Devan Stahl
Biographic Data
| ID | 4140827 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Devan Stahl |
| GIVEN NAMES | Devan |
| FAMILY NAME | Stahl |
| SIGNATURE | STAHL D |
| AFFILIATIONS | Baylor University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1821-9700 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 2 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Pastoral Perspectives on God’s Role in Causing Disability
Questions about why disability occurs often arise in the context of a prenatal diagnosis. Pastors are frequently called upon to offer theological interpretation and pastoral care in response to such questions. Yet, little is known about how they understand the causes of disability and the ways these beliefs might shape their responses. In this qualitative study, we examined how 25 pastors responded to questions about God’s role in causing disabil…
“A Gospel Choir and an Elevator”
Many people with disabilities are active members of local churches, but few researchers have explored what disabled congregants desire for their churches. This article aims to answer the question, what is the one wish disabled Christians have for the Church? Researchers analyzed responses to the “one wish” question posed in interviews with thirty-seven disabled Christians as part of a previous qualitative study, using empirical and theological ap…
Centering Care as Normal and Valuable
This commentary, which responds to the article “Models of Relational Medical Decision‐Making: Caregivers and Advanced Life‐Sustaining Treatment,” by Aaron Wightman and Georgina Campelia, in the same issue of this journal, argues for reorienting medical decision‐making around care rather than patient autonomy alone. Drawing on empirical studies and disability bioethics, it asserts that most patients prefer involving physicians and caregivers in de…
AI and Human Dignity Within Health Care
Louisiana's “Medically Futile” Unborn Child List
Ableist attitudes and structures are increasingly recognized across all sectors of health care delivery. After Dobbs, novel questions arose in the United States concerning how to protect reproductive autonomy while avoiding discrimination against and devaluation of disabled persons. In this essay, we examine the Louisiana Department of Health's emergency declaration, “List of Conditions That Shall Deem an Unborn Child ‘Medically Futile,’” issued …
Disability's Challenge to Theology
Intersections and Methods in Disability Theology
Disability theology has been a small but growing field over the past thirty years. This paper reviews the current methods used in the discipline and proposes ways to move the field forward. Two intersections between disability studies and Christian theological ethics are explored in particular: bioethics and critical theory. Bioethics helps to address the material health and wellbeing concerns of people with disabilities and the discriminatory at…
The capacity to designate a surrogate is distinct from decisional capacity
The capacity to designate a surrogate (CDS) is not simply another kind of medical decision-making capacity (DMC). A patient with DMC can express a preference, understand information relevant to that choice, appreciate the significance of that information for their clinical condition, and reason about their choice in light of their goals and values. In contrast, a patient can possess the CDS even if they cannot appreciate their condition or reason…
Jean Vanier on Beauty and Disability
Jean Vanier offers a unique concept of beauty in which beauty is described as inherent in all human beings and revealed in right relationships. According to Vanier, revealing the beauty of every individual is part of the Christian mission and one that requires Christians to properly see and care for persons with disabilities. This essay explores how Vanier’s conception of beauty fits into the larger context of Christian notions of beauty, as well…
Disability Rights as a Necessary Framework for Crisis Standards of Care and the Future of Health Care
In this essay, we suggest practical ways to shift the framing of crisis standards of care toward disability justice. We elaborate on the vision statement provided in the 2010 Institute of Medicine (National Academy of Medicine) “Summary of Guidance for Establishing Crisis Standards of Care for Use in Disaster Situations,” which emphasizes fairness; equitable processes; community and provider engagement, education, and communication; and the rule …
Reimagining the Healing Service
Services of healing and wholeness need to be reimagined so that they better represent various experiences of disability. This article begins with a brief historical survey of the ways in which healing services and anointings have been understood in the Christian tradition. While far from exhaustive, this history reveals the Christian notion of healing to be contentious and evolving. Next, I analyze how these historical understandings have come to…
What Should Be the Surgeon's Role in Defining “Normal” Genital Appearance
The recent rise in women seeking cosmetic surgery of their genitalia (labiaplasty) coincides with the increasing number of surgeons posting videos of these operations on social media accounts and websites. Sociocultural influences significantly contribute to our ideas of what constitutes healthy and pathologic, and surgeons have historically played a role in defining "normal" and "abnormal" anatomy. In the nineteenth century, Saartjie Baartman-a …
Caretaking through Art
Seeing illness in art and medicine
For many patients, viewing one's illness through medical imaging technology can be an unsettling experience. Patients are likely not to see themselves represented in medical images and may find it difficult to reconcile this new image with their own body image. In this article, a patient with multiple sclerosis and a printmaker describe a collaborative project they have developed, wherein the patient's medical images are incorporated into pieces …
A Christian Ontology of Genetic Disease and Disorder
This article will present an ontology of the human person that is predicated upon a Christian understanding of God the Creator. It argues that defining ontological personhood in relation to God is essential for determining how Christians should understand personhood and human nature and their relation to genetic disease and disorder within human life. To show how a theological account of ontology can influence genetic debates, the article first e…
Living into the imagined body
In this paper I will show how the medical image, presented to the patient by the physician, participates in medicine's cold culture of abstraction, objectification and mandated normativity. I begin by giving a brief account of the use of anatomical imaging since the Renaissance to show how images have historically functioned in contrast to how they are currently used in medical practice. Next, I examine how contemporary medical imaging techniques…
Seeing illness in art and medicine
For many patients, viewing one's illness through medical imaging technology can be an unsettling experience. Patients are likely not to see themselves represented in medical images and may find it difficult to reconcile this new image with their own body image. In this article, a patient with multiple sclerosis and a printmaker describe a collaborative project they have developed, wherein the patient's medical images are incorporated into pieces …
