Vulnerability, Dependence, and the Knowledge of God: Reflections on Meister Eckhart and Intellectual Disability

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn recent years the field of disability theology has seen a turn towards more productive dialogue with voices from the wider theological tradition, a dialogue which, until recently, has been obstructed by the negative perception of traditional theology amongst many disability theologians. Following this new approach, this paper draws on Meister Eckhart’s theology to address two central questions in the current discussion of theology and intellectual disability. First, how can we think and speak about God in a way that resonates with an anthropology, where dependency, limitedness, and vulnerability are embraced as essential to our humanness? And second, how can we understand what it means to know and relate to God in this life, in a way that acknowledges and affirms the spiritual lives of persons with intellectual disabilities?