Browsing by Author "Annala, Ville"

The purpose of the research is to examine the way in which disabilities are viewed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. Social approach to disabilities which emphasizes the roles of society, culture and language as key elements in defining disability as a phenomenon as opposed to a straightforward medical definition. In addition, the research is further defined by theological literature concerning disability as well as special educational approach to disabilities. The literature, in conjunction with theological and pedagogical approaches, is used to define the understanding of disability as consisting of both institutional and cultural components. This study examines how the understanding of disability is constructed in official church documents and the discourse used by church employees. The corpus of this qualitative case study consists of documents and a series of interviews. The interviews, in which the interviewees were various church employees, were carried out as semi-structured theme interviews. The official documents include both theological and administrative papers on disability that are issued by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. This corpus is analysed using discourse analysis. Various types of discourse that can be identified are subsequently compared. The study further analyses the corpus of interviews to identify two distinct components of the understanding of disability therein. The first component includes the disabling effects of society and attitudes towards disabilities. These views reflect the themes present in the official church documents, human rights and Christian theology and tradition. Christian theology and tradition can be seen to be applied and adjusted in order to account for these views. The second component of the understanding of disability consists of personal experiences which give rise to narratives simultaneously combining both tragic and romantic elements. The study confirms that the official understanding of disability is present in the discourse of church employees. Even though most interviewees were unfamiliar with the official church documents on disability, the study shows significant similarities between the official church texts and the discourses present in the corpus consisting of the employees’ interviews.