This Abled Body Rethinking Disabilities in Biblical Studies by Hector Avalos

The burgeoning field of disability studies has recently emerged within the humanities and social sciences and as a result disability is no longer seen as the biological condition of an individual body but as a complex product of social political environmental and biological discourses The groundbreaking essays of This Abled Body engage biblical studies in conversation with the wider field of disability studies They explore the use of the conceptual category disability in biblical and Near Eastern texts and examine how conceptions of disability become a means of narrating interpreting and organizing human life Employing diverse approaches to biblical criticism scholars explore methodological issues and specific texts related to physical and cognitive disabilities Responses to the essays by established disability activists and academics working in the social sciences and humanities conclude the volume The contributors are Martin Albl Hector Avalos Bruce C Birch Carole R Fontaine Thomas Hentrich Nicole Kelley Janet Lees Sarah J Melcher David Mitchell Jeremy Schipper Sharon Snyder Holly Joan Toensing Neal H Walls and Kerry H Wynn