The following is intended as a supplement to the separate article entitled “Intellectual Disability, Human Flourishing, and Eternal Destiny.” Below, you’ll find a list of sources cited in that article, followed by some additional resources related to the topics under consideration.
Sources Cited in “Intellectual Disability, Human Flourishing, and Eternal Destiny”
Amick, Shauna M. “About.” LinkedIn, accessed July 13, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/shauna-amick-m-ed-b288211a6/.
Amick, Shauna M. My Baby Has a Disability: Life-Giving Questions and Answers. Joni and Friends, 2019. https://joniandfriends.org/product/my-baby-has-a-disability-life-giving-questions-and-answers/#.
Cleveland Clinic. “Intellectual Disability.” May 5, 2023. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/25015-intellectual-disability-id.
Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. “Parenting A Child with Down Syndrome” [Episode]. March 21, 2022. https://www.focusonthefamily.com/episodes/broadcast/parenting-a-child-with-down-syndrome/.
Garske, Jessica. “Disposition of the Heart.” Intersections, October 22, 2021. www.cbhd.org/intersections/disposition-of-the-heart.
Hendershot, Robert. “Joni and Trevor: Ambassadors for Life.” Focus on the Family, June 21, 2023. https://www.focusonthefamily.com/pro-life/joni-and-trevor-ambassadors-for-life/.
Insight for Living. “Can Infants and Mentally Disabled Individuals Go to Heaven?” March 30, 2020. https://insight.org/resources/article-library/individual/can-infants-and-mentally-disabled-individuals-go-to-heaven.
Joni and Friends. “About.” Accessed July 13, 2025. https://joniandfriends.org/about/.
Joni and Friends. “The Joy of a Hug.” 4-Minute Radio Program [Transcript]. January 21, 2021. https://joniandfriends.org/4-minute-radio-program/the-joy-of-a-hug/.
Knight, John. “Will My Son Go to Heaven? Infancy, Disability, and Sovereign Grace.” Desiring God, April 19, 2022. https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/will-my-son-go-to-heaven.
Maulding, Mark. “I Have Down Syndrome but My Identity Is in Christ!” (Blog post). Grace Life International, accessed June 11, 2025. https://www.gracelifeinternational.com/i-have-down-syndrome-but-my-identity-is-in-christ/.
Messer, Neil. Flourishing: Health, Disease, and Bioethics in Theological Perspective. Eerdmans, 2013.
Mulvihill, Jared. “Cognitive Disability and Eternal Destiny: Open Letter to Uncertain Loved Ones.” Desiring God, April 4, 2020. https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/cognitive-disability-and-eternal-destiny.
National Institutes of Health (NIH). “About Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDDs).” November 9, 2011. https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/idds/conditioninfo.
National Institutes of Health (NIH). “Down Syndrome.” Accessed July 13, 2025. https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/factsheets/downsyndrome.
Reinders, Hans S. Receiving the Gift of Friendship: Profound Disability, Theological Anthropology, and Ethics. Eerdmans, 2008.
Smedes, Lewis B. “Can God Reach the Mentally Disabled?” Christianity Today, March 5, 2001. https://www.christianitytoday.com/2001/03/can-god-reach-mentally-disabled/.
Targe, Eric. “Holey, Wholly, Holy Discipleship.” Intersections, November 18, 2021. www.cbhd.org/intersections/holey-wholly-holy-discipleship.
Vollema, Rick. “Disabled Isn’t Unabled: What Living as a Disabled Pastor Has Taught Me About the Church.” Intersections, December 16, 2021. www.cbhd.org/intersections/disabled-isnt-unabled-what-living-as-a-disabled-pastor-has-taught-me-about-the-church.
Wasserman, David, Jerome Bickenbach, and Robert Wachbroit, eds. Quality of Life and Human Difference: Genetic Testing, Health Care, and Disability. Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Additional Resources
The following is a list of some additional resources that may prove helpful to those who are interested in issues related to intellectual disability, human flourishing, and eternal destiny. They’re not necessarily listed in any order of preference or priority, and they intentionally represent a number of different approaches and perspectives (theological or otherwise), so their inclusion here should not necessarily be taken as an endorsement in all instances or in all respects. In some cases, I’ve added explanatory annotations.
Disability Ministries and Research Centers
Joni and Friends—https://joniandfriends.org/
- A Christian nonprofit ministry that brings “practical help and Gospel hope to people with disabilities around the world.”
Key Ministry—https://keyministry.org/
- Key Ministry serves churches seeking to welcome individuals and families impacted by disability, mental illness and trauma, for the purpose of making disciples of Jesus Christ.
Baylor Center for Developmental Disabilities—https://bcdd.soe.baylor.edu/
- The Baylor Center for Developmental Disabilities invests in research, training, outreach, and clinical services that promote the flourishing of people with disabilities, their families, and communities.
Books
- For pastors, lay church leaders, and disability ministry leaders, I would strongly recommend Brian Brock’s Disability: Living into the Diversity of Christ’s Body (Baker Academic, 2021). Part of the “Pastoring for Life: Theological Wisdom for Ministering Well” series, this is a short, accessible book (it can easily be read in a day or less) that helpfully shows how welcoming people with disabilities into the life of the church is at the heart of the church’s mission.
