From Ephphatha to Deaf Pastors

Deaf Pastoral Ministry

by M. Broesterhuizen

Book cover: From Ephphatha to Deaf Pastors

Extent: 366 pages

Publisher: Peeters Publishers

Subjects: Religious Studies

Series: LouvainĀ TheologicalĀ &Ā PastoralĀ Monographs

Series volume number: 46

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(January 2019)

ISBN: 9789042938007

Price: $57.00

In stock

PDF (Published)

(January 2019)

ISBN: 9789042938014

Price: $72.00

This book proposes a liberatory pastoral model that starts from deaf people’s self-experience, Deaf Cultures, and Sign Language as deaf people’s most natural language: deafness as a way of life. In a deaf way of life, deafness is not an impairment or disability, but a world in its own worth. In this Deaf World deaf people are not passive receivers of pastoral ministry, but its primary agents. Topics treated in this book are: the history of deafness in Western culture, deaf people’s self-experience, a non-dichotomizing view on “impairment”, a theological view on language, the deaf community as locus theologicus, and Bible translation into Sign Language.


In the past, pastoral care with the deaf generally took place from the care perspective of hearing pastors: deafness as a disability that deserved charity and a missionary effort towards integration of deaf people into hearing society. This book proposes a liberatory pastoral model that starts from deaf people’s self-experience, Deaf Cultures, and Sign Language as deaf people’s most natural language: deafness as a way of life. In a deaf way of life, deafness is not an impairment or disability, but a world in its own worth. In this Deaf World deaf people are not passive receivers of pastoral ministry, but its primary agents. Topics treated in this book are: the history of deafness in Western culture, deaf people’s self-experience, a non-dichotomizing view on “impairment”, a theological view on language, the deaf community as locus theologicus, and Bible translation into Sign Language.

  • By (author) M Broesterhuizen