Living into the imagined body
In this paper I will show how the medical image, presented to the patient by the physician, participates in medicine's cold culture of abstraction, objectification and mandated normativity. I begin by giving a brief account of the use of anatomical imaging since the Renaissance to show how images have historically functioned in contrast to how they are currently used in medical practice. Next, I examine how contemporary medical imaging techniques…
Living into the imagined body
In this paper I will show how the medical image, presented to the patient by the physician, participates in medicine's cold culture of abstraction, objectification and mandated normativity. I begin by giving a brief account of the use of anatomical imaging since the Renaissance to show how images have historically functioned in contrast to how they are currently used in medical practice. Next, I examine how contemporary medical imaging techniques…
A Christian Ontology of Genetic Disease and Disorder
This article will present an ontology of the human person that is predicated upon a Christian understanding of God the Creator. It argues that defining ontological personhood in relation to God is essential for determining how Christians should understand personhood and human nature and their relation to genetic disease and disorder within human life. To show how a theological account of ontology can influence genetic debates, the article first e…
Seeing illness in art and medicine
For many patients, viewing one's illness through medical imaging technology can be an unsettling experience. Patients are likely not to see themselves represented in medical images and may find it difficult to reconcile this new image with their own body image. In this article, a patient with multiple sclerosis and a printmaker describe a collaborative project they have developed, wherein the patient's medical images are incorporated into pieces …
Caretaking through Art
What Should Be the Surgeon's Role in Defining “Normal” Genital Appearance
The recent rise in women seeking cosmetic surgery of their genitalia (labiaplasty) coincides with the increasing number of surgeons posting videos of these operations on social media accounts and websites. Sociocultural influences significantly contribute to our ideas of what constitutes healthy and pathologic, and surgeons have historically played a role in defining "normal" and "abnormal" anatomy. In the nineteenth century, Saartjie Baartman-a …
Jean Vanier on Beauty and Disability
Jean Vanier offers a unique concept of beauty in which beauty is described as inherent in all human beings and revealed in right relationships. According to Vanier, revealing the beauty of every individual is part of the Christian mission and one that requires Christians to properly see and care for persons with disabilities. This essay explores how Vanier’s conception of beauty fits into the larger context of Christian notions of beauty, as well…
Disability Rights as a Necessary Framework for Crisis Standards of Care and the Future of Health Care
In this essay, we suggest practical ways to shift the framing of crisis standards of care toward disability justice. We elaborate on the vision statement provided in the 2010 Institute of Medicine (National Academy of Medicine) “Summary of Guidance for Establishing Crisis Standards of Care for Use in Disaster Situations,” which emphasizes fairness; equitable processes; community and provider engagement, education, and communication; and the rule …
Reimagining the Healing Service
Services of healing and wholeness need to be reimagined so that they better represent various experiences of disability. This article begins with a brief historical survey of the ways in which healing services and anointings have been understood in the Christian tradition. While far from exhaustive, this history reveals the Christian notion of healing to be contentious and evolving. Next, I analyze how these historical understandings have come to…
The capacity to designate a surrogate is distinct from decisional capacity
The capacity to designate a surrogate (CDS) is not simply another kind of medical decision-making capacity (DMC). A patient with DMC can express a preference, understand information relevant to that choice, appreciate the significance of that information for their clinical condition, and reason about their choice in light of their goals and values. In contrast, a patient can possess the CDS even if they cannot appreciate their condition or reason…
Disability's Challenge to Theology
Intersections and Methods in Disability Theology
Disability theology has been a small but growing field over the past thirty years. This paper reviews the current methods used in the discipline and proposes ways to move the field forward. Two intersections between disability studies and Christian theological ethics are explored in particular: bioethics and critical theory. Bioethics helps to address the material health and wellbeing concerns of people with disabilities and the discriminatory at…
Louisiana's “Medically Futile” Unborn Child List
Ableist attitudes and structures are increasingly recognized across all sectors of health care delivery. After Dobbs, novel questions arose in the United States concerning how to protect reproductive autonomy while avoiding discrimination against and devaluation of disabled persons. In this essay, we examine the Louisiana Department of Health's emergency declaration, “List of Conditions That Shall Deem an Unborn Child ‘Medically Futile,’” issued …
Centering Care as Normal and Valuable
This commentary, which responds to the article “Models of Relational Medical Decision‐Making: Caregivers and Advanced Life‐Sustaining Treatment,” by Aaron Wightman and Georgina Campelia, in the same issue of this journal, argues for reorienting medical decision‐making around care rather than patient autonomy alone. Drawing on empirical studies and disability bioethics, it asserts that most patients prefer involving physicians and caregivers in de…
AI and Human Dignity Within Health Care
Pastoral Perspectives on God’s Role in Causing Disability
Questions about why disability occurs often arise in the context of a prenatal diagnosis. Pastors are frequently called upon to offer theological interpretation and pastoral care in response to such questions. Yet, little is known about how they understand the causes of disability and the ways these beliefs might shape their responses. In this qualitative study, we examined how 25 pastors responded to questions about God’s role in causing disabil…
“A Gospel Choir and an Elevator”
Many people with disabilities are active members of local churches, but few researchers have explored what disabled congregants desire for their churches. This article aims to answer the question, what is the one wish disabled Christians have for the Church? Researchers analyzed responses to the “one wish” question posed in interviews with thirty-seven disabled Christians as part of a previous qualitative study, using empirical and theological ap…
Sociology (10 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Law (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Aesthetics (4 works) · Art (4 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · Ethics and Legal Issues in Pediatric Healthcare (4 works) · Medicine (4 works)