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Abstract
Julia Watts Belser’s Loving Our Own Bones is a vital contribution to disability theology, biblical hermeneutics, and more. This response explores Watts Belser’s critiques of beauty and of the desire to “rescue” texts, pairing them with the book’s reflections on disappointment. It also questions the role of love and eros, directing attention to the Song of Songs as a possible resource for the larger project imagined by the book.
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Notes
1 Adding another dimension to this question of literary style, the aesthetic, and the theological critique of beauty, Julia has also—together with Devorah Greenstein — written three “plain language translations” of portions of the book (Belser & Greenstein, Citation2023a, Citation2023b, Citation2023c; see also Belser Citation2023b). Their aesthetic is different; their prose simpler. And yet Julia and Devorah’s writing is beautiful here, too. So what then of the aesthetics of literary form? And what about “difficult art,” literary forms that are not necessarily reducible to the straightforward, or perhaps, where the translation into plain language involves a more radical act of translation? I don’t have an answer, but I want to ask the question.
2 Here Loving Our Bones builds on and resonates with other voices critiquing cure, including Clare Citation2017 and Piepzna-Samarasinha Citation2018.
3 King ends his speech as follows: “Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.” The full text of “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” delivered on April 3, 1968, can be found at https://www.afscme.org/about/history/mlk/mountaintop.
4 I love this suggestion, which resonates with me deeply: “I like to think there was a gentleness in Moses that could not be reconciled with conquest” (Belser, 2–23, p. 109).