Comparative Religions and Disability Studies have often been explored separately within the academy. However, the intersectionality between these two fields offer rich avenues for future research on the nature of “ablebodiedness” and disabilities within and across religious traditions. This panel brings together scholars from various disciplines to explore this relationship further. By analyzing how different religious, theological, and textual traditions conceptualize “ablebodiedness” and disabilities, the panel aims to foster a deeper understanding of the complexities surrounding these terms, including how they relate to normativity, healing practices, and cultural marginalization.
This presentation will deal with the relationship between Buddhist Psychology and Dis/ability. This will be done by examining the history of Buddhist Psychology (late nineteenth and early twentieth century) within a Western psychological discourse and then looking at how this influenced present-day conceptualisations of mindfulness meditation as a form of treatment for disabilities and mental illnesses. I argue that any conceptualisation of disability within this discourse remains to be based on a hierarchisation of bodies and minds within an ableist discourse. This ableist discourse stems from Theravada Buddhist conceptualisations of disability and illness as bad karma as well as eugenicist and evolutionary thinking within early psychology. A short glimpse into recent theories of Dis/Ability will be used to find constructive ways of criticising this ableist basis of Buddhist Psychology.
This paper examines the ways religious texts and artifacts have sought to mitigate the danger of childbirth. Noting that pregnancy and pregnancy related complications have the ability to lead to lifelong physical and psychological changes as well as death itself, I investigate how religious thought and practice has sought to mitigate these realities. Specifically, I begin with an account of a dangerous parturiency from the sixth-century Coptic Life of Aaron and then explore the way religion has historically sought to address the dangers of childbirth and the perinatal experience using non-medical practices including prayer, amulets, and ritual. Together, I endeavor to highlight how religion cultivates healing discourses that complicate modern notions of healthcare and medicine.
This paper provides a comparative analysis of the conceptualization of disabilities in the Christian Synoptic Gospels and the Messiah Sutra, a harmonized retelling of the story which emphasized the fundamental teachings of Nestorian Christianity in China. The choice of these particular texts relate to their focus on embodiment and healing, combined with the Messiah Sutra’s blend of Christian, Confucian, and Buddhist concepts. The paper proceeds in three parts. The first part briefly addresses the historical context of the synoptic Gospels and addresses the formation of Nestorian Christianity. The second then highlights the birth of Jesus, noting how these texts convey the notion of embodiment and sacredness. The third section addresses the descriptions of disability in the Messiah Sutra, with examples from biblical texts. The conclusion then explores how the Synoptic Gospels and the Messiah Sutra together create space which complicates the conceptualization of disabilities in the field of Religious Studies.