What If Bartimaeus Never Saw Again? Re-Reading the Gospel With Blind People (Mk 10
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Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22112285 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Talitha Cooreman-Guittin (0000-0002-7159-9132, University of Fribourg, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 310-319 |
| Publication date | 2025-07-03 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Disability & Religion (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2331-2521 • E-ISSN: 2331-253X |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/23312521.2025.2463363 |
| OpenAlex | W4407274084 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 3 |
PRELUDEIn 2016, I took part in a major gathering entitled “Avec un handicap: passionément vivantFootnote1” at the pilgrimage-site of Lourdes, France. After having read the story of blind Bartimaeus in one of our discussion-groups, I asked the participants: “How would you respond if Jesus were to ask you: ‘What do you want me to do for you?’” Some of the participants were visually impaired. As such, I somewhat naïvely expected their answers to reflect said impairment: “I’d ask him to rid me of my blindness.” You can imagine my surprise, then, when the responses of the blind people in our group were eventually expressed: “I’d ask for a job. I’d ask for a girlfriend. I’d want him to help me find a flat.” Not a single participant asked to be able to see. This is not to deny that some people with a disability may well have a burning desire to see their disability disappear. Experience has taught me, however, that this desire should not be generalized. Hence the importance of Jesus’ question: “What do you want me to do for you?” Unlike me, Jesus doesn’t presume to know the answer. Nonetheless, in our group at Lourdes, we were all a little surprised by Bartimaeus’s answer—asking to “regain his sight”—and we wondered if we had correctly understood the blind man’s request. Our puzzlement triggered a process of re-reading the biblical text, the main points of which I will outline here
Art · Gospel · Linguistics · Literature · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Communication · Development, Ethics, and Society · Philosophy · Psychology · Religion, Society, and Development
| Highly cited | No |
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