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Journal of Religion, Disability &

Health
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A Review of Vulnerable
Communion: A Theology of
Disability and Hospitality
Mary Jo Iozzio PhD

Director of Graduate Programs in Theology &

Ministry, Barry University, Miami Shores, FL
Version of record first published: 18 Dec 2008.

To cite this article: Mary Jo Iozzio PhD (2008): A Review of Vulnerable Communion: A
Theology of Disability and Hospitality, Journal of Religion, Disability & Health, 12:4,
399-401
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15228960802526243

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BOOK REVIEWS

VULNERABLE COMMUNION: A THEOLOGY OF DISABILITY AND

HOSPITALITY. Thomas E. Reynolds. (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press,
2008). 256 pp. Paper, $24.99, ISBN 978-1-58743-177-7.
Theodicy. Gods justice. Suffering. These terms are invoked with increasing frequency in texts that address disability and people with disabilities
(as well as in those texts that deal with natural catastrophe and pogroms
of many kinds). Thomas Reynolds places the seemingly obligatory discussion of theodicy and its implicit distancing of some from communion
with others in contradistinction to a theology of welcome. With cautions
about the paradigmatic uses of theodicy, Reynolds recognizes nonetheless that the human search for meaning in the face of difference underlies
the redemptive nearness of God to human vulnerability and brokenness,
a nearness of solidarity that does not undo or fix such brokenness but . . .
paradoxically embraces it (p. 32).
To move from theodicy to the paradox of embrace, Reynolds offers a
theology that focuses on hospitality using a hermeneutic of disability. This
hermeneutic re-centers the subjective concern of the biblical witness and
its interpreters from a reading that underscores the cult of normalcy to a
reading that exposes the dangerous memory of oppressions and that levels the diverse expressions of imago Dei with an accent on vulnerability.
Reflecting on his theological expertise and experience as a parent of two
children, one diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome, bipolar disorder, and
obsessive-compulsive disorder, Reynolds rejects the oppressions and sufferings and pains in the face of failure that people with disabilities undergo
as the final word in a world redeemed by a disabled God; rather care, love,
and communion best speak Gods final word and hospitality to a creation
marked by vulnerability.

Journal of Religion, Disability & Health, Vol. 12(4), 2008

C 2008 by The Haworth Press. All rights reserved.
doi: 10.1080/15228960802526243

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JOURNAL OF RELIGION, DISABILITY & HEALTH

The text unfolds in a gentle manner, drawing the reader into the argument
while evoking assent to insight and admission of recognizable experiences.
The seven chapters move easily between theoretical and practical concerns.
The first chapter introduces the theoretical issues of theodicy and the perils
of thinking that the paradigms of theodicy will respond adequately to the
lived experiences of people with disabilities; here the hermeneutic of disability exposes the failures of interpreters who denigrate and/or trivialize
disability and people with disabilities. The second and third chapters apply
this hermeneutic to the historical failures to recognize the fundamental
human desires and needs for a home among all Gods people; here both the
vulnerability of all people for basic needs and the ease of some to exclude
others on account of a presumably more remarkable vulnerabilityon
account of disabilitybetray the presumptions of independence, rationality, and control that characterize modern notions of personhood and their
ability to commercialize all manner of human intercourse, including most
prosaically the management of the material body. Chapters four and five
turn to a positive construction of a theology of disability and hospitality.
Much like St. Pauls assertion that in weakness is strength, Reynolds
builds on the paradox of dependency to locate the gifts and graces that accompany relationships of mutual vulnerability. In addition to explorations
in theological anthropology, connections are made between basic needs
and the common good. Once the common good is brought to bear, discussion turns to the questions of justice, tempered with the availability of
mutual, vulnerable love. Thus, loves availability to others is a dynamism
of respect, fidelity, and compassion that affirms by creating and preserving
space for others to be in their own right, on a par with everyone else
(p. 130). People with disabilities are neither more nor less deserving of
justice; further, as a result of the injustices many have endured, privileging
disability can affect the mutual and community flourishing for all.
Turning to Love Divine in chapter six, the work on justice takes a
more decidedly positive turn. Here Reynolds explores the postures of Creator to creation through the lens of gift and resistance. As with the first
chapters denial of the paradigms of theodicy, hope rather than despair
and constancy rather than abandonment provide the contours of a transformative appreciation of an evolving universe and an earth teeming with
diversity and abundance. The openness of life systems to innovation and
relational complexity is a drive toward the fullness of divine life, which is
only now glimpsed dimly in creation and remains to be fully realized in
the future (p. 167). How then, Reynolds asks, can any of us measure up to
such gratuitous gift and giving? By following Jesus, who is for Christians

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Book Reviews

401

the icon of a vulnerable God. The concluding chapter presents the hope of
vulnerable communion through love, in church, and with hospitality.
Reynolds has provided an important piece to the work that advances the
inclusion of people with disabilities in all manner of personal and social
commerce. From his own experience of recognizing excluding practices
against his son to the positive reception of his family in a welcoming
church, this text seeks to remedy the false sense that only some can come
to the table of the Lords feast, the communion par excellence initiated
by Christ at a moment of great vulnerability. Can Christians fail at this
hospitality or deny their own vulnerabilities and still be Christian?
Mary Jo Iozzio, PhD
Professor of Moral Theology
Director of Graduate Programs in Theology & Ministry
Barry University, Miami Shores, FL