Dependency as Ontology: Eastern Orthodox Reflections on Disability, Dependency, and Care

• Published in: Zygon Vol. 60; no. 1; p. 202
• Main Author: Karam McCray, Katherine
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Open Library of Humanities 07.05.2025
• Subjects: Americans with Disabilities Act 1990-US; Civil rights; Deafness; Disability studies; Handicapped accessibility; Medicine; Ontology; People with disabilities; Quality of life; Science and Orthodoxy around the World; Theology; Eastern Orthodox; critical disability studies; theological anthropology; disability; bioethics; social ethics; virtue ethics; feminist ethics; radical dependency; ethics of care
• ISSN: 1467-9744; 0591-2385; 1467-9744
• DOI: 10.16995/zygon.15144

One of the fundamental hurdles for both Christian theology and medical ethics is characterizing disability as an aspect of human experience rather than a deviation from it. Anthropologies that anticipate a fixed subject articulate disability through the lens of pathology, alienating disabled experiences from what it means to be human. Pulling from the social theory of disability, I argue that wellbeing in Eastern Orthodox theology is characterized not by independent performative attainment but through mediated dependency. Eastern Orthodox theological anthropology organizes human dependency around passibility, an innate vulnerability that includes the ability to be acted upon as well as to suffer. Human nature comes packaged with material and social contingency. Christ’s passibility provides a moral framework through which extended states of dependency do not derive from sin or failure but rather serve as an example of quintessential human nature. Ontological dependency reframes persistent need, inviting persons who have been underserved and undervalued into a more inclusive model of human nature.