Theology and Down Syndrome

I really benefitted from reading Amos Yong’s Theology and Down Syndrome: Reimagining Disability in Late Modernity (Baylor University Press, 2007, 425 pp.). Amos Yong is a very fine scholar who draws upon a wide range of theological traditions in this text. Much of the book is about disability theory and disability theology in a broad sense, rather than about DS specifically, though intellectual disability is the subject of a fair amount of the analysis. I did not find the discussion of disability in various world religions germane to the overall discussion, though other readers might find it more edifying. In Part 3 of the book Yong works through several theological loci—creation, providence, anthropology, ecclesiology, and soteriology. These discussions are rich and insightful. I found his work on soteriology fascinating. This is no light read. It is a fairly technical volume, though accessible to the non-specialist. I highly recommend this book for anyone who feels that the church should attend more fully to issues of disability.