Abstract
One might hope that a project celebrating and building on the contribution of Scottish practical theologian John Swinton would be as engaging and thought-provoking as Swinton's own work, and Disciples and Friends is just that. It strikes the right notes for different reasons. Where Swinton has the luxury of thoughtfully building on his key theme or questions throughout a writing project, Disciples and Friends features 21 voices throughout its chapters, each with its their own unique contribution and insights. The authors incorporate or build on strands of Swinton's work over the past decades, to greater or lesser extents. These themes include vulnerability, discipleship, spirituality, medicine, disability, dementia, faith, friendship, belonging, hospitality… the list goes on. Whereas reading Swinton directly is like sitting down in his living room and chatting over a cup of tea about a few closely intertwined concepts, Disciples and Friends is more akin to being invited to a cocktail party. At this party, one experiences the excitement of meeting new people at each table, in between sampling hors d'oeuvres and topping up one's drink, learning the fascinating and multi-vocal ways that friendship and theological engagement with John Swinton has shaped each person's journey and thought.
Between introduction and afterword, the book is divided into four roughly thematic sections: ‘Practical Theology in a Swintonian Key’ (pp. 9–76), ‘Vulnerability Subverted’ (pp. 77–154), ‘Quests for Faithful Embodiment’ (pp. 155–226) and ‘Gently Living in a Violent World’ (pp. 227–95). The chapters all offer unique insights and contributions on Swintonian themes, but here are several that stood out to me:
Marcia Webb's incisive remarks ‘On Disability and the Dread of Vulnerability’ (pp. 97–115) helped put needed words to the kinds of stigma faced by people with disabilities. I was frequently challenged with phrases such as, ‘in the denial of human weakness, that is, in the experience of dread, we may understand persons with vulnerabilities as little more than reflections of what we fear in ourselves’ (p. 109). In this way, she addresses a key concern of Swinton's; recognizing the full personhood and humanity of people with disabilities, while offering original insights to complement this theme. Aileen Barclay offers a personal tribute in ‘Bearing the Reality of Dementia’ (pp. 157–70). She includes an acknowledgement, rare in this volume, that aspects of her experience have seemed, at times, ‘at odds’ with Swinton's theology (p. 157). An example of this is the ‘stuckness’ (my word, not hers) that Aileen felt in her caregiving responsibilities that did not align neatly with Swinton's sense of vocation and calling (p. 163). Paying close enough attention to someone's theology to challenge it or offer questions and needed nuance—especially in an area as fraught with tension as personal caregiving for family members—seems to me to be an ultimate indication of respect, especially when paired (as Barclay does) with such gratitude for the care, friendship, and support of John Swinton and his wife Alison (p. 165). Warren Kinghorn and Stanley Hauerwas address the crucial, real-world impact of Swinton's adherence to Jesus-gentleness in health care (pp. 263–77). ‘John's practical theology has always drawn him to the concrete, lived experiences of real people and real communities’ (p. 269). In this, a shorter chapter than most, Kinghorn and Hauerwas aptly identify the potentially transformational quality of the gentleness that Swinton finds in the pages of the New Testament.
Even if these are a few examples of chapters that stood out along the way, it would be hard to find a chapter here that wasn’t instructive, encouraging, entertaining, or at the very least interesting. This doesn’t mean they were all equally exhilarating. On a couple of occasions, I suspected we had wandered from Swinton's concerns and influence to a particular project of the author's, or I wondered whether a chapter was a separate paper that had been repurposed for this volume. Those moments were rare, though.
What is striking and welcome about these chapters is the diverse and honest way each author conveys the impact of Swinton on their lives not only theoretically or theologically but also relationally. Disciples and Friends frames the content well in this regard, as most contributors have experienced a form of discipleship and friendship with John Swinton together with acknowledging the ways that Christian discipleship and friendship play such a pivotal role in Swinton's practical theology.
In the afterword, Brian Brock relays the challenge of writing about someone he has known so well, while expressing gratitude for the impact that new, different, diverse, insightful words can have on this reality: ‘If we are given different words, better words, they can help us to see things and situations anew, and so to act differently toward them. New and better words can unveil marvelous unseen richness. The essays in this volume are an eloquent testimony of how many of us have experienced John's life and work as leading us to that richness’ (p. 297).
As the parallel runs between the theological import of Disciples and Friends and the practical nature of each author's relationship with John, a similar parallel arises between the difficulty of describing someone known so well by the authors (Swinton) and the difficulty of giving theological words to one's relationship with Jesus in the midst of workaday life. It is fitting, then, that John Swinton's work is invested at this precise intersection of ‘practical’ theology—the kind of theology that isn’t afraid to get messy and to poke its nose in people's lives and often difficult realities.
Put differently, ‘The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us’ (Jn 1:14, NIV), and Swinton's efforts have been to wrestle with this ‘enfleshment’ and the ways that Jesus’ neighbourhood-dwelling changes the ways we all relate to one another and to God, a God who has moved in down the street. Perhaps there is no greater testimony to this work being done well than the intense relationality expressed within the pages of Disciples and Friends—pages not about a detached and objective field of study but about the work of practising theology in every nook and cranny we find ourselves in.
Amidst a relatively serious scholarly work, a moment of comic relief for me came on page 247. After Andrew Root comments that Swinton always looks tired, Root writes, ‘If this were a roast (which I think John would enjoy more!) and not a Festschrift, that's how I would have started my thoughts about John’. This moment of levity from Root was welcome, not because other authors had been stodgy or pretentious, but because John Swinton is far from ‘a serious individual’ in real life. He is happy to join in a laugh at his expense or to join friends for a pint and a conversation. I suspect Root is correct, that Swinton would be most at home at a roast in his honour. Root's acknowledgement helped me to carry on reading this Festschrift as being excellent at what it is, which is a thoughtful theological book that honours this aspect of Swinton's life and legacy.
The world of disability theology is growing and changing. It is becoming more expansive and increasingly inclusive/celebratory of the lived experiences and perspectives of people with disabilities. These are exciting and important developments. It is also significant that some theologians, like John Swinton, have been writing at these intersections long enough that a Festschrift can be written in his honour which also contributes to and helps shape the wider conversation on disability and theology. Volumes like this are a tribute not only to the work of Swinton, but to the ripple effects of his work and to the ways that those conversations have matured into nuanced and insightful dialogues of their own.
I am not sure if I would recommend this book as the best place to start to understand the writing and work of John Swinton. I am more likely to point people to primary sources, such as Swinton's articles or books, for that purpose. That said, I can think of no better place than this volume for people to start grappling with his primary themes and engaging in the wider conversations related to those themes. It is an excellent resource, in its own right, for those interested in the intersections of disability, embodiment, and the Christian faith. I have no doubt that many of the strands of thought developed here will continue to grow and evolve in the years to come, and that is a testimony to the continued and growing influence of Swinton's writing and his relational investment in (friendship with) so many people over the past years—myself included.