Episode #156 - Disability in the Greco-Roman World and the New Testament with Dr. Louise Gosbell

In this episode we discuss Disability in the Greco-Roman World and the New Testament with Dr. Louise Gosbell, who is Principal of Mary Andrews College in Sydney, Australia, and the author of The Poor, The Crippled, The Blind, and the Lame: Physical and Sensory Disability in the Gospels of the New Testament (published by Mohr Siebeck). At the outset of our conversation, Dr. Gosbell shares her personal story struggling with chronic health issues that have developed into a disability, as well as the way that disability has affected her wider family. Over the course of our conversation, we discuss the Great Banquet of Luke 14, the woman with the issue of blood, and the man born blind in John 9. As Dr. Gosbell emphasizes with us, disability is not a static experience, either in the ancient world or the modern one, and is an inevitable reality rather than a rare experience. Thus, our accommodation and our framework towards disability needs to shift so that we are much more intentional around disability in our churches, including in our teachings and in our practices. Team Members on the episode from The Two Cities include: Dr. Grace Emmett, Stephanie Kate Judd, and Rev. Dr. Chris Porter.

Series Disclaimer: We know that this space is fraught, and we don’t speak for every PWD. We may inevitably get some things wrong in this series, but we ask for your patience in advance since we think it’s more important to have the conversation than shy away from it out of fear of saying the wrong thing. At the same time, this is a learning process for all of us, and we want to maintain a posture of learning throughout the series and beyond. Thanks for listening!

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