The New Testament and Autism

Now temporarily available for download is Grant Macaskill’s article “Autism Spectrum Disorders and the New Testament: Preliminary Reflections,” Journal of Disability & Religion 22:1 (2018): 15-41.

He writes:

This article is intended as a preliminary set of reflections on how the New Testament might shape the values of Christian communities in relation to ASD, and is offered as a contribution from the discipline of biblical studies to the disciplines of pastoral theology and theological ethics. It is an article intended to move us toward a more integrative account of what it means to think biblically about autism spectrum conditions. In presenting the purpose of the article in such terms, I stress that it is not itself a work of pastoral theology or theological ethics. Those disciplines provide the necessary further bridges between the text and its contemporary applications, but they are themselves “rooted” disciplines, drawing their own particular identity from the biblical material. They must, then, be fed by reflection on that material. What follows is not a singular argument, but rather a set of interwoven reflections intended to begin the conversation about how the New Testament (my area of competence within the broader field of biblical studies) might inform pastoral theological and ethical reflection on ASD.