Autism, Doxology, and the Nature of Christian Worship

Abstract

Brian Brock’s Wondrously Wounded teaches us to approach “disability” through the lens of doxology. The first section of this response argues that Brock’s doxological approach combines and expands (rather than rejects) the previously dominant inclusivity and prophetic approaches. I then move on to consider the leitmotif of praise and worship for disability theology. The remainder of this paper puts the doxological approach to constructive use by considering what the sensory and communicative differences that characterize autistic experience might reveal about the nature of Christian worship. It is argued that the interwoven sensory and social differences that characterize autism reveal how the Spirit illuminates the very materiality of the world. The Spirit thereby uses our doxologies to enable all human beings to perceive and respond to God and establish a world in common, the Kingdom of God.