- Beyond Suffering Bible: Where Struggles Seem Infinite, God’s Hope is Infinite (Tyndale House, 2016), https://www.tyndale.com/sites/beyondsufferingbible/. This is the first devotional Bible on the market to develop a theology of disability and suffering from Genesis to Revelation.
- A Good and Perfect Gift: Faith, Expectations, and a Little Girl Named Penny, by Amy Julia Becker (Bethany House, 2011). Memoir written by a mother of a child with Down syndrome.
- Accessible Atonement: Disability, Theology, and the Cross of Christ, by David McLachlan (Baylor University Press, 2021).
- Adam: God’s Beloved, by Henri J. M. Nouwen (Orbis Books, 1997). Written by a Dutch Catholic priest who was the pastor of the L’Arche Daybreak Community in Toronto, Canada, this book records “the spiritual lessons [Nouwen] learned from a profoundly disabled young man.”
- Another Kind of Courage: God’s Design for Fathers of Families Affected by Disability, by Doug Mazza and Steve Bundy (Joni and Friends, 2014).
- Disability and the Good Human Life, edited by Jerome E. Bickenbach, Franziska Felder, and Barbara Schmitz (Cambridge University Press, 2014).
- Disability and the Gospel: How God Uses our Brokenness to Display His Grace, by Michael S. Beates (Crossway, 2012).
- Disability and the Way of Jesus: Holistic Healing in the Gospels and the Church, by Bethany McKinney Fox (IVP, 2019).
- Disability, Providence, and Ethics: Bridging Gaps, Transforming Lives, by Hans S. Reinders (Baylor University Press, 2014).
- Quality of Life and Human Difference: Genetic Testing, Health Care, and Disability, edited by David Wasserman, Jerome Bickenbach, and Robert Wachbroit (Cambridge University Press, 2005).
- Real Families, Real Needs: A Compassionate Guide for Families Living with Disability, by Joni and Friends (Focus on the Family/Tyndale, 2017).
- Receiving the Gift of Friendship: Profound Disability, Theological Anthropology, and Ethics, by Hans S. Reinders (Eerdmans, 2008).
- The Future of the Disabled in Liberal Society: An Ethical Analysis, by Hans S. Reinders (University of Notre Dame Press, 2000).
- Theology and Down Syndrome: Reimagining Disability in Late Modernity, by Amos Yong (Baylor University Press, 2007).
- Vulnerable Communion: A Theology of Disability and Hospitality, by Thomas E. Reynolds (Brazos Press, 2008).
Articles Available Online
- “Disabilities and the Gospel: An Interview with Michael Beates,” https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/disabilities-and-gospel.
- Barbara J. Newman offers a few quick tips for “Sharing Jesus with a Child with Down Syndrome” in the following two blog posts. These ideas are geared mainly toward younger children, but could conceivably be adapted for older pre-teens, teens, and beyond:
- “Sharing Jesus with a Child with Down Syndrome, Part 1,” https://allbelong.org/sharing-jesus-with-a-child-with-down-syndrome-part-1.
- “Sharing Jesus with a Child with Down Syndrome, Part 2,” https://allbelong.org/sharing-jesus-with-a-child-with-down-syndrome-part-2.
- In “Gospel Hope for the Last Children of Down Syndrome,” Stephanie Hubach reflects on (among other topics) what it means for individuals with Down syndrome to be “in the image of God.” Available at: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/gospel-hope-down-syndrome/.
- Symposium on “Disability and the Resurrection” for Sapientia, a publication of the Carl F. Henry Center for Theological Understanding at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Available at: https://henrycenter.tiu.edu/category/areopagite/#disability-and-the-resurrection.
- “Disability and the Resurrection: An Introduction,” by D. Christopher Ralston
- “Impairments in the Resurrection?” by John Berkman
- “Sin, Resurrection, and Disability” by Devan Stahl
- “Why Heaven Is Not Just a Better Version of Vegas,” by Brian Brock
- “As a Seed Is to the Plant,” by Benjamin Conner
- Book Symposium on Disability, Providence, and Ethics: Bridging Gaps, Transforming Lives, by Hans S. Reinders (Baylor University Press, 2014). Available at: https://henrycenter.tiu.edu/category/book-symposia/#disability-providence-and-ethics.
- “Disability, Providence, and Ethics: Introducing the Symposium,” by Kirsten Birkett
- “Calvin, Providence, and Pain,” by Kirsten Birkett
- “The Disabled God,” by C. Ben Mitchell
- “Your Maker is Your Redeemer: Job and the Faithfulness of the Hidden God,” by Nathan Barczi
- “Hymns of Pain and the Purposes of God,” by Michael Beates
- “Disability, Calling, and Transformation: A Response to Hans. S. Reinders’ Disability, Providence, and Ethics,” by D. Christopher Ralston
- “Disability, Providence, and Ethics: A Rejoinder,” by Hans Reinders