Disability Ethics and Preferential Justice: A Catholic Perspective

Persons with disability make up at least 15% of the global population, yet disability is widely unacknowledged and unexplored in theology. Disability Ethics and Preferential Justice is a response to a dearth of theo-ethical reflection on disability, arguing that justice requires a preferential safeguard for persons and communities of people with disability. Mary Jo Iozzio introduces the basics of disability realities and etiquette for those who have not recognized their absence in common human activities and offers strategies based on Catholic social teaching to inspire deliberate action with an increasingly inclusive and participatory Church and society.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 138 pages
Publication date: 01 March 2023
Publisher: Georgetown University Press

Persons with disability constitute at least 15 percent of the global population, yet disability remains largely unrecognized and unexamined within theology. Moreover, numerous individuals join this minority community throughout their lives as a result of health compromises stemming from aging or accidents. Regrettably, a limited number of individuals without direct personal experience with persons with disability remain indifferent to this vast and diverse minority globally. Disability Ethics and Preferential Justice emerges as a response to the scarcity of theo-ethical reflection on disability, contending that justice necessitates a preferential safeguard for individuals and communities of people with disability. Mary Jo Iozzio provides an introductory exploration of disability realities and etiquette for those who have overlooked their absence in everyday human activities. She establishes a theological lens within disability ethics, drawing upon the image of God as a foundational framework. Iozzio also uncovers personal and systemic forms of control that able-bodied individuals exercise, often unwittingly, to maintain power over people with disability. She offers practical strategies rooted in Catholic social teaching to inspire deliberate action toward an increasingly inclusive and participatory Church and society. Iozzio invites readers to contemplate their responses to matters of disability inclusion across the common spaces to which all individuals should have access. She challenges both secular spaces and the Church's approach to persons with disability, particularly in addressing structural accessibility to worship, sacraments, and community.

Weight: 227g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781647123093