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understanding of the Gospel needs to be much wider, deeper and richer in our relation
with people of other living faiths. Our broader understanding of God’s love and mission will
help us be an inclusive community.2

Caring community are groups of people who have a strong commitment to the group and
common interest in giving encouragement, guidance and healing when they are
psychologically, mentally, spiritually, relationally in need. The church has the greatest
potential for being a caring and healing community. The Church is created to fulfil the Great
Commission of making disciples and teaching. The true church always has been headed by
Jesus Christ who shows us how to evangelised, teach and live. 3 Jesus reached out to the
marginalized in society who were suffering from all kinds of discrimination and His
community was a fully inclusive one where all kinds of people gathered together. Church at
its heart is a community of equals and as the embodiment of Christ, it has a call to continue
Jesus’ egalitarian ministry. Created in the image of God, we are not to discriminate against
but to celebrate the differences of every individual.4

3. Ecclesiology:

The word Church is taken from the Greek word which means the called out, the
summoned. Ek signifies that it was a select company gathered from the common mass and
Klesio denotes that the assembly was legally called. Therefore, the word Ecclesiology comes
from the Greek word Ekklesia which means Church/assembly and logy which means study
of which refers to the study of the Church. The term Ekklesia is used predominantly
throughout the New Testament to refer to the Church. A church in the Bible is mostly
referred to people and not to buildings; Christians were/are the Church. 5 According to the
Bible, the purposes of the Church should be teaching the Biblical doctrine, providing a place
of fellowship for believers, observing the Lord’s supper, prayer etc. 6

Ecclesiology is the branch of theology that deals with the study of the Church. It helps an
individual to understand the role of the church and the role of the people in the church. It
also teaches an individual the ordinances of the church. It is the theological doctrine of the
Church. It guides towards the biblical understanding of how Christians relate to one
another, to God and to unbelievers.7

In broader scope, Dr. Augustus Strong defines the Church as “the whole company of
regenerate persons in all times and ages, in heaven and on earth, being identical with the
spiritual kingdom of God”.8 Peter Phan affirms that the mission defines the church, “The
Church comes to be only because it has been called to mission. It exists for the sake of
2
Purna Chandra Jena, Hope of the Church: Lay Movements (Delhi: ISPCK, 2005), 65.
3
Gary R. Collins, Christian Counselling (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2007), 40-41.
4
Patrick Chang, Rainbow Theology: Bridging Race, Sexuality and Spirit (New York: Seabury Books, 2013), 86-
95.
5
https://www.compellingtruth.org/ecclesiology.html accessed on 18 September 2021.
6
https://www.gotquestions.org/Ecclesiology.html accessed on 18 September 2021.
7
https://www.compellingtruth.org/ecclesiology.html accessed on 18 September 2021.
8
Ernest S. Williams, Systematic Theology: Vol 3 (Missouri: Gospel Publishing House, 1981), 93.

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mission. Mission defines what the church is and what it must do”. According to Martin
Luther, the church is not a construction in which people gather but is the preaching of the
Word of God that makes the true Church.9

4. Imago Dei (The image of God):

The image of God is deeply rooted in our rational and moral perspective and thereby
creates a distinction between image of God and the likeness of God. The image of God
is defined by rationality, moral freedom and responsibility while the likeness of God is
taken as the robe of sanctity which was bestowed on Adam by the Holy Spirit. But this
structural view of the imago Dei directly criticizes a person with disability. If the image
of God is rooted in rational thought, morality and responsibility, the people with the
down syndrome cannot posses the image of God. Thereby, the people with disabilities
are criticized and marginalized even with regard to the image of God. 10

Accordingly, the functional view of Imago Dei signifies that the image of God exists in
not what we are but in what we do. This clearly points the image of God in functional
sense as evident from Genesis 1:26 where God commands humanity to have dominion
and responsibility over all creation. However, this view seems biased against the people
with disabilities in the sense that they have less physical and intellectual function
compared with the abled people.11

In Dynamic View of Imago Dei, it focuses to the future and not present nor past. The
Imago Dei is the goal that God intends for His creatures and is a future reality. The view
is rooted in eschatology and is in the resurrection and new creation that human will
bear the image of God. Therefore, disabilities are not placed in a hierarchy of
brokenness but all humanity is working towards the goal of the image of God. 12

In Copious Hosting, Jennie Block points a picture of an Accessible God which implies
that everyone has a place regardless of physical condition. This image of God reflects
inclusion and accessibility, signifying that bearing the image of God means to include all
people, especially those with disabilities. 13 Besides that, Kathy Black presents a different
context of the image of God as Interdependent God. She gave the view that not only
the disabled people but all people are dependent in some way or the other. This
perspective values each and every individual to be agents of God’s healing compassion.
This image of God suggests that Imago Dei is relational in the essence that when all are
in communion together with God including the disabilities, it exhibits the true image of

9
Alister E McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction (University of Oxford: Blackwell Publication, 2001),
481.
10
Amos Yong, Theology and down Syndrome: Reimagining Disability in Late Modernity (Texas: Baylor
University Press, 2007), 172.
11
Amos Yong, Theology and down Syndrome: Reimagining Disability in Late Modernity… 173.
12
Stanley J. Grenz, Theology for the Community of God (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1994), 173.
13
Jennie Weiss Block, Copious Hosting: A Theology of Access for People with Disabilities (New York:
Continuum, 2002), 122.

