Name: Sarah C. F. Shea
Email: c.shea@abdn.ac.uk
Research Topic: "What does it mean to be saved?": Evangelicalism and People with Profound and Complex Learning Disabilities
Abstract:
The key question the research project, seeks to answer is: ‘What does it mean for people with profound and complex learning disabilities to be saved?’ This question emerges from a reflection on evangelical theology and some inherent issues that become problematic within the lives of people with profound disabilities. Certain formulations of evangelicalism make it appears difficult or even impossible for this group to appropriate the faith necessary for salvation. Whilst this is rarely articulated formally, it is an issue that lurks within the lives of parents and churches as they seek to work through how best to incorporate such lives. The intention of this study is to engage with this tradition and to explore what it might mean for evangelicalism and for people with profound disabilities to understand what the gospel might look like without words. I therefore approach this study as an evangelical who has a calling to understand and minister to the needs of people with profound intellectual disabilities. The particular context that is my focus is the evangelical church of Hong Kong. Whilst the kind of argument I am developing has had much attention within Europe and the US, little attention has been paid to how the issues might work out within the evangelical churches in the Hong Kong SAR.
Following Swinton’s pioneer effort in researching the spirituality of people with learning disabilities, and his advancement of a critical and faithful stance of undertaking practical theology, this study adopts Swinton and Mowat’s four-stage model of practical theological method. This method integrates theological reflection and qualitative research; specifically it harnesses qualitative research methods into the service of theological reflection, which gives precedence to the generation of faithful performance of the Christian gospel.
The starting point of the investigation is a concrete pastoral situation of a Hong Kong Alliance church, in which ministers have experienced difficulties in providing spiritual care for people with severe/profound cognitive impairments. Stage one of the practical theological reflection process will describe the existing practices of spiritual care of this church, and explore them in the light of a recent awareness of the spiritual care of people with learning disability amongst local evangelical churches. Core values and convictions of the worldwide evangelicalism will also be brought into consideration in this exploration. Stage two will deepen the above preliminary reflection by entering into dialogue with different sets of material including: (1) empirical data collected from this church; (2) the ‘evangelization of people with disabilities’ movement in Hong Kong; and (3) the mission theology of the Alliance Church in Hong Kong. Stage three will reflect on the theological formulations of the practice, both implicit and explicit. The Alliance mission theology and practice in the context of this church will be critically analyzed; and in particular, they will be interrogated by selected theologies of disability, exegetical insights, and Christian doctrinal resources. Eventually, alternative forms of practice and gestures that enable the ecclesial community to re-conceive faithful evangelical responses to this group will be developed in stage four. A trial of such gestures will be conducted in an action research in the selected congregation.
