Before read­ing Dis­abil­ity and the Gospel, I was a bit skep­ti­cal. On the one hand, I was fear­ful of yet another “gospel and  ____” book. On the other hand, I was afraid that the book would not apply to me, since I’m not exactly “disabled.”

I was in for a surprise.

Book Review of Dis­abil­ity and the Gospel

• Title: Dis­abil­ity and the Gospel: How God Uses Our Bro­ken­ness to Dis­play His Grace
• Author: Michael S. Beates
• Audio­book nar­ra­tor:  Arthur Morey
• Pub­lisher: Cross­way and Chris­tianau­dio (audio version)
• Date: June 2012
• Length: 192 pages, 6.43 hours

The Big Idea of Dis­abil­ity and the Gospel

This book is a the­ol­ogy of dis­abil­ity. The author dis­cusses bib­li­cal texts deal­ing with the topic, sur­veys dis­abil­ity from a his­tor­i­cal per­spec­tive, and pro­vides prac­ti­cal advice for deal­ing with dis­abil­ity in church and life. Beates does not answer every ques­tion about dis­abil­ity, but he does pro­vide a dis­cus­sion that is chal­leng­ing, bib­li­cal, and, I believe, necessary.

Thoughts on Dis­abil­ity and the Gospel

• This is an impor­tant issue. The author does a help­ful job of explain­ing how the dis­abled are mar­gin­al­ized and excluded from many Chris­t­ian and evan­gel­i­cal con­gre­ga­tions. Obvi­ously, few churches would actively resist the atten­dance of dis­abled peo­ple, but the lack of proac­tive out­reach to these peo­ple is a tes­ta­ment to their exclu­sion. If, as Beates asserts, 10% of the pop­u­la­tion has a phys­i­cal or men­tal dis­abil­ity, then why do our churches not reflect this percentage?
• The treat­ment is thought­ful, bib­li­cal, and well-informed. Beates did his home­work. This book is a help­ful resource because of its excel­lent research. Not only does Beates deal with the bib­li­cal pas­sages in a thor­ough way, but he also takes the reader on a his­tor­i­cal jour­ney through church his­tory to see how Chris­t­ian thinkers and writ­ers through­out the ages have under­stood the topic of dis­abil­ity. Although thor­ough, the book is also very acces­si­ble for any layperson.
• We are all weak, bro­ken, and, in a sense, dis­abled. I was born with a con­gen­i­tal heart dis­or­der that was, by God’s grace, cor­rected in two pro­ce­dures when I was ten and eleven. Apart from a few bumps and bangs (and a really painful splin­ter a few weeks ago) I’ve never been “dis­abled,” in the con­ven­tional sense. But what does it mean to be “dis­abled?” Michael Beates makes a case for the fact that we’re all dis­abled, in one sense or another. We may not have a debil­i­tat­ing phys­i­cal con­di­tion, but we all have weak­nesses. Rather than resist our weak­ness, we ought to embrace it (2 Corinthi­ans 11:30). Our weak­ness is an oppor­tu­nity to dis­play God’s power and grace (2 Corinthi­ans 12:9).

This is not a spe­cial­ist book, only intended for those who are dis­abled or who have a dis­abled loved one. It is a book for every Chris­t­ian. The chal­lenge to humil­ity, to bold engage­ment with the mar­gin­al­ized, and to more inten­tional ser­vice is a call that each believer would do well hear.

See the book on Ama­zon.
Dis­clo­sure of Mate­r­ial Con­nec­tion: I received this review copy for free as part of the chris­tianau­dio Review­ers Pro­gram of christianaudio.com. I was not required to write a pos­i­tive review, even though I did…this time. The opin­ions I have expressed are my own. I am dis­clos­ing this in accor­dance with the Fed­eral Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Con­cern­ing the Use of Endorse­ments and Tes­ti­mo­ni­als in Advertising.”