Showing papers in "Transformation in 1998"

The disabled Christ

Abstract: This article aims to answer the question: How can Christianity be relevant to families coping with disability? The Bible says that Christ was made like his brothers (Heb. 2:17), that he was tempted in every way (Heb. 4:15), and that he was beset with weakness (Heb. 5:2). These verses present Christ as someone who understands the difficulties and frailties of human existence because he became a human being. But can Christ really understand those who are coping with disability when he was an able-bodied human being? He has come to touch all lives, but can he be touched by the needs and concerns of the disabled when he himself was a healthy young man? If the Christian message is what it claims to be, then Christ should also be the answer Transformation (1998) 15:4, 8–14 0265-3788

Pentecostals: who are they? Perspectives on pentecostal thought and practice in the two thirds world:

Abstract: The spread of pentecostalism, expanding to over 400 million worldwide, most significantly throughout Latin America, is an important socio-religious development that has seldom been examined from the participants’ own perspectives. In the past, competent scholars, generally social scientists, who assessed this phenomenon, utilized methodologies which were usually inferential and functionalist. These scholarly works had generally been undertaken without adequate definitions, data and perspective regarding the groups’ size, distribution, infrastructure, resources, and most importantly with insufficient understanding of the ethos of pentecostal experience. However, since 1990 with the benchmark publication of David Martin’s, Tongues of Fire, earlier accounts to the contrary, pentecostalism is being recognized not as the product of exogenous influences nor the result of anomic forces, but as an autochthonous, largely spontaneous religious and social movement. In spite of these recent analyses, many of the pentecostal nuances – if not major concerns of pentecostals – are lost to scholars working from outside the movement because of a lack of understanding of how participants evaluate their own activities. And only

Disability and dignity, and human rights

Abstract: It was a tremendous honour to be part of the consultation, ‘A Christian Response to Disability’. Those of us gathered for the consultation – people with disabilities who are also church leaders and ministers, other ministry practitioners, social scientists, theologians, and (one) political theorist (myself!) – were able to draw from our various strengths and conduct a marvellously constructive conversation on many issues, including the issue of whether and how we should use the language of rights to talk about the special claims of people with disabilities. The purpose of this article is to summarise and extend our constructive conversation about rights and disability, particularly in light of Rachel Hurst’s extremely illuminating contribution, ‘The international politics of disability’. (See preceding article.) This conversation, I hope, will continue to involve people with disabilities as the primary participants. Our conversation focused on the question: should we use rights language to talk about the special claims of people with disabilities? If so, which rights ‘dialect’ should we use? There are two dominant, competing rights dialects today: a ‘libertarian’, AngloAmerican dialect oriented to the achievement of ‘liberty’ for individuals seen as essentially autonomous, and a ‘dignitarian’, Continental-European dialect oriented to the protection of the intrinsic dignity of each human person. Only when our rights talk is dignitarian does it conform to the deep truth about human persons: that the ground of our value is not anything we do or create but our radical capacity to be what God made us to be – fully human. This radical capacity, innate and ineliminable, runs much deeper than any functional ability or disability. An international, Christian conversation about rights and disability is urgently needed. Many disability activists – such as Rachel Hurst as well as Joshua Malinga in their contributions to this issue – understandably insist that their urgent claims be framed in terms of universal human rights. But doubts arise. Rights language, historically speaking, is western language. Not only that, it is relatively new western language: it became very popular only when ‘natural rights’ became a rallying cry of the American and French Revolutions; in large part because of those foundational political events, rights became the political language of the West. But if the whole world, including the West, could get along for such a long time without the language of rights, why should we use it now? After all, the Bible contains clear and repeated teaching of neighbourly love and duty without using rights language. Furthermore, if rights language is western language, why should non-western people and cultures be forced to learn it?

Roles and relationships: reflections on the khalifah and the image of God:

Abstract: (CPM), and an array of newer evangelical churches. 6 Forafulleraccount, seeC.R.A. Hoole, 'Educatingfor Peace: A Tamil p e r s w e ' in Upali Cooray (ed.), In Place of the Spiral of Violence, Colombo: CDJSL, 1994, pp. 112-121. 7 Indigenous forest people of Sri Lanka. 8 Members of very low castes. 9 Evangelistic work in Sri Lanka is making good progress. 10 D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, cited by John Stolt, Christian Counter-Culture, Leicester: IVP, 1978, p. 60. To become a koinonialfellowship, the Church in Sri Lanka needs to invest more in disciple-making in the Matthaean sense. 11 As a healing agent, the Protestant churches of Sri Lanka are in many respects multi-lingual, multi-ethnic brotherhoods. 12 For a probable outline of this account, see C.R.A. Hoole, Modem Sannyasins, Protestant Missionary contribution to Ceylon Tamil Culture, Bern: Peter Lang, 1995, pp. 131-166. 13 A researcher, Reggie Siriwardena, has clearly demonstrated how text-books published by the government have helped to foster racial feelings and prejudices. See 'National Identity in Sri Lanka: problems in communication and education' in Sri Lanka: The ethnic conflict, New Delhi: Navarano. d , 1984, pp. 215-229. 14 Modem Sannyasins, pp. 246-290. 15 Charles Hoole, 'Protestant Renouncers in Tamil Ceylon' in The Church and the Nations (EFAC Bulletin 47). Available from OCMS, PO BOX 70, Oxford for £5.