Vulnerable Communion

““Vulnerable Communion is subversive theology in the tradition of the prophets speaking from the margins of society. It calls the church to confront and dismantle the (world’s) ‘cult of normalcy,’ within which the church has uncritically worshipped. It also calls for a theology of disability that not merely insists on caring for people with disabilities but that allows the experience of disability to interrogate its theology of power. The result is a long-awaited and much-needed theological revisioning of the traditional doctrines of God, Christ, creation, redemption, and church so that the true power of the gospel is released from the underside of history once again.”

Amos Yong

“For years, I have thought that the key theological and pastoral issue in ministries with people with disabilities is not disability per se, but vulnerability. Tom Reynolds has taken that premise from his own experience as a father and his own training as a theologian and crafted a theology based on a foundation of vulnerability. I have rarely read a manuscript where I made so many ‘amen’ marks. This book is an amazing integration of Reynolds’s experience in the worlds of disability and theology. This is a wonderful contribution to theological studies—a resource that any clergy interested in understanding vulnerability for ministry will go to again and again—and a theological contribution to the exploding field of disability studies.”

Bill Gaventa

“Reynolds provides another vital resource and is a new and important voice in issues concerning the place and presence of people whom the world calls ‘disabled’ in the life of the church. Reynolds carefully unpacks the baggage of labels and stigmas that have been placed upon the lives of many people with disabilities. With strong, articulate theological arguments, he lifts up the power of being what the world would call ‘weak’ and ‘vulnerable,’ in which the presence of the Christ is revealed in all of human life. Yet Reynolds is quick to remind us that this discovery is not a solo journey, but discovered in the very practice of hospitality within the body of Christ, in which we are reminded that this resurrected body is inclusive of all God’s people.”

Brett Webb-Mitchell

“Powerful in its questioning of ‘the disabling framework of the ‘normal,’ Reynolds’s unflinching account emits an irresistible lucidity. A theology of life as sheer gift unfurls in the space opened by his profound meditation on human vulnerability.”

Catherine Keller

“Tom Reynolds has written a theologically profound and deeply moving exploration of what happens to core Christian understandings of God, of Christ, of community, and of embodiment when these are understood in light of disability. His work makes an important and bracing contribution to disability studies. It makes an equally important contribution to theology, making available an awareness of how our vulnerability opens us to each other and to the great compassion of the divine. It would be hard to come away from this beautiful book unchanged.”

Wendy Farley