Døve, blinde og lamme i Guds rike? Helse og frelse i Det nye testamentet

Abstract

This chapter investigates the relationships between health, healing and salvation in the New Testament. First, I introduce disability studies as a lens for biblical interpretation and show how biblical scholars engage with disability studies theories and concepts. Second, I discuss some New Testament texts to draw out the relations among health, healing and salvation. The healing narratives in the Gospels create an assumption that healing presupposes faith or that salvation somehow should follow from healing. Moreover, a common interpretation of the healing stories is that they signal that all bodies will be healed in the resurrection. I argue that other narratives in the Gospels, as well as Paul’s letters, present a somewhat different understanding. Not all non-normative bodies are healed in the Gospels, and the parable of the Great Feast gives people with disabilities a privileged place in the Kingdom of God. Likewise, Paul’s own experiences of disability are expressed in a revaluation of weakness as strength.