Neurodivergent Theology and A Theology of Neurodivergence

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There is a difference between Neurodivergent Theology and a theology of Neurodivergence. In this article, I’m going to explain the difference, why the church needs both types of Theology, and finish with some suggestions for creating safe churches for Neurodivergence. In the newsletter linked to this article, I will be sending out a PDF on how to help create churches that are safe and welcoming for people with neurodivergence.

Let’s start by defining our terms. Neurodiversity refers to everyone. It is the term that recognises the difference in how people’s brains work and process information. Neurodiveristy includes neurotypical and Neurodivergent people.

Neurotypical and Neurodivergent

Neurotypicality describes people whose brain functions and processing are seen as standard. Neurodivergence describes people whose brain function and processing are outside the typical range. A common slang term is neurospicy.

This includes Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, and Tourette’s, amongst other conditions and disorders.

These can be formally diagnosed, but due to the long wait and complicated process for diagnosis, there is an increasing acceptance of self-diagnosis. This is especially true for adults. If you want to know more about the differences between the terms, check out this website.

The Difference between Neurodivergent Theology and A Theology of Neurodivergence

There is a difference between Neurodivergent theology and a theology of Neurodivergence. Put simply, Neurodivergent theology is theology done by people who are themselves Neurodivergent. A Theology of Neurodivergence is theology about Neurodivergence, but is not necessarily done by people who are Neurodivergent themselves.

You can think of it this way. A Theology of Neurodivergence is like looking through a window into someone else’s home, trying to make sense of it. Neurodivergent Theology is like that person opening the door and inviting you in.

Both types of theology are needed by the church. The church needs Neurodivergent people to speak creatively into its theology. But the church also needs people to be directly reflecting on and thinking theologically about Neurodivergence.

Both types of theology shape how we know who God is.

A Disabled God?

Amy Kenny in My Body is Not a Prayer Request argues that we worship a disabled God. The wounds of the crucifixion survive the resurrection. The God who submitted to crucifixion is the God who allows themself to be weak and broken. They bear the wounds of their experiences. That God experiences separation, fear, and suffering. We know this broken and wounded divinity in the person of Jesus.

Only the Crucified God can save because only the Crucified God knows, experiences, and carries our suffering. This includes the beautiful and sometimes painful complexity of Neurodivergence. For every person who is passing and capable of masking, there are people who cannot go unnoticed in a typical society. But people who are Neurodivergent are not beyond God. They are made in the image of God. The image of God includes every kind of human diversity.

A Radical Understanding of the Imago Dei

Neurodivergent minds are part of the divine image. They aren’t a mistake, and they aren’t a consequence of the fall. The difference is part of what it means to be human. It is part of what it means to be made in the image of God.

When God became human, God became one particular human being. But God was not only one particular human. Jesus also took on all that it means to be human. This is what Bonhoeffer calls the collective-person. That Jesus was both a single human being, unique in his particularity, and representative for all humanity.

Every single human shares in Christ because Christ takes on all of humanity. Thus, in Adam all have died, but now in Christ all may live. It also means that, in Christ, every human experience is. People who are neurodivergent are not only loved by God, but share in who Christ is. Christ knows and understands what it is to be neurodivergent because Christ participates in that neurodivergence just as the neurodivergent participate in Christ.

Rethinking the Promise of the Future

The image of God includes disability, suffering, and brokenness. Disability is not a mistake. It is the systems and structures of humanity, and the world we have created, that disable people. While there are instances of disabilities which have a significant impact on how people can live their lives, on their pain, and on their capacity to exercise their agency, there is also the promise that none of those things can take away from a person’s sacred humanity.

In the Kingdom of God, there will be no pain and no suffering. But that does not mean that what is considered disabled by this world will not continue into the resurrection. It means that every kind of difference, whether physical or neurological, will be glorified in Christ. The pain will be gone, but the kingdom will enable everyone who this world disables. The beauty of human diversity will persist because who we are is healed, but healing does not mean conforming to the world’s standards. It means Shalom.

Neurodivergent Theology

Neurodivergent theology does not have to be about Neurodivergence. The term applies to the theology done by people who are Neurodivergent. The theology itself could be about anything. The point is that the perspective forming that theology is shaped by the experience of Neurodivergence.

That difference of perspective is critical for the church. Lamar Hardwick, known as “the Autism Pastor”, warns that standard theology assumes a typical brain. It often inadvertently excludes those who process things differently. Without the broad range of human perspectives involved in the creation of theology, the church misses the fullness of Christ’s message.

