While the intersection of autism and theology continues to be explored in greater detail, most treatments to date tend to focus on seeing the full humanity of autistic individuals and how better to include or incorporate them into Christian community. These are important concerns, but my research will seek to explore what insights might result if we instead sought to identify the imago Dei with autism and autistic experience per se. My hope is that, following Christ’s lead in Matthew 25, and seeking not just the humanity but the divinity in autism and autistic people might lead us to a dramatically different system of valuing and appreciating autistic individuals.
I plan in my research to explore the concept of the imago Dei and flaws in prevailing understandings of it. A more open-ended conception of the imago would allow us to seek the face of Christ in everyone. By doing so, I hope to explore what insights might result from locating the imago within autism itself, and how this might lead not only to greater acceptance and valuing of autistic people, but crucially, a fuller, truer theology by exploring autistic experience to deepen our understanding of—and even expose flaws in—classical or prevailing understandings of God.