Disciples and Friends: Investigations in Disability, Dementia, and Mental Health

DISCIPLES AND FRIENDS: Investigations in Disability, Dementia, and Mental Health by Armand Léon van Ommen and Brian R. Brock, eds. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2022. 330 pages. Hardcover; $59.99. ISBN: 9781481317009. *It has been almost fifty years since I started supporting individuals affected by intellectual and developmental disabilities, and I wish this edited book had been available at that time. While the focus of the different chapters in this book touches on subjects having to do with disability, dementia, and mental health, the real emphasis is on the practical theology of John Swinton, and the ways friendship in and through Jesus informs the "tension between reflection and action, and research and practice" (p. 56). *The book has an introduction and an afterword, and it is divided into four sections: (1) Practical Theology in a Swintonian Key, (2) Vulnerability Subverted, (3) Quests for Faithful Embodiment, and (4) Gently Living in a Violent World. According to the publisher's description of the book, it is directed toward "students and scholars of practical theology, disability theology, mental health, dementia and cognate fields" (https://www.baylorpress.com/9781481317009/disciples-and-friends/). While some of the language is almost inaccessible without a theological background, much of the writing is practical and applicable to those of us who see working for and with people affected by disability, dementia, and mental health as a vocation rather than as a career. *Readers will each have their favorite authors based on their own interests and passions. As a behavior support practitioner as well as a social work professor, I was most affected by the chapter written by Grant Macaskill, a theologian from the University of Aberdeen who identifies as autistic. He writes movingly about the autistic gain for the church when we radically empower the neurodiversity model to discontinue talking about normalcy as a goal and embrace the differences diversity brings within the rich tapestry of the body of Christ. In a similar way, Bill Gaventa's chapter, entitled "All God's Children Got a Place in the Choir" provides another view of the many members of the body whose differences make the body stronger by embracing Paul's vision of God's choice to use the "weak" to bring strength and the "foolish" to bring wisdom to the world the church ministers to (e.g., 1 Corinthians 1 & 2). In his chapter, he asks three questions that I wish I had been asking yea