Dominika Kurek-Chomycz: “For it is not a blemish of the body that can defile him” (CA 8.47): Disability and Early Christian Ministry

The role of healing in early Christian ministry and a more positive attitude towards the bodily impaired attested in Jewish and Christian sources, as opposed to other ancient attitudes, have been subject of much scholarly attention. Yet also in Christian sources agency is predominantly presumed among the able-bodied, with disabled characters more likely to be instrumentalised. In this contribution I analyse select early Christian documents, focusing on the aspect which tends to be overlooked, namely what implications the above would have for the criteria and expectations regarding ecclesiastical office holders in the early church, and how those with bodily impairments in leadership positions would have been perceived by others. Just as in the case of illness and disability more generally, early Christian writings display a variety of approaches, and more explicit prescripts come mainly from later, composite documents. According to the “apostolic” canons (CA8.47), certain types of bodily impairments, such as being maimed in an eye, or lame, do not constitute an impediment to episcopal ordination, but blindness and deafness do. Yet this is not because they defile a person, but because they hinder “ecclesiastical affairs.” Both this text, and other passages where Lev 21:17-21 is alluded to or quoted explicitly, show a complex relationship between Christian ministry and the Hebrew Bible priesthood. Applying the lens of disability studies to the question of early Christian ministry not only sheds light on our understanding of the developments in early Christianity, but also complicates the different models used by contemporary disability theorists.