3. Reimagining the Sacred: Mad, Black, and Neurodivergent Theologies
Hybrid
Meeting ID: 913 8402 8714
Passcode: 722932
Panellists: Jessica Lee, Caleb Day & Jonathan Dunn, Warda Farah
Jessica Lee | 화양연화 (hwa-yang-yeon-hwa): A New Theological Paradigm for Mad Disabled Spiritual Practice
Abstract: 화양연화 (hwa-yang-yeon-hwa) literally translates into "the time of a flower's blooming." In this paper, I will be presenting my ongoing research in developing a liberative theological model for disability, madness, and neurodivergence, that centers the disabled person as the nexus of meaning, not in a static definition, but through a dynamic image of change and growth instigated, promulgated, and fulfilled in the God who is Love. My research actively seeks to dismantle rigid structural doctrinal understandings of "the human condition" and reunite the Lover with the Beloved through a language that allows for new pathways of encounter and learning, fully acknowledging the reality of mad, neurodivergent, disabled experience not as outliers or something needing to be "fixed", but as indispensable locations of knowledge creation.
Further, I will share an example of how such practices are evident through the world of fanculture, fandom, and fanfiction. Through active deeply immersive engagement with any source, we continuously learn and construct new language and knowledge of what it means to be alive. Such hyper-fixations are not frivolous or distracting, but rather, integral spiritual practices that render the heart of life through imagination, playfulness, and world building through a free acknowledgement of desire. Thus, what I hope to show is that through the 화양연화 (hwa-yang-yeon-hwa) paradigm, we can re-engage with the meaning of life through the liberation of desire. It is through this liberation of desire, this encounter with what we want, that the seeds of truth are allowed to germinate, fostered through a continued practice of exploration, bringing forth a new multiverse of meaning and beauty into the garden of life.
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Caleb Day, Jonathan Dunn | Prophetic prospects for neurodivergent liberation theology
Abstract: Christian theological engagement with neurodiversity echoes some patterns highlighted in the call for papers: tendencies for neurodiversity-lite or pathology paradigms, liberal rather than radical political positioning, focusing primarily on autism among neurodivergences. Building on emerging neurodivergent liberation theologies, we (two neurodivergent theological ethicists) explore ways theological resources can shape more critical, liberating neurodivergent praxis and thought, via social, critical theological anthropologies and eschatologies and prophetic positioning.
By offering social accounts of flourishing and emphasising the dignity and worth of all, Christian anthropologies and eschatologies can contest capitalist assumptions of productivism, individualism, and associated constructions of deficit and disorder. Yet, eschatological discussions of autism struggle to move beyond questions about individual resurrection, an impasse which Brock (2019) argues is rooted in individualising anthropological approaches. We examine counterproposals which emphasise the sociality of Christian eschatology and anthropology, including a “negative” eschatology (Leith et al, 2024), which invites struggle against what the eschaton is not, thus “opening the conditions of possibility for the contingent transformation of injustice and led by those at the margins”.
We suggest neurodivergent people can and do lead this eschatological praxis, and offer the marginal social position of prophets within Christian/Abrahamic religious-political tradition as a model. Prophets engage critically with sociopolitical power, resist dominant ideologies, critique hypocritical religion, expose oppression, point to wider realities, and neuroqueer their tradition. The tradition grants uneasy recognition to prophets within its understanding of social bodies, in tension with strands in tradition aligned with dominant kyriarchal power (Brueggemann 2001, Schüssler Fiorenza 2001). Prophets routinely experience rejection and co-option (cf. Luke 11:47). We explore illuminating comparisons between prophets and neurodivergent people navigating neurocognitive/value dissonance with oppressive systems, unable/unwilling to tolerate falsehood and oppression.
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Warda Farah | Still Livin’, Still Black: Resistance in the Face of Necropathology
Abstract: This autoethnographic Presentation, rooted in Black feminist theory and Nkwaethnography, explores how anti-Blackness, ableism, and sexism intersect to harm Black neurodivergent women.
Drawing on concepts such as spirit murder (Williams, 1991) and Black feminist thought (Collins, 2000), the chapter introduces necropathology a framework that examines how systemic oppression creates conditions of death, both literal and metaphorical, for Black neurodivergent women.
Through reflective dialogues with other Black neurodivergent women on platforms like
WhatsApp, Zoom, and X, the presentation identifies patterns of harm, erasure, and resilience. It highlights the unique psychological toll of marginalisation, as well as resistance strategies that push back against systems that devalue their existence.
This work deepens our understanding of the compounded oppressions faced by Black
neurodivergent women, arguing for a transformative shift that centres justice, collective care, and healing. It calls for a radical reclamation of agency, voice, and space in both academic and broader societal contexts.
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Speaker Bios:
Jessica Lee: Jessica Lee is a PhD candidate in Church History and Historical Theology at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. She has a certificate in Disability Ethics from University of Illinois-Chicago and teaches in History and Theology at North Park Theological Seminary. Her additional research interests are in spirituality and philosophy.
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Jonathan Dunn: was Lecturer in Theological Ethics at the University of Chester (2018-2021), and co-edited the volume, Multiple Faiths in Postcolonial Cities: Living Together after Empire (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020). He managed a service supporting disabled students at another UK university (2021-24), and is now an independent scholar.
Caleb Day: is a neurodivergent theological ethicist in the latter stages of his doctoral research at Durham University. He also works as a union organiser for UCU and teaches theological ethics and political theology at Lindisfarne College of Theology. He has published in Christian theological ethics and political theology.
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Warda Farah: Warda Farah is a Social Entrepreneur, Speech and LanguageTherapist, Writer and Lecturer. Her work sits at the intersection of Race, Language, Health and Disability.
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Zoom Meeting ID: 913 8402 8714
Passcode: 722932