When the Church Tries to Fix What God Calls Good with John Swinton | Reimagining the Good Life
John Swinton
41.35
21 October 2025
26 October 2025
What if disability isn’t something to fix, but a way to see God and one another more clearly? Theologian John Swinton joins Amy Julia Becker to explore how our ideas of perfection, healing, and humanity can distort—or deepen—our understanding of the good life. Together, they imagine a church and a world that welcomes every body as good, beloved, and whole. They explore:
• How culture shapes (and distorts) our perceptions of disability, beauty, and goodness
• What it means for a world to be both wounded and beloved
• Why the difference between goodness and perfection matters
• How interdependence includes both beauty and a cost
Christianity Today essay: “It Was Good, Not Perfect.” https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/09/it-was-good-not-perfect/?utm_medium=widgetsocial
00:00 Introduction and Significance of Disability in Faith
02:56 Cultural Perceptions of Disability
05:56 The Image of God and Human Relationships
08:51 Understanding Goodness vs. Perfection
15:24 Goodness and Suffering
21:01 The Power of Naming and Identity
24:44 Relationality and the Cost of Interdependence
32:44 Resisting Culture's Distortions of the Image of God
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