Praying into the Void: Curative Eschatology, Crip Ancestry, and Disability Justice

Traditional Christian notions of salvation, healing, and redemption are often structured by a curative theological imaginary that precludes disability from our collective pasts and futures. To resist the eschatological erasure of disability, some disability theologians have called for radical attent...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Lazarus, Kevin (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: 2025
In: Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics
Year: 2025, Volume: 45, Issue: 2, Pages: 249-265
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:Traditional Christian notions of salvation, healing, and redemption are often structured by a curative theological imaginary that precludes disability from our collective pasts and futures. To resist the eschatological erasure of disability, some disability theologians have called for radical attention to the present—to disabled people, here and now—as the primary site of the Spirit’s activity. Departing from a strict theological presentism, this essay seeks to imagine redemption apart from curative logics without dismissing all desires for bodily change. Interpreting the archival research practices of disabled activist-writers through the lens of crip ancestry, I develop a negative theological hermeneutic in which the search for crip ancestors in the Christian tradition exposes the violence that erases disabled lives, cultivating a longing for a future where disabled people are not lost to history.
ISSN:2326-2176
Contains:Enthalten in: Society of Christian Ethics, Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.5840/jsce2025910133