Disability in the Christian Tradition with Prof. Brian Brock (Podcast)

Alt txt: Image of our guest, Prof. Brian Brock, and two of our cohosts: Stephanie Kate Judd and Dr. Madison Pierce.

In this episode we’re joined by Professor Brian Brock to reflect on disability from within the Christian theological tradition. Prof. Brock holds the personal chair in moral and practical theology at the University of Aberdeen (in Scotland), and he’s the author of Wondrously Wounded: Theology, Disability, and the Body of Christ (published by Baylor University Press) and Disability: Living into the Diversity of Christ’s Body (published by Baker Academic). Prof. Brock explains how he became interested in Disability Studies by setting out in an education in the field of medical ethics, and as he came to rethink the framework of the field, his first son was born, Adam (featured below), who has Down Syndrome and Autism. Prof. Brock’s chief interest in the space of Disability Studies became the desire to set it into conversation with mainstream Christian theology, since theological work within Disability Studies was almost entirely reserved to liberation theology. One of the key questions that we discuss with Prof. Brock throughout this episode is, given his life lived with his son Adam, who is non-verbal, how do we speak about people who can’t speak for themselves? Team members on the episode from The Two Cities include: Stephanie Kate Judd and Dr. Madison Pierce.

Series Disclaimer: We know that this space is fraught, and we don’t speak for every PWD. We may inevitably get some things wrong in this series, but we ask for your patience in advance since we think it’s more important to have the conversation than shy away from it out of fear of saying the wrong thing. At the same time, this is a learning process for all of us, and we want to maintain a posture of learning throughout the series and beyond. Thanks for listening!

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