Theology and the Experience of Disability ― Interdisciplinary Perspectives from Voices Down Under

The Christian gospel compels humanity to embrace deeper ways of being human together that will overcome false divisions and exclusions in search of flourishing and graced communities. Presenting both short narratives emerging out of theological reflection on experience and analytical essays arising from engagement in scholarly conversations Theology and the Experience of Disability is a conscious attempt to develop theology by and with people with disabilities instead of theology about people with disabilities. A mixture of academic, professional, practical, and/or lived experience is brought to the topic in search of constructive multi-disciplinary proposals for church and society. The result is an interdisciplinary engagement with the constructive possibilities that emerge from a distinctly Christian understanding of disability as lived experience.

Myk Habets lectures at Carey Baptist College in Systematic Theology, Hermeneutics, and Ethics. He is Head of Carey Graduate School and is Editor of Pacific Journal of Baptist Research, Associate Editor of Participatio: The Journal of the Thomas Torrance Theological Fellowship, vice-President of the Thomas F. Torrance Theological Fellowship, and is on the editorial board of Journal for Theological Interpretation. Myk is also on the steering committee of the Theological Interpretation of Scripture Seminar at SBL. He has published articles on constructive systematic theology in such journals as Scottish Journal of Theology, Theology Today, New Blackfriars, Irish Theological Quarterly, Journal of Pentecostal Theology, Evangelical Quarterly, and American Theological Inquiry, and is the author of Theosis in the Theology of Thomas Torrance (Ashgate, 2009); The Anointed Son: A Trinitarian Spirit Christology (2010), and Theology in Transposition (2013), in addition to editing The Spirit of Truth: Reading Scripture and Constructing Theology with the Holy Spirit (2010); Trinitarian Theology After Barth (2010), with Phillip Tolliday, Reconsidering Gender: Evangelical Perspectives (2010), with Beulah Wood; and Evangelical Calvinism: Essays Resourcing the Continuing Reformation of the Church (2012) with Robert Grow; and Ecumenical Perspectives on the Filioque for the 21st Century (2014). Current research projects include a study of theosis in C.S. Lewis, and a project on Third Article Theology. Andrew Picard lectures at Carey Baptist College in Applied Theology, Ecclesiology, and Theology of Culture. He is Associate Editor of Pacific Journal of Baptist Research and Co-President of New Zealand Baptist Research and Historical Society. He has published articles on Baptist theology and history in the New Zealand context. Andrew is a PhD candidate at the University of Otago where he is completing his thesis which engages Colin Guntona€?s Trinitarian theology and Zygmunt Baumana€?s social theory in order to develop a Trinitarian ecclesiology for Liquid Modernity. Current research projects include work on Colin Guntona€?s theology of atonement and Paul Fiddesa€? covenantal theology.