Historical view of mentally disabled believers

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Caroline

Caroline

Puritan Board Sophomore
I am interested in possibly collaborating with a friend to write something academic about the proper view of Christians with mental disabilities--their role in church, their salvation when they cannot understand much of the Bible, etc. One thing that I had wondered--is there literature about the historical view of the church on this topic? It seems that people with mental disabilities are rather remarkably absent from most church literature, but I wonder whether the Puritans or the Reformers ever took up the topic. Has anyone ever encountered this in reading church history?
 
Thanks! I was thinking more of autism, mental retardation, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, and other such things--mental challenges that prevent comprehensive understanding of the Scriptures. Obviously, the Puritans and others wouldn't refer to them by the same names, but surely there must have been some mental problems in their communities. Of course, one thinks of the Salem witchcraft trials, but I wonder if anyone ever took a more helpful outlook on psychological disorders.
 
Caroline:

I don't have time just now to engage this any further than to point to what our Standards say about this, particularly with respect to the salvation of those who, to use your words, "cannot understand much of the Bible..."

Westminster Confession of Faith, 10.3: "Elect infants, dying in infancy, are regenerated, and saved by Christ, through the Spirit, who worketh when, and where, and how he pleaseth: so also are all other elect persons who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the Word" (underline mine).

Peace,
Alan
 
Amazing topic. I was thinking through these things during my mental health rotation. I hope God reveals what His word says about this all!!
 
Caroline, I am involved with a group that does specifically minister to Mentally and physically (special needs) persons. It is a Lutheran based ministry. We have Special needs persons in our Church. You might be able to gather some information from them also. Bethesda Retreat Ministry - Bethesda Lutheran Communities, Inc. I will also ask my Pastor who will probably have some great material on the subject.

BTW, I subscribe to your sons blog. I haven't checked it in a while but I was edified by it.
 
One reason that there is such little treatment of the subject in older literature is that people with mental handicaps generally didn't live very long. Even as recently as 50-75 years ago, someone with Downs Syndrome had a rather short life expectancy.

There is one very regrettable passage in Flavel's Mystery of Providence where he expresses a very low view of the malformed and mentally deficient. I've spoken of that passage in another thread that I can't relocate just now. Flavel was just wrong in what he said, regrettably so, but that shouldn't diminish the rest of his great work.

If you will search the PB for "mentally retarded" or "mentally handicapped" you'll come up with a good number of prior discussions on a variety of issues.

The PCA now has a special needs ministry, a sub-section of Mission to North America (MNA). It's headed up by Stephanie Hubach, who wrote a book about lessons learned from dealing with her own son, born with Downs. That book is titled Same Lake, Different Boat. The Christian Reformed denomination has a long-standing Friendship curriculum, aim mostly at higher functioning disabled. Those are the two main denominational resources that I'm aware of.

There is a fair amount of literature out there, though I imagine some of it is rather dated. Do some research on worldcat.org to explore further.

Alan is of course right to first point you to the Confession, 10.3. From there you could look at some of the commentaries on the Confession. Time permitting, I'll look at the recently printed Minutes of the Assembly to see if there is substantive discussion covered on that paragraph.
 
Wayne said:
It's headed up by Stephanie Hubach, who wrote a book about lessons learned from dealing with her own son, born with Downs. That book is titled Same Lake, Different Boat.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. I just ordered the Kindle version.
 
As the father of a special needs son, my wife and I are working through this right now. He's seven now, but has the mental capacity of a two-year-old. It is unclear as to what level of understanding he will ever attain.

But he's grown up in our home and has been exposed to the gospel since infancy. Keeping in mind that salvation is of the Lord, his salvation does not depend on his ability to perfectly articulate the faith. He can state some things, and even respond to simplified catechism questions, but more importantly, we believe, is evidence of the fruits of the Spirit in his life. Even in the midst of his disability there are some clear things that shine through.
 
My pastor is writing his dissertation on this topic right now. It has to do with the image of God in those with mental disabilities. His own daughter is severely challenged. Perhaps he'd be willing to supply a link when he is done. (He's hoping to defend his dissertation in February.)
 
This just came up in an email exchange between a good friend of mine. So I would be curious as well. He stated that he believes they are not saved until after death whereas I said it would seem that God would regenerate them while they were living and at the very least prior to death. Anyways, like Caroline I would like to know more.
 
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