Everybody’s Theology Matters
The Images of God Project
by Keith Dow
A couple of years ago, I joined a fellowship through the University of Birmingham, funded by the John Templeton Foundation, as part of the Psychology Cross-Training for Theologians initiative. The fellowship encourages theologians to engage psychological and qualitative research methods to consider theology from multiple vantage points. I found myself asking a simple question with significant implications: What might this kind of perspective reveal when the theologians are people with intellectual disabilities?
That question led to the Images of God project. I collaborated with 11 Christian adults with intellectual disabilities across Ontario, inviting them to reflect on God and faith through arts-based practices. Participants took photographs that reminded them of God, kept journals, created collages within shadow silhouettes of their heads, and spoke with me about their faith and how they understand themselves.
Left: Raee sits proudly by his collage.
Churches often minimize the perspectives of people with intellectual disabilities in theological conversations, assuming their faith is less developed or their insights less valuable. Images of God powerfully demonstrates the opposite. When people with intellectual disabilities are genuinely welcomed as theological contributors, and when creative ways of knowing are honored, the church’s faith becomes more attentive, more embodied, and more alive. Everybody’s theology matters.
Right: Darcie and Ryan talk.
Keith Dow is a pastor and theologian working in the areas of disability, faith, and theological formation. He serves as manager of organizational and spiritual life with Karis Disability Services and holds a PhD in theological ethics from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is the author of Formed Together: Mystery, Narrative, and Virtue in Christian Caregiving (Baylor University Press, 2021). Images of God emerged through the Psychology Cross-Training for Theologians Fellowship at the University of Birmingham.
