Martha's Marvellous Munchies

Enough theological reflection - let's go for a walk! Toby joined me for the two walks between Mayfield and Thorpe, via Mapleton and Ashbourne. My old phone finally died, so I was enjoying the capabilities of my new one, including a much better camera and the ability to plot routes on the OS Maps app. Walk One It was the first day of Toby's summer holidays, so I'd promised him a milkshake en route . We parked in Mayfield, went past the primary school, and climbed the hill to rejoin the Limestone Way where I'd left it last time . Very soon we came across Lordspiece Farm, which had what looked like a little shed on wheels outside. The sign said "Honesty Tuck Shop". One part of it was a freezer stacked full of ice cream! It was very tempting, but we'd hardly walked any distance, and we had those plans for milkshakes. We reluctantly closed the door and moved on. The farm dog had a bark much bigger than its body - it was a tiny thing! We continued across some f

Who gets to decide what God is like? I am the way, the truth and the life (Image: Pixabay) Well, God presumably has a pretty good idea. The rest of us struggle a bit more. So where do you get your theology from? Who tells you what God is like? And who do you believe when they tell you? I'm asking these questions because I recently read At the Gates , which I reviewed here . It made a lot of useful points about disability and the church. But it also, I noticed, had a very particular view of theology. Once again, I was glad I'd previously read Models of Contextual Theology , because I was able to pick up a few assumptions that the authors of At the Gates were making. I didn't feel that I totally disagreed with these assumptions, but I wasn't sure if I agreed with them either. So I'm using this post to explore them further. Assumption 1 A disabled person's lived theology is just as important as an academic person's theology This generates two opposing reaction

"A church with an accessible culture makes sure a diverse community can participate in everything they do. That's not a burden on a church - it's a cultural shift that benefits everyone." "This is a book about justice." So reads the first sentence of At the Gates: Disability, Justice and the Churches . Written by Naomi Lawson Jacobs and Emily Richardson, who are themselves disabled, At the Gates  draws on interviews with dozens of Christians with disabilities to put together a picture of how they have been treated at church. In the book, the interviewees are called storytellers . All too often, the stories tell of lack of access, hurtful comments, and unfounded assumptions about their abilities and faith. This, the authors describe as ableism  - an ideology that gives power to those who are able-bodied and neurotypical, while regarding others as deficient. What is the book about? The first part of the book covers the issues that disabled people have in havin