Autistic Thinking in the Life of the Church

Stewart Rapley

• Publisher: SCM Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780334060871
• eBook ISBN: 9780334060895
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Autism was only identified and recognised relatively recently, but even so one might have expected the church to have moved further in its thinking about how autistic thinking can contribute to the life of the church. At a time when churches exhibit a heightened awareness of 'inclusion' and recognition of difference in all manner of ways, it is startling how little attention is given to those who have autism.Drawn from extensive research amongst autistic worshippers, Autistic Thinking in the Life of the Church develops and explores a model in which churches can strengthen and retain the cognitive engagement of those worshippers in their congregations who are on the autistic spectrum.

1. Introduction

‘But surely we all struggle with how literally to take the Bible – I know I do.’ For many years, such a reply was typical of the responses that I received from friends when seeking to explain questions that troubled me. I found it puzzling that I seemed to find that the common, rather ‘relational’, ways of thinking and speaking about God and faith did not seem to work for me. It was also odd that, although my friends claimed to have many of the ‘same questions’, they seemed able to continue functioning, while I found that my efforts to systematize my understanding of my faith and the Bible resulted in the challenges becoming increasingly distressing and debilitating.

Over a period of approximately 30 years, questions about God, faith and the Bible had grown in my mind to the point of causing me real distress. I had always been uncomfortable with the social aspects of church, though I was uncomfortable in most social settings. I simply got on with managing things as best I could. Over time, many other aspects of church life became problematic, making it difficult even to attend services. As a working man with a busy job and a young family, it was difficult to spend my Sundays – my ‘day of rest’ – in a context that increased my level of stress and discomfort. As a result, I gradually withdrew from any active engagement with church. Instead I pursued my own reading and exploration, involving a process of ‘deconstruction’ and then ‘reconstruction’ of my Christian understanding and faith. I need to make it clear at this point that my process of disengagement with church did not result from any personal conflict or ‘falling out’, and I retained many good relationships during the process. As a result, I am now able to begin a process of re-engagement with some aspects of the community life of the church. This has resulted, as I describe later, in an exercise with my local church whereby the minister there has invited me to work on a pilot project to implement the ideas contained within this book.

So why do I seem to think so differently? Within the same period I was going down a parallel track in life. There was a series of events that resulted in both the need to help my younger son through some challenges at school and also to deal with some emerging patterns of difficulty at work, largely around handling ‘office politics’. In 2006, in my early fifties, I was diagnosed as having what was then referred to as ‘Asperger Syndrome’. Today we would simply describe this as being ‘on the autistic spectrum’. The diagnosis made a lot of sense to me and started me on a process of learning about how my mind ‘worked’ within the framework of what it meant to be on the autistic spectrum.

What is it about this issue of autism that warrants the special attention of churches and their leaders? In his book, Neurotribes: The legacy of autism and how to think smarter about people who think differently, American science writer Steve Silberman provides a helpful overview of the historical development of our understanding of autism (Silberman, 2016). Silberman notes, ‘For decades, estimates of the prevalence of autism had remained stable at just four or five children in ten thousand. But that number had started to snowball in the late 1980s and 1990s’ (p. 6). The National Autistic Society estimates that approximately 1 per cent of the United Kingdom population is likely to be directly impacted by autism.1 If one adds those closely involved with such individuals, for example family members, friends and carers, then it becomes apparent that the number of people impacted by autism is much higher. As a result, it is not unrealistic to anticipate that even a relatively modest church congregation is likely to involve one or more such people.

Let me suggest three reasons why this is a situation that needs consideration by church leaders. First of all is the support and wellbeing of the individuals themselves. As I explain in this book, autistic worshippers are likely to encounter a number of challenges in seeking to engage with a church community. If not addressed, they may find that engagement becomes uncomfortable or even impossible to sustain. At a personal level, such an outcome is regrettable, as a church community has the potential to provide just the welcoming support that they need in order to flourish. Second, there is the possibility, as I will explain, that autistic people may well have a distinctive and much-needed contribution to make to the life of the church community. There is a risk that this valuable contribution will lie unrealized, or will be lost to the church. Third, there is a theological argument to be made (outlined later) that our understanding of what it means to participate in Christ makes room for autism as a valid ‘way to be human’ and belong organically within the church.

Is it the case generally that autistic people think differently about God, faith and the Bible? My retirement presented me with an opportunity to take up an MA in Theology as a way of working through my questions. It was during this period of study that I came across some research that suggested that, while most people think about God and prayer in fairly relational terms, the ‘different cognition’ of the autistic brain might result in a much less relational conception. With this hypothesis, the two previously parallel strands of my personal exploration finally started to come together.

