Disability and World Religions fills a significant gap in the literature on religion and disability by engaging a wide range of the world’s religious traditions rather than privileging or focusing solely on a single one. This volume will be a wonderful resource for religious studies courses, even beyond those engaged in the explicit study of disability and religion, and should be of interest to a wide audience, including those in religious communities or those interested in disability studies.
~Deborah Beth Creamer, Director of Accreditation, Association of Theological Schools
Schumm and Stoltzfus invite their readers to eavesdrop on a crucial conversation between religion and disability. Each chapter highlights both the encouraging and concerning corners of this dialogue, challenging readers to consider anew what disability really means within the context of our faith traditions.
~Erik Carter, Professor, Department of Special Education, Vanderbilt University
For students, scholars, and clergy alike, Disability and World Religions promises to go far in cultivating readers’ interest in how the diverse experiences of disability and religious thought and practice mutually shape each other. Each clearly written chapter makes this engaging book an invaluable classroom resource for anyone teaching or taking a course on disability, gender, theology, or religious studies.
~Jeremy Schipper, author of Disability and Isaiah’s Suffering Servant
Each contributor presents a detailed overview, which includes background of source texts underlying the world view of the faith examined, and then applies a disability studies lens in analyzing the religion's prevailing attitudes, both affirmative and negative...
~Choice
This scholarly work is an important contribution to several fields, and the collection of essays adds to many larger movements within religious traditions, societies, politics, and disability theory. It draws the reader into discussions that contextualize and apply the thought of religious traditions to anthropology, notions of illness and health, legal protections, and more.
~Mary Beth Yount, Reading Religion
The real strength of this textbook is that each chapter gives a substantial introduction to the faith in question before offering a nuanced and engaging discussion of a particular interface with disability studies.
~Tom Wilson, ANVIL: Journal of Theology and Mission
These essays...provide a rich and meaningful engagement between religion and disability and fill a gap in the literature of both fields.
~Kirk VanGilder, Review of Religious Research
The book is perhaps most valuable for teaching introductory courses on disability studies and on disability and religion. It is also a useful reference text. Chapters feature introductions to the particular religious tradition they canvass; these will orient the newcomer, and readers already familiar with the basics can skip to the sections on disability.
~Tyler Zoanni, European Journal of Disability Research
Disability and World Religions, part of Baylor University Press’s series ‘Studies in Religion, Theology, and Disability’, supplies an exciting addition to scholarship at the intersections of religion and disability, especially ina field typically dominated by a Christian perspective.... the volume makes a critical contribution to a notably underexplored area in interdisciplinary inquiry.
~Sarah Jean Barton, Modern Believing
