From Inclusion to Justice

This prophetic book offers a paradigm shift in our understanding of persons with disabilities within the life of Christian congregations. Raffety changes the focus from inclusion in the community to leadership of the community, seeing disability not as a problem but as a dignified experience in which God is at work for justice.

~William Storrar, Director, Center of Theological Inquiry

Erin Raffety writes as a pastor to pastors and as an anthropologist to anthropologists in this forceful, fascinating book which lays bare the violence done in the name of inclusion. In prose that is fierce, humble, and precise, Raffety issues a wakeup call to churches and, by extension, the institutions that shape our field. This book offers a stunning example of what an engaged anthropology could look like and where it could lead.

~Danilyn Rutherford, President, The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research

In this powerful book, Erin Raffety calls churches to reckon with limits of inclusion by showing how prevailing practices and paradigms rarely challenge the structures of ableism and inequality that disenfranchise disabled people. This is essential reading for religious communities ready to grapple with entrenched assumptions and embrace deeper possibilities for justice and liberation.

~Julia Watts Belser, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, Georgetown University

Many, perhaps most, readers of this thoughtful volume will be playing catch-up on matters related to disabled persons. This welcome book is in part instruction, as Raffety helps us to clarify categories of our thinking. It is partly a summons to learn from and pay attention to those too long treated in our society in condescending ways. And it is in part advocacy, as Raffety urges us to move beyond a 'paradigm of inclusion' to full empowerment, recognition of and leadership by disabled persons. This book will go a long way to help us catch up in practice to our best but often ill-informed intentions.

~Walter Brueggemann, William Marcellus McPheeters Professor Emeritus of Old Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary

This book is a passionate but demanding read, addressed to an audience acquainted with the premises of disability theology. With its staunch but very well-argued critique of the practice of inclusion, this book offers an important contribution to the field for experienced researchers at the intersection of religion and disability.

~Talitha Cooreman-Guittin, University of Fribourg, Studies in Christian Ethics