As part of my MA I undertook some qualitative research to test out whether the notion of ‘autistic cognition’ led to a distinctive way of conceptualizing God. I engaged with nine autistic people, all of whom were committed both to their faith and to their churches. I interviewed them about their conceptualization of God, their understanding of prayer, their approach to interpreting the Bible, and their attitude towards other ‘supporting texts’ such as creeds, liturgies and hymns. I was also keen to understand, for each of these topics, what their assessment was of their church’s stance and also where they saw their congregation positioned. Finally, I explored with them the adaptations that they had made in order to sustain their involvement and engagement with their churches, as well as any adaptations made by their churches in order to help them.

What these discussions revealed was a general sense among the participants that they perceived themselves as being in a different place both to their churches and their congregations. It was clear to me that a number of common themes were emerging – themes that could be related back to these participants’ autistic way of thinking. As each participant was committed to their church, it seemed that in many cases this engagement was being sustained despite the perceived ‘gap’ at a cognitive level. A number of common adaptive approaches were being used by the participants to achieve this continuing engagement.

This book arose out of my dissertation research and the resulting conviction that my own experience was shared by other autistic worshippers. It is also a reflection of my desire to translate such understanding into something practical. I want to help both churches and autistic worshippers to strengthen their understanding of, and mutual engagement with, one another. I believe that, since each church and each individual autistic worshipper is unique, the best way to proceed is by priming and encouraging dialogue through which local approaches can be developed. It is also important to recognize that our understanding of autism itself is not a static ‘given’ but evolves as a result of continuing research. I therefore avoid the temptation to try to provide a ‘comprehensive’ understanding of autism here.

Some time ago it became clear to me that many of those with whom I interacted were interested in football and liked to talk about it. My own lack of interest therefore created a (further) barrier to conversation. However, by employing the simple measure of watching the occasional ‘Match of the Day’ programme on television, I was able to pick up enough information to start a dialogue. This book is something of a ‘Match of the Day’ approach to autistic thinking and church engagement. It presents some core concepts in the area of understanding autistic cognition that will enable a meaningful and continuing dialogue to take place as the catalyst for the emergence of effective local solutions.

I have also sought, again with the aid of my conversation partners, to set out a general framework within which engagement might be strengthened. I refer to this as an Engagement Model. A small group of interested church leaders have provided advice and guidance on this aspect of the book in order to ensure that the measures that I propose are practical for churches to implement, in addition to being desirable from the perspective of autistic worshippers. As previously mentioned, I am currently working with a large local church on a pilot exercise to implement the ideas proposed here – so there is an ongoing process of feedback taking place that is demonstrating that the approach is workable. The overall aim of this book is to stimulate and facilitate an enriching dialogue between autistic worshippers and their churches. In addition to more effective engagement of the autistic worshippers themselves, there is also, I believe, potential through this process for all to benefit from their increased contribution to church communities.

The book is presented in two parts. Part 1 takes us through the main areas of understanding. I include in Chapter 2 some concepts that I believe can aid anyone in understanding what makes autism distinctive. While much of what I have to say about autism could relate to any faith community, I am particularly keen to explore its impact in the context of Christian faith. I therefore set autism within a Christian understanding of humanity. Subsequently, with the support of my research participants, I explore through Chapters 3 to 6 how these ‘autistic distinctives’ impact areas of faith and church engagement. This is brought to a close in Chapter 7 via a discussion of the various adaptions made by my research participants and their perceptions of how their churches have responded.

In Part 2 I describe a practical response. In Chapter 8 I outline my proposed Engagement Model and then in Chapters 9 and 10 describe the design of a possible ‘solution’ based on this model and its implementation in a context of dialogue with others. This is described in the context of the pilot exercise that I mentioned earlier, which I offer, not as a ‘recipe for success’, but rather a potential ‘pool of practical ideas’ that can contribute to your own thinking.

Before getting started on Part 1, I would like to make a few comments to help readers navigate their way through what I have to say. I am confident that the core ideas that I put forward about ‘how autism works’ will provide some insight into the challenges that autistic people face in social situations and, often, with sensory issues. For many people, their understanding and experience of autism is related to certain behaviours that they expect to see exhibited. Such behaviours might include social awkwardness or signs of distress in response to certain lighting or sounds. It is easy to see how these might become a source of difficulty at a church gathering. My research indicated that other writers have already addressed these topics. I mention one or two examples in passing and include, as an appendix, a list of the church-help resources that I have come across in this area.