Neurodivergence brings a different way of seeing the world and processing information. The unique experiences of each person with neurodivergence bring something fresh to the work of theology. Just as the church needs Black Theology, Feminist Theology, or Liberation Theology, it also needs Neurodivergent Theology.

But we must always be careful not to objectify people who are neurodivergent. They are not only neurodivergent theologians. They are first and foremost theologians. The church needs neurodivergent theologians, but it must never treat them as a way to tick a box. Neurodivergent theology can be challenging and disruptive as it works in surprising and unconventional ways. Neurodivergent theology can, and should, be a prophetic voice for the church.

A Theology of Neurodivergence

Where Neurodivergent Theology is theology done by neurodivergent people, a theology of neurodivergence is theology about neurodivergence.

A theology of neurodivergence is by nature intersectional. It will engage with Disability Theology, Theology of health and Wellbeing, and with Public Theology. Those who study neurodivergence within a theological frame will also need to engage with sociology, psychology, and social medicine. Thus, those theologians who specialise in a theology of neurodivergence will need to be equipped to work across disciplines.

It’s All About People

The Theology of Neurodivergence is about people. People whom the church has often either harmed or failed to accommodate. There needs to be a degree of humility in the approach to doing any Theology of Neurdivergence. The theologian must recognise that it is not their voice that needs to be heard. They are there to amplify others’ voices. The theologian needs to acknowledge their own context and the baggage they bring, and then, as much as possible, get out of the way to let others speak.

When writing a systematic Theology of Neurodivergence, or one rooted in Biblical studies rather than practical theology, the theologian must be even more careful to remember that the focus of their work is people, not only an abstract doctrine. What they write will affect people’s lives. They have a responsibility to take care in how they approach this subject.

The church needs to develop its Theology of Neurodivergence. But it needs to do so in a way that is focused on the voices of neurodivergent people, is rooted in the lived experience of church communities, and builds towards doctrinal work rather than starting with doctrine.

Made in the Image of God

We are all made in the Image of God. In all our complexity, difference, and divergence, we mirror the infinite being of God. Humanity is meant to be composed of differences. The power of sin is turning difference into otherness. Salvation is part of the process of deconstructing otherness and finding the sacred beauty in difference.

The church is Christ’s body on earth and is meant to reflect that diversity. More than just reflecting it, the church needs that diversity. Paul tells us this in the first letter to the Corinthians.

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.

1 Corinthians 12:12-14

A Diverse Body

For the church to be the body of Christ, it requires diversity. Not only cultural, gender, sexual, and ethnic diversity, but also neurodiversity. The diversity of the church is something to be celebrated and recognised as a marker of what it means to be the body of Christ. A church where everyone is the same isn’t a church; it is a club.

This means we need to allow our church and our thinking to be disrupted. Not by neurodivergence itself, but by our willingness to love our neighbour and recognise our dependence upon them for our own identity in Christ. To know ourselves in Christ, we know ourselves as part of Christ’s body. Christ’s body is not complete without all of humanity within it. Thus, neurodivergent people in the church are not just a matter of making people feel welcome. It is the rest of the church understanding that they are lessened without the presence of every kind of diversity.

The Challenge of Neurodivergence Theology for the Church

The church has failed in its responsibility to people with neurodivergence. While it is improving, and more work is being put into this area, there is still more to do. 20% of people in the UK are Neurodivergent. Think about what that means for our congregations and the communities we serve. If we are not able to make our churches a place where people with all kinds of neurodivergence can feel welcome, then we are failing to be the body of Christ.

This is not just a matter of ticking a diversity box. This is a theological imperative for what it means to be the church. But it is also a task that the institutional church cannot own. Naomi Lawson Jacobs argues that Neurodivergent Christians have rarely been enabled to tell their own stories as part of God’s diverse creation. The church needs to make space to hear stories from its neurodivergent members and those who maintain but have rejected the formal institution. Especially when those stories are difficult to hear.

From Inclusion to Belonging

The church needs to move away from inclusion and towards full belonging. Making sure that the voices of neurodivergence participate as partners and members at every level of leadership. It is not enough to invite people in. It is about recognising that they were meant to belong all along, and we have excluded them by our desire for stability and ‘normalcy’.

This is not about helping neurodivergent people fit into our settings and structures. It is about changing the way we do things to make everyone welcome and a part of what we do. There is work to be done, but it can be accomplished one step at a time.

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