Spirituality and Intellectual Disability

Publisher: The Haworth Pastoral Press
Editors: William C. Gaventa, Jr., MDiv, David L. Coulter, MD
Format: Book, 182 pp.

Spirituality and Intellectual Disability: International Perspectives on the Effect of Culture and Religion on Healing Body, Mind , and Soul was co-published as an issue of the Journal of Religion, Disability & Health (Volume 5, Numbers 2/3 2001). It includes "a collection of articles on spirituality, religion, and people with intellectual disabilities which came from presentations at the 2000 Conference of the the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disabilities" (IASSID).

The book contains a wide variety of articles addressing numerous topics from a variety of faith traditions. The articles are divided into four categories:

  1. Healing Mind, Body, and Soul: Theoretical Foundations for Understandings of Spiritual Health for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities.
  2. Spirituality and Intellectual Disability Around the World: Cultural and Religious Perspectives on Healing Mind, Body, and Soul.
  3. Bringing Science into Spirituality: Research and Practice.
  4. From Theory and Theology to Practice: Creative Ways of Facilitating Spiritual Health.

Examples of some of the articles include:

Defining and Assessing Spirituality and Spiritual Supports: A Rationale for Inclusion in Theory and Practice, Islam and the Person with Intellectual Disability, Spiritual Health and Persons with Intellectual Disability: A Review, and Bridge Ministries for Disability Concerns: A Community Ministry Model.

The breadth of subject areas covered in the articles help the reader to gain a better understanding of the many ways in which disability and intellectual disability intersect across religions and cultures.

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