What is the secret that allows L'Arche to exist? I'll tell you: pleasure! explains Jean Vanier, founder of the international federation of L'Arche communities where people with and without intellectual disabilities share their lives. Vanier's spiritual vision and playful sense of humour shaped L'Arche, but the organization was also informed by its surprising history with the United Church of Canada. In Tender to the World Carolyn Whitney-Brown explores the connections between the two organizations through diverse critical insights from Julia Kristeva, Doreen Massey, and Mikhail Bakhtin, as well as Vanier's controversial articulation of the gift of weakness. Tracing the five-decade relationship between L'Arche and the United Church alongside evolving disability theories, Whitney-Brown examines both the fundamental importance of stories and the agency of people with intellectual disabilities. Inversion -- a transformative overturning of expectations in social interactions -- can be upsetting or exciting, challenging or inspiring, she argues. This book offers a fresh look at how L'Arche and the United Church have worked to break down walls of difference, illuminating how each tenders something unexpected to the other and to the world. At a time when many are seeking new visions for society, the long and complex relationship between Canada's largest Protestant denomination and L'Arche offers both encouragement and a deeper way to approach questions of living in diverse communities.
Authors
- Bibliography, etc. Note
- Includes bibliographical references and index
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Description conventions
- rda
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 259/.44
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 23
- Distributor
- Canadian Electronic Library (Firm),
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- ISBN
- 9780773559110 9780228000662
- LCCN
- BV4461.3
- LCCN Item number
- W55 2019eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaBNVSL
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (xvi, 264 pages)
- Published in
- Ottawa, Ontario
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)thg00979959 (CaOOCEL)458319
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Title proper/short title
- Jean Vanier, L'Arche, and the United Church of Canada
- Transcribing agency
- CaBNVSL
Table of Contents
- Cover 1
- Copyright 5
- Contents 8
- Foreword 10
- Preface 12
- Acknowledgments 18
- Introduction Inversion, Pleasure, and Story 22
- 1 “Are You a Saint?”: The United Church of Canada and Jean Vanier 35
- 2 Breakfast at the Ecumenical Buffet 63
- 3 Just Stories? 112
- 4 Secret Agency and Surprising Subjects 155
- Afterword Go Be Broken, Go Be Whole 198
- Notes 208
- Bibliography 254
- Index 274