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A Challenge to Current Readings of Biblical Discourse Concerning Impairment

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A Challenge to Current Readings of Biblical Discourse Concerning Impairment INJURY AND BLESSING A CHALLENGE TO CURRENT READINGS OF BIBLICAL DISCOURSE CONCERNING IMPAIRMENT by SIMON TIMOTHY HORNE A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts of the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Theology School of Historical Studies Faculty of Arts The University of Birmingham February 1999 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT In the ancient world, impairment was common knowledge: archaeological and written material demonstrate that people with impairments were included in society. Impairment was well understood and, in the rhetorical dynamic between author and reader, it was imaginatively used. The Early Church, for instance, developed established impairment themes in order to articulate, explain, and demonstrate central conceptions and experiences of divine activity and human discipleship. Peculiar to the modern era has been the disappearance of people living impairment from mainstream experience. As a result of this culturally-shaped process, modern presuppositions about impairment have emerged that are experienced by people living impairment as profoundly negative and disabling. Modern biblical interpretation both reflects and reinforces these presuppositions, overlooking the wide range of uses of impairment in ancient texts, and causing alienation and damage to people living impairment. To read texts of the Bible informed by an investigation of the perspectives on impairment in the ancient world presents a challenge in two respects. It identifies the inadequacies and impoverishment of uncritical modern interpretation of the biblical impairment texts. It also stimulates new and fresh liberatory readings, which reclaim as the proper focus for the interpretation of these texts the experience of lived impairment. Thesis word total: 79938 To my wife Mel You planted the seed, you nourished and you gave space. Without you, this would not have grown or come to fruit. Thank you. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The people who have helped me with this project are very many; these few I want to acknowledge in particular: The funding agencies who have contributed to the financial cost: the Further Degrees Panel of the Advisory Board of Ministry, and the Postgraduate Tutor and Head of the Theology Department at the University of Birmingham for their recommendation that I receive a bursary; Those in the Church of England hierarchy who gave me permission to embark on and to complete the project; The staff and trustees of the various libraries I have used, whose flexibility and consideration enabled this project to be completed long distance and part-time: the Birmingham University Library, the Queen’s College Birmingham Library, The Bodleian Library, the Wellcome Institute Library, the King’s College London Library, the Thorold and Lyttelton Library in Winchester, the Hampshire County Library and the British Library; All who have encouraged me that this project is worth it – strangers with the generosity to say so, and friends who have had to pay something of the price; The people of St Michael’s Church, Basingstoke, whose kindness during my curacy did a very great deal to sustain me; My colleagues on the staff of the Basingstoke Team Parish, who provided a secure working structure to my curacy; Friends who live the experience of impairment; they have pointed the way and kept me more or less on it; Nancy Eiesland, for her encouragement, especially at key moments when I needed it most; My family, who have kept with me despite everything – they are among the chief casualties; Carole Irwin, Kathryn Willey, Stephen Willey, and Lucy Winkett, for their very remarkable friendship – they have done so much to nourish me and keep me focussed; Frances Young, who as my supervisor has channelled my efforts and enthusiasm with great generosity, rigour, patience and wisdom; I express my appreciation chiefly and above all to Mel; this work springs from her, and I dedicate it to her, with my respect and my love. PREFACE I would like to mention here a number of preliminary points, as explanation or for information. 1. I have made extensive use of footnotes in the thesis. There are several reasons for doing this. Firstly, the results presented here are not the generally accepted view in current commentary, so I have attempted to supply sufficient evidence for each point in the argument. Secondly, the ancient writers whose works are investigated here were using well-known impairment themes and associations – this notion is central to the rhetorical dynamic between implied author and implied readers in the communication model of interpreting ancient texts that is adopted here. The breadth of evidence supplied in the thesis, largely through the footnotes, demonstrates that these impairment themes were indeed well-established. Thirdly, one of the stated purposes of the thesis is to be a resource, an accessible starting point for other people to pursue further and to question themes that are identified here, and to identify and explore other themes that have been overlooked. As for the means of footnoting, often a number of references are clustered together within a single footnote: due to the amount of footnote material, I have aimed not to interrupt the flow for the person reading by inserting a footnote for each reference made. 2. A central purpose of the thesis is to identify established impairment themes in the ancient world that contributed to the contexts in which the biblical texts were written and in which they were first read and heard. With the emphasis being on themes that were permeating across cultures, the references here are not presented in chronological order, nor by region, culture or language. Nor have I identified contributory factors specific to individual texts that are looked at, even the biblical impairment texts. I acknowledge that this identification is an important task, especially in order to sharpen the radical historico- critical analysis of impairment texts embarked on here. However, that task falls outside the scope of this thesis. 3. Primary and secondary material from several different academic disciplines are referred to here. For this reason abbreviations have been kept to a minimum. Sometimes, as with many of the Classical works, the full text title is given where designation by abbreviation is standard for the particular specialist. 4. In the quotations from ancient works that are given here, the English translation specified in the footnote and bibliography has been used, normally without alteration. Occasionally changes have been made for the sake of inclusivity, such as altering in an appropriate way words for impairment that cause offence. I have attempted to make use of the standard editions of ancient texts according to the resources that have been available to me. 5. On the emancipatory model of research, the researcher of a topic relating to impairment is required to make available information relating to their own life-context. I include at this point some personal details. In 1989, Mel and I married, and a week later we were teaching at an Anglican mission and secondary school in rural Zimbabwe: this three year period was the chance for both of us to step outside for a while perceptions of impairment overwhelmingly influenced by modern presuppositions. Mel is a wheelchair user, a disability equality trainer, and is active in the disability movement. My standpoint with regard to the biblical texts is confessional, being a priest in the Church of England. My background prior to ordination was nursing, specialising in mental and physical disability: my experience is of both the medical and social models of disability! There is a Graeco- Roman bias in the ancient material investigated here as I was a classicist before taking up nursing and teaching. As a carer, I can say that I live impairment, in the sense that impairment is certainly mainstream to my life. I would not, however, say that I experience oppression, as people with impairments do. Rather, as a carer, I experience alienation. 6. Both the igniting spark and the fuel for this research project has come from the conjunction of the two apparently incompatible worlds that I inhabit: the Church and the disability movement. Mel’s experience at the hands of uncritical Church people, such as faith healers, has been a strong dynamic in this project, as has the witness of faithful Christians who have impairments, or who are carers, or who are not uncritical of their preconceptions. I believe that the two worlds are not in principle incompatible, but the discomfort that I and others experience at our place of overlap makes it clear to me that the closer partnership that I long for will come at a high price: a mutual reassessment of presuppositions, and penitence. CONTENTS Page Introduction 1.0 Summary of Thesis Aims 1 2.0 Methodology 4 2.1 A liberatory socio-critical hermeneutic 6 2.2 An emancipatory model 12 2.3 A communication model 19 3.0 Some Caveats Arising
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