Reinders, Hans S.

Receiving the gift of friendship : profound disability, theological anthropology, and ethics / Hans S. Reinders. - x, 404 pages ; 23 cm

Introduction: -- 1. The subject -- 2. A new vision -- 3. Beyond rights and justice -- 4. Intelligible experience -- 5. The program -- Part I. Profound Disability: -- Chapter 1. One of Us: -- 1. Introducing Kelly -- 2. The hierarchy of disability -- 3. The problem and its problems -- 4. No moral taxonomy -- 5. A theological inquiry -- 6. The politics of friendship -- 7. Terminology -- Chapter 2. "Being Human" and "Being Disabled" I -- 1. A preliminary objection -- 2. Social constructionism -- 3. The social model of disability -- 4. "Disability identity" -- 5. The realist version of social constructionism -- 6. Invention and discovery -- 7. Freedom of the self as our final end -- 8. Conclusion -- Chapter 3. "Being Human" and "Being Disabled" II -- 1. Roman Catholic doctrine on being human -- 2. The anthropological ambiguity of natural law -- 3. A hierarchy of being -- 4. Marginal cases -- 5. "Agere sequitur esse" -- 6. Potentiality and its actualization -- 7. The theological option -- 8. The disabled person as mystery -- Chapter 4. Profound Disability and the Quest for the Good: -- 1. A different agenda -- 2. The good of being human -- 3. "Disability culture" -- 4. The ethics of access -- 5. Distinct motivations -- 6. Participation in the good of being human -- Part II. Theology: -- Chapter 5. Theology and Disability I: -- 1. Introduction -- 2. A theology of liberation -- 3. Self-representation -- 4. Moving from outside in -- 5. Breaking the barrier -- 6. "The others who care" -- 7. A theology of access -- 8. "Beyond access" -- Chapter 6. Theology and Disability II: -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Digging up presuppositions -- 3. "Suffering presence" -- 4. Writing about the disabled -- 5. "A theology of human being" -- 6. The contributory view of worth -- 7. No instrumental value -- 8. The goodness of being -- 9. "Freely creative activity" -- 10. Conclusion -- Chapter 7. A Trinitarian Concept of Divine and Human Being: -- 1. Introduction: Intrinsic qualities -- 2. The double portrait of man -- 3. "Relationality" -- 4.Trinitarian theology and "relational being" -- 5. Trinitarian theology: the contribution of John D. Zizioulas -- 6. Ecstatic personhood as ecclesial reality -- 7. Zizioulas's critics -- 8. Extrinsic movement -- 9. Conclusion -- Part III. Ethics: -- Chapter 8. The Fullness of Being: God's Friendship -- 1. Introduction: Three responses -- 2. Difference -- 3. "Activities that direct us to God" -- 4. "Poised between chaos and cosmos" -- 5. From first to last : all is grace -- 6. Disability as moral failure? -- 7. Steadfast love without reciprocation -- Chapter 9. Receiving the Gift of Friendship: -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Receiving -- 3. The story of the man born blind -- 4. Seeing -- 5. Three caveats -- 6. Being with -- 7. No hiding in strength -- 8. Moments of wonder -- Chapter 10. Learning to Become Friends: -- 1. Introduction -- 2. My friend Ronald -- 3. "We are friends, aren't we?" -- 4. Aristotle's friends -- 5. Christian friendship -- 6. Eucharistic practice -- 7. The face of friendship -- 8. Friendship with the profoundly disabled

9780802862327 (pbk. : alk. paper) 0802862322 (pbk. : alk. paper)

2007050291


Intellectual disability--Religious aspects--Christianity.
Friendship--Religious aspects--Christianity.
Theological anthropology.
Christian ethics.

BV4461 / .R45 2008

261.8/323