Luke S. Carlos A. Thompson | University of Aberdeen (original) (raw)
Supervisors: Rev. Professor John Swinton
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Papers by Luke S. Carlos A. Thompson
The medical model of disability, though beneficial for the medical professional, is often exclusi... more The medical model of disability, though beneficial for the medical professional, is often exclusionary, restrictive and dehumanizing when applied to the lived experience of disability. As a result, a critique of this model was constructed called the social model of disability. Much of the language used to articulate the purpose behind the social model of disability can be summed up within the word inclusion. However, this essay asserts that inclusiveness is an incomplete aspiration. The social model, as it currently stands, does not aid in creating a society where those with impairments actually belong. Rather, the social model aids in lessening the visibility, or negative consequence of, difference. Therefore, the social model does not invite society to welcome those with physical and intellectual impairments. It simply aids society in ignoring the existence of impairment by removing explicit forms of exclusion. Rather than simple inclusion, then, this essay uses John Swinton’s concept of friendship and Jean Vanier’s understanding of belonging to better articulate the intended outcome of the social model—a society where everyone can belong.
In this essay I assert that James Cone's Black Power Theology overemphasizes self-determination, ... more In this essay I assert that James Cone's Black Power Theology overemphasizes self-determination, autonomy and freedom. For Cone, to be Black is to be human. However, to be Black (human), for Cone, is to be radically self-determined by any means necessary. As a result of this, Cone's understanding of Blackness does not adequately answer the following question: What does it mean to be Black and therefore, how should Black people respond to a society that defines them as non-persons? A more inclusive answer to this question is proposed utilizing the lived experience of the differently-able (those whom society labels disable) and the Ubuntu Theology of former Archbishop Desmond Tutu. I agree that Blackness is indeed part and parcel of humanness in the Imago Dei. However, in this essay Blackness is reconstructed to account for the reality of limitation, the beauty of human interdependence, and necessity of reconciliation.
The medical model of disability, though beneficial for the medical professional, is often exclusi... more The medical model of disability, though beneficial for the medical professional, is often exclusionary, restrictive and dehumanizing when applied to the lived experience of disability. As a result, a critique of this model was constructed called the social model of disability. Much of the language used to articulate the purpose behind the social model of disability can be summed up within the word inclusion. However, this essay asserts that inclusiveness is an incomplete aspiration. The social model, as it currently stands, does not aid in creating a society where those with impairments actually belong. Rather, the social model aids in lessening the visibility, or negative consequence of, difference. Therefore, the social model does not invite society to welcome those with physical and intellectual impairments. It simply aids society in ignoring the existence of impairment by removing explicit forms of exclusion. Rather than simple inclusion, then, this essay uses John Swinton’s concept of friendship and Jean Vanier’s understanding of belonging to better articulate the intended outcome of the social model—a society where everyone can belong.
In this essay I assert that James Cone's Black Power Theology overemphasizes self-determination, ... more In this essay I assert that James Cone's Black Power Theology overemphasizes self-determination, autonomy and freedom. For Cone, to be Black is to be human. However, to be Black (human), for Cone, is to be radically self-determined by any means necessary. As a result of this, Cone's understanding of Blackness does not adequately answer the following question: What does it mean to be Black and therefore, how should Black people respond to a society that defines them as non-persons? A more inclusive answer to this question is proposed utilizing the lived experience of the differently-able (those whom society labels disable) and the Ubuntu Theology of former Archbishop Desmond Tutu. I agree that Blackness is indeed part and parcel of humanness in the Imago Dei. However, in this essay Blackness is reconstructed to account for the reality of limitation, the beauty of human interdependence, and necessity of reconciliation.