The Complexity of Conversion - Intersectional Perspectives on Religious Change in Antiquity and Beyond - Valérie Nicolet
"Leap, Ye, Lame for Joy": The Dynamics of Disability in Conversion
The Complexity of Conversion - Intersectional Perspectives on Religious Change in Antiquity and Beyond - Valérie Nicolet
Anna Rebecca Solevag [+]
VID Specialized University, Stavanger, Norway
Anna Rebecca Solevåg is Professor of New Testament Studies at VID Specialized University in Stavanger, Norway, where she is director of the PhD program in Theology and Religion. In her research, she studies the intersections of gender, class, dis/ability, age and ethnicity, exploring the complexities of identity and negotiations of power taking place at these crossroads. Solevåg is the author of Negotiating the Disabled Body. Representations of Disability in Early Christian Texts and Birthing Salvation. Gender and Class in Early Christian Childbearing Discourse.
Description
The article shows how miraculous stories of healing have been used to encourage conversion and that healing has functioned as a metaphor for conversion in the history of Christianity. It analyzes two cases: the early Methodist movement and the Gospel of Mark. These two examples complicate the term “conversion” as a category for religious change. They also question for whom such narratives functioned as an impulse towards religious change: people with disabilities or the able-bodied?