Are Autistic People Relational? The Spirit as Mediator of Sensory Realities, *Imago Dei*, and Personhood

What is a person? In the last 50 years, both psychology and theological anthropology have moved from a rational model of personhood to a relational model. From a disability perspective, relational models of theological anthropology represent an improvement over models of anthropology and psychology which place rationalism at the locus of personhood, emphasizing instead that personhood is most appropriately understood in relationship to the whole community. Yet, autistic persons often struggle with sensory processing disorders and social anhedonia that make relationality challenging. This paper challenges theologians to rethink the definition of relationality and of the imago dei by exploring unique features of the autistic experience and how those features express the imago dei as mediated by the Holy Spirit.