Paradox of Disability

The village of Trosly-Breuil in northern France is home to the first of well over one hundred L'Arche communities worldwide, where people with and without intellectual disabilities live and work together. In 2007 an impressive assortment of social scientists and theologians gathered there to offer responses to a question posed by L'Arche's visionary founding leader, Jean Vanier: "What have people with disabilities taught me?" Their answers are here presented in a diverse collection of essays. Editor Hans Reinders emphasizes that these analyses and reflections---like the L'Arche communities that inspired them---are not meant to set apart those with disabilities. Rather, they encourage people of all abilities humbly to acknowledge that to be human is to live with brokenness and limitation---and that to experience true community we must first learn to receive other people as God's gift.