Prophetic Voices, Silent Words: The Prophetic Role of Persons with Profound Intellectual Disabilities in Contemporary Christianity

In the decades following Vanier's and Wolfensberger's first assertions that persons with intellectual disabilities might exercise a prophetic role in contemporary society and/or the Church, societal attitudes to disability in general and intellectual disability in particular have been revised, perhaps to a greater extent than in any other period. Can the same be said of widespread attitudes within theological discursion and the Church? From a critique of Wolfensberger's earlier assertions, this paper moves towards a biblically and theologically-based exploration of the radical idea that those who, at best, sit unnoticed and unheard within ecclesial communities and, at worst, find themselves still excluded from them by reason of prejudice, fear and misunderstanding, embody a prophetic, profound, and vital message concerning the true nature of God, humanness and authentic Christian life, both individual and corporate. In assessing the potential implications of such an understanding, the paper asks whether they might, as members of the soteriological people of God and indispensable members of his ecclesial community whose humanness is not prejudiced by their difference, nor their value by their vulnerability, have something transformative to say concerning the life and witness of the contemporary Church.