Paradox Of Disability

The village of Trosly-Breuil in northern France is home to one of the world’s thirty-four L’Arche communities, where people with and without intellectual disabilities live and work together. In 2007 an impressive assortment of social scientists and theologians gathered there to offer responses to a question posed by the worldwide community’s cofounder, Jean Vanier: “What have people with disabilities taught me?” Their answers are here presented in a diverse collection of essays.

Editor Hans Reinders emphasizes that these analyses and reflections – like the L’Arche communities that inspired them – are not meant to set apart those with disabilities. Rather, they encourage people of all abilities humbly to acknowledge that to be human is to live with brokenness and limitation – and that to experience true community we must first learn to receive other people as God’s gift.