Christianity

Although religion and culture remain separate categories, the study of a religion cannot be successful without attention to how culture influences the expression of a religion and vice versa. [Page 121]An examination of Christianity and Deaf culture necessarily reveals the ways in which this relationship has been both harmful and helpful to Deaf lives. Historically, the balance between harm and help echoes larger cultural patterns of oralist conceptions of deafness and Deaf responses to the resulting oppression. This difficulty of separating religion and culture results in a diversity of encounters between Deaf cultures and Christianity.

One of the earliest Christian theologians to give attention to deaf people is Augustine of Hippo in the late 4th and early 5th centuries. Augustine is largely vilified in Deaf Studies ...