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ABSTRACT
In recent years the field of disability theology has seen a turn towards more productive dialogue with voices from the wider theological tradition, a dialogue which, until recently, has been obstructed by the negative perception of traditional theology amongst many disability theologians. Following this new approach, this paper draws on Meister Eckhart’s theology to address two central questions in the current discussion of theology and intellectual disability. First, how can we think and speak about God in a way that resonates with an anthropology, where dependency, limitedness, and vulnerability are embraced as essential to our humanness? And second, how can we understand what it means to know and relate to God in this life, in a way that acknowledges and affirms the spiritual lives of persons with intellectual disabilities?
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Daniel G. W. Smith lives and works in Dresden, Germany. He is currently finishing his PhD thesis for Cambridge University, on the contribution of Meister Eckhart’s thought to disability theology. His wider research interests include spirituality, ethics, mystical theology, disability theology, and disability studies.
Notes
1 Swinton, ‘Disability Theology’.
2 Brock and Swinton, eds., Disability in the Christian Tradition, 4.
3 American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
4 Ibid., 40.
5 Ibid., 33.
6 This and the previous paragraph have cited and paraphrased the descriptions of intellectual disability in the table in Ibid., 34–5.
7 Davis, Enforcing Normalcy, 1.
8 Brian Volck makes the same observation in ‘Silent Communion’, 2.
9 For works where authors speak in detail about these relationships see Vanier, Becoming Human; Young, Arthur’s Call; Nouwen, Adam, God’s Beloved.
10 Hauerwas, ‘Chapter 1. Timeful Friends’, 14.
11 Hauerwas, Suffering Presence, 169.
12 Ibid., 171. For an example of this view of intellectual disability see Singer and Kuhse, Should the Baby Live?
13 Hauerwas, Suffering Presence, 173–75.
14 Ibid., 170–73.
15 Reynolds, Vulnerable Communion, chap. 3.
16 Hauerwas, Suffering Presence, 169.
17 This is the central thesis of Vulnerable Communion, but Reynolds summarizes this point most concisely in ‘Theology and Disability’.
18 Hauerwas, Suffering Presence, 169.
19 Swinton, ‘Who is the God We Worship?’ 290.
20 Swinton also stresses that this question is right at the heart of disability theology in ‘Who is the God We Worship?’ 276–77.
21 Cooper, ‘The Disabled God’, 173; Black, A Healing Homiletic, 34; Creamer, ‘God Doesn’t Treat His Children That Way’, 83; Swinton, ‘The Body of Christ Has Down’s Syndrome’, 66–78.
22 Creamer, Disability and Christian Theology, 112.
23 Eiesland, The Disabled God, 89; Hull, In the Beginning There Was Darkness, chap. 3.
24 Eiesland, The Disabled God.
25 Reynolds, Vulnerable Communion.
26 Creamer, Disability and Christian Theology.
27 Black, A Healing Homiletic.
28 Swinton, ‘Disability, Ableism, and Disablism’, 446.
29 Deland, ‘Images of God Through the Lens of Disability’, 51.
30 For a more detailed reflection on this and the recent turn towards greater dialogue with traditional theology see Smith, ‘Thinking With Disability’, 493–512.
31 References to sermons (or ‘Pr.’) followed by a number indicate the numberings of the German sermons in the critical editions of Eckhart's works, referred to in the Walshe translations as ‘Q’. Unless otherwise stated, all page references to sermons are to the collection of Walshe translations in The Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart.
32 C.f. Commentary on Wisdom, n. 41 in Walshe, The Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart, 473 and Prologue to the ‘Opus Tripartitum’ in Maurer, Master Eckhart, Parisian Questions and Prologues, 82–83.
33 C.f. Prologue to the ‘Opus Tripartitum’ in Maurer, Master Eckhart, Parisian Questions and Prologues, 83.
34 For more on the importance of the ‘insofar as’ principle in Eckhart’s thought, see McGinn, ‘Eckhart’s Condemnation Reconsidered’, 406.
35 Pr. 83, 463.
36 Pr. 9, 343.
37 This statement was included as the second article in the papal bull, In Agro Dominico. For an English translation see Colledge and McGinn, trans., Meister Eckhart, 80.
38 Eckhart states this repeatedly, especially in his Latin works. For two important examples see Commentary on Exodus, n. 57–8 Meister Eckhart, Teacher and Preacher, 62–63, and Commentary on Wisdom, n. 147–48, ibid., 167.
39 Pr. 66, 300.
40 Pr. 46, Walshe, 256.
41 I will discuss God as Being itself in detail below.
42 C.f. Pr. 69, 237.
43 For examples of this in Eckhart’s German sermons see Pr. 71, 82, and 83. We will look at examples from the Latin works below.
44 First Parisian Question in Maurer, Master Eckhart, Parisian Questions and Prologues, 43.
45 Ibid., 45.
46 C.f. Creamer, Disability and Christian Theology, 112.
47 Maurer, Master Eckhart, Parisian Questions and Prologues, 45–46.
48 Pr. 38, 180. C.f. also Pr. 9, 343.
49 Maurer, Master Eckhart, Parisian Questions and Prologues, 86.
50 Tobin, Meister Eckhart, 38.
51 Commentary on Exodus, n. 20, in McGinn, Meister Eckhart, Teacher and Preacher, 47.
52 Pr. 4, 226.
53 Ibid.
54 Pr. 6, 330.
55 Birchenall, ‘The Spiritual Dimension’, 75.
56 While anecdotal examples of such prejudices abound in the literature, it is difficult to find any serious study of ecclesial prejudice towards persons with intellectual disabilities. However, for a good example of this in relation to the sacraments see Foley, ed., Developmental Disabilities and Sacramental Access.
57 E.g. Reynolds, Vulnerable Communion, chap. 7; Block, Copious Hosting, 160–66.
58 C.f. Nouwen, Adam, God’s Beloved; Hryniuk, Theology, Disability and Spiritual Transformation.
59 Swinton, ‘Known by God’, 152.
60 Staley, ‘Intellectual Disability and Mystical Unknowing’, 385–401; Harshaw, God Beyond Words.
61 In her paper, Staley also draws on Eckhart (‘Intellectual Disability and Mystical Unknowing’, 395–98). Her conclusions regarding the value of Eckhart’s theology for the question of spirituality and intellectual disability are similar to mine, but the argument and the reading of Eckhart offered here are my own.
62 For a detailed discussion of Eckhart’s understanding of the ‘ground’ see McGinn, The Mystical Thought of Meister Eckhart, chap. 3.
63 Ibid., 41.
64 Pr. 15, 273. See also Pr. 52, 424.
65 E.g. Pr. 13, 161; and Pr. 45, 183.
66 Pr. 5b, 111.
67 Pr. 86, 87.
68 Parts of my argument here is reused from a previous Open Access publication. For the original version please see Smith, ‘Rituals of Knowing’, 288–90.
69 Pr. 1, 67.
70 Ibid.
71 See n.3 in Walshe, The Complete Mystical Works of Meister Eckhart, 461. For Eckhart’s discussion of this, see his comments on ‘intellectus’ in Pr. 83, 464; and his comments on the ‘active intellect’ in Pr. 104, 49.
72 Pr. 76, 73.
73 See Pr. 101, 36; Pr. 102, 42–43; and Pr. 103, 56.
74 Pr. 103, 56.
75 Pr. 1, 69.
76 Ibid.
77 Pr. 12, 296.
78 Ibid.
79 Brock and Swinton, Disability in the Christian Tradition, 3.