The Cultural and Religious Production of Disability Shame and the Saving Power of Heretical Bodies
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Keywords
disability, shame, religion
Abstract
This paper explores the cultural and religious production of disability shame, and the ways able-bodied people unknowingly perpetuate that shame—to our own detriment. My analysis suggests that nondisabled people benefit from challenging disability shame by embracing the prophetic perspectives of those who refuse to repent for their somatic heresies.
The Cultural and Religious Production of Disability Shame and the Saving Power of Heretical Bodies by Michelle M. Lelwica is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Based on a work at https://rdsjournal.org. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at https://www.rds.hawaii.edu.
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Michelle Mary Lelwica, Concordia College, Moorhead, MN (USA)
Michelle M. Lelwica, PhD, earned her Master of Theological Studies and Doctor of Theology degrees from Harvard Divinity School (1989, 1996), where she studied Religion, Gender, and Culture. She is currently Professor of Religion at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN. She is the author of Shameful Bodies: Religion and the Culture of Physical Improvement (Bloomsbury Academic, 2017); The Religion of Thinness: Satisfying the Spiritual Hungers behind Women’s Obsession with Food and Weight (Carlsbad, CA: Gurze, 2009); and Starving for Salvation: The Spiritual Dimensions of Eating Problems among American Girls and Women (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), as well as scholarly articles and popular blogs on the topic of women’s conflicted relationships with their bodies.