Disability in the Greek Patristic Tradition - by Petre Maican (Hardcover)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

This book explores the profound ways in which key thinkers from the Greek Christian East engaged with the realities of human frailty, impairment, and divine purpose.

Edited by Petre Maican, the collection features essays on figures such as Irenaeus of Lyon, Origen, the Cappadocians, John Chrysostom, Maximus the Confessor, and John Damascene. Each contribution brings these voices to life for a modern audience, offering fresh perspectives that illuminate their relevance to contemporary conversations within disability theology. This volume bridges the ancient and the modern, fostering dialogue and creativity.

Review Quotes

This excellent volume is a landmark in patristic disability studies. With intellectual clarity and theological depth, it refuses both the nostalgic idealization of the Church Fathers and the anachronistic imposition of modern frameworks. Instead, it invites a critical yet creative engagement with the Greek patristic tradition, illuminating how these ancient voices can challenge, trouble, and inspire contemporary theologies of disability. It is a rich, courageous, and necessary contribution.

John Swinton, Professor in Practical Theology and Pastoral Care, King's College University of Aberdeen, UK

This volume makes a critical contribution by filling in our understanding of the critical earliest period of the church's thinking about the diversity of the human tradition. By pursuing "a series of interviews with famous theologians" of the first Christian centuries the world-class contributors to this volume draw out exiting and unfamiliar insights into disability as well as directly confronting some of the uncomfortable features of Christian thinking during this period, such as the widely held idea of the "disabled soul".

Brian Brock, Professor of Moral and Practical Theology, University of Aberdeen, UK

A ground-breaking and fascinating exploration of the ways in which disability was conceived and reflected upon in the Christian East, following paths often untrod by Western Christianity. This will be an important resource for all those working in the field of Disability Theology.

Fr John Behr, Regius Chair in Humanity, Head of Department of Divinity, University of Aberdeen, UK

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