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God which turn leads to healing.14 Furthermore, Nancy Eiesland presents a different
perspective in the Disabled God, which signifies as disabled people to be either divinely
blessed or damned, an evil doer or a spiritual superhero. This perspective of the
disabled God can be derived from the resurrected Christ whose hand and feet were
pierced and impaired, thereby representations of the Disabled God. This signifies to be
an image of God and thereby allowing people with disabilities to accept their disabilities
as a symbol of solidarity and wholeness.15

5. The Body of Jesus Christ:

Of the innumerable biblical metaphors for the church is that of the body of Christ. The
metaphor of the Church as the body of Christ describes relationship that exists between
Christ and the church. The Church is the body of Christ in the sense that it is constituted by
Christ and enlivened by his indwelling. The metaphor suggests that as members of Christ’s
body, we are called to participate in the reality by living as community of faith in a manner
that reflects the Lordship of Christ.16

Theologian Stanley Hauerwas raises the challenge that the Church may not represent the
body of Christ at all unless the people with disabilities are at its core. 17 While the focus of
Paul’s argument was not particularly those with disabilities, applying his argument to the
present discussion nonetheless seems legitimate. The Church as the body of Christ focuses
on the communal and sacramental, and dimensions of Christianity. Paul major discussion of
the Church as the body of Christ emphasises the mutuality, respect and unity. Individual are
exhorted not to act merely as if the body of Christ were one or to male it so but to
participate in the unity already established 1 Cor. 12:21-31, Rom 12:6-8, Eph 4:7-16. Paul
similarly regarded the Lord Supper (1 Cor 10-17) because there is one bread, we who are
many are one body, for we all partake of one bread. 18 Thus, there is an interconnection
between all the persons who make up the Church.

Continuing the theme of the body in 1 Corinthians, Brian Brock adds two further insights.
One is to ask whether we truly expect and anticipate that everyone who is present when
we gather as the church is ‘an active giver or conduit of divine love. To do so means an
expectation that those with disabilities will minister God’s grace to others. The other
insight is to propose that the root of participation in worship is presence, rather than the
evidence of any particular activity.19 Our primary concern should be that those with
disabilities are present, rather than that they fulfil an activity or function. These theological
14
Kathy Black, A Healing Homelitic: Preaching and Disability (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996), 39-42.
15
Nancy L. Eiesland, The Disabled God: Toward a Liberatory Theology of Disability (Nashville: Abingdom Press,
1994), 70-71.
16
Kim YS, Christ’s Body in Corinth: The Politics of Metaphor (Minnepolis: Fortress, 2008), 65-66.
17
Stanley Hauerwas, Suffering Presence: Theological Reflections on Medicine, the Mentally Handicapped, and
the Church (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1988), 178.
18
Don Thorsen, An Exploration of Christian Theology (Michigan: Baker Academic, 2010), 325.
19
Brian Brock, Theologizing Inclusion: 1 Corinthians 12 and the Politics of the Body of Christ, Journal of
Religion, Disability and Health 15 (2011) 352, 369.

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starting points suggest an emphasis on all worshipping together, rather than on always
organising separate services for those with disabilities.

6. Conclusion:

Created in the image of God, we are to celebrate and not discriminate against our
differences. One should always remember that everyone needs someone or something
to lean on which makes everyone equally disabled. Disability is a part of life. The Church
should always be with full of compassion. God’s image in Christ can only be reflected in
the church as the body of Christ by the full inclusion and honouring of those who have
bodies that are likewise impaired. Through this paper we learn that disability in all its
forms is a negation of God’s good intention. The disabled people do not need pity but
compassionate understanding and opportunities to develop their vocations, possibilities
and abilities.

Bibliography

Black, Kathy. A Healing Homelitic: Preaching and Disability. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996.

Block, Jennie Weiss. Copious Hosting: A Theology of Access for People with Disabilities. New
York: Continuum, 2002.

Brock, Brian. Theologizing Inclusion: 1 Corinthians 12 and the Politics of the Body of Christ,
Journal of Religion, Disability and Health 15, 2011.

Chang, Patrick. Rainbow Theology: Bridging Race, Sexuality and Spirit. New York: Seabury
Books, 2013.

Collins, Gary R. Christian Counselling. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2007.

Eiesland, Nancy L. The Disabled God: Toward a Liberatory Theology of Disability. Nashville:
Abingdom Press, 1994.

Gray, John. The Biblical Doctrine of the Reign of God. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1979.

Grenz, Stanley J. Theology for the Community of God. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1994.

Hauerwas, Stanley. Suffering Presence: Theological Reflections on Medicine, the Mentally

Handicapped, and the Church. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1988.

Jena, Purna Chandra. Hope of the Church: Lay Movements. Delhi: ISPCK, 2005.

McGrath, Alister E. Christian Theology: An Introduction. University of Oxford: Blackwell

Publication, 2001.

Thorsen, Don. An Exploration of Christian Theology. Michigan: Baker Academic, 2010.

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Yong, Amos. Theology and down Syndrome: Reimagining Disability in Late Modernity.
Texas: Baylor University Press, 2007.

YS, Kim. Christ’s Body in Corinth: The Politics of Metaphor. Minnepolis: Fortress, 2008.

Williams, Ernest S. Systematic Theology: Vol 3. Missouri: Gospel Publishing House, 1981.

Webliography

https://www.compellingtruth.org/ecclesiology.html accessed on 18 September 2021.

https://www.gotquestions.org/Ecclesiology.html accessed on 18 September 2021.

https://www.compellingtruth.org/ecclesiology.html accessed on 18 September 2021.

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