In this book I will present an understanding of autism that is based on underlying neurological distinctives. When understood from this perspective, it becomes clear that the same neurological make-up can result in a spectrum of behavioural presentations. There are some people, me included, for whom a comment about ‘being on the autistic spectrum’ often simply draws the response, ‘But you don’t look autistic’. My argument here is that the same neurology is at work in all autistic people and that this leads to particular cognitive processes, that may be modified in their impact and visibility to others as a result of a range of factors in a person’s make-up and life experience. These processes then give rise to a number of issues in the context of faith and church. It is the impact of autistic cognition that is my area of interest. It is an area which I have not seen covered in any depth elsewhere. This book therefore addresses the issue of improving the cognitive engagement of autistic worshippers with their churches.

Especially when supplemented by my own desk-based research and reading, the observations and comments of my research participants have been sufficient to lead me to the conclusion that I am not alone in the challenges that I face. Of course, one could find other autistic people whose experience and attitudes are different. For example, a group who were less committed to their church engagement, or had given up on it, might express things differently. This would be a perfectly valid, but different, study. I was keen to avoid introducing into my research the whole question of mixed motives and interests. Adopting the approach of working with those who are already positively committed to their churches gave me access to an understanding of the genuine issues they faced in this engagement. It also meant that their perceptions of where churches and congregations ‘stand’ on the various issues discussed were based on a generally positive disposition. Such opinions are still only those of my participants – the congregations and church leaders so described might have a different view. While this is a fair challenge, my interest is in understanding how autistic worshippers perceive things and then finding ways of bringing such perceptions into a process of dialogue. Once the dialogue becomes established, a mutual understanding of everyone’s ‘position’ is much more likely to develop naturally.

It is also useful, at this point, to set out some thoughts on the topic of language. I describe myself as a ‘left-handed person’. To describe myself as ‘a person with left-handedness’ would seem very strange; my left-handedness is intrinsic to my personhood – it is not a separate ‘add-on’. For the same reason, I will tend to employ the expression ‘autistic person’, rather than ‘person with autism’, whenever using my own voice in this book. Sometimes it also helps to use the term ‘person on the autistic spectrum’, mainly in order to make comparative statements about degrees of impact.

I also frequently use expressions such as someone’s ‘concept of God’. Here I am conceding that human thought and language are not capable of dealing with or describing God directly or fully. The best we can do is to use our language to find ways of articulating what we mean when we say ‘God’ and in the process describing a ‘concept of God’. This will operate at a personal level to some extent and there may also be common themes or emphases in this area within different Christian communities.

Throughout this book I work on the basis that at heart autism refers to a distinctive neurology, as opposed to a set of specific behaviours. This gives rise to the term ‘neurodiversity’ to describe the variety of ways in which people are ‘wired up’.2 Silberman describes neurodiversity as one of the ‘most promising developments’ in our understanding (2016, p. 17). This approach also leads to the description of those who are not autistic as being ‘neurotypical’. Such a focus on typical versus autistic neurology moves our attention away from preoccupation with specific behaviours and so helps us to cater for individual diversity.

Another term that is used frequently throughout this book is ‘cognitive dissonance’. One of the consequences of autistic cognition, I suggest, is a vulnerability to cognitive dissonance. We all experience cognitive dissonance from time to time – when things do not fit together, or seem inconsistent or contradictory, or when they clash with our personal attitudes and beliefs. Cognitive dissonance can make us uncomfortable and so spur us into action – in which case it can be a positive thing. When, however, we are not able to resolve the underlying conflict, then the dissonance can escalate to very uncomfortable, or even painful and distressing, levels. As I describe various aspects of ‘autistic cognition’ it will become apparent that autistic people are likely to experience quite intense levels of cognitive dissonance.

Finally, a word about my use of biblical passages. These are quoted from the New International Version of the Bible – the version with which I am most familiar. While I am aware that there are pros and cons associated with different versions and translations of the Bible, I do not think that my choice here affects the substantive points being discussed.

What, then, are we understanding when we talk about autism, or someone as being ‘autistic’? And what does it mean to ‘think Christianly’ about autism? These are the questions that I address first as I start Part 1.

Notes

1 There is a lot of debate surrounding this significant rise in numbers – does it signify an ‘autism epidemic’ or simply changes in diagnostic criteria, together with generally improved awaren...

Table of contents

• Copyright information
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• 1. Introduction
• Part 1: Building Understanding
• 2. How Can We Think Christianly About Autism?
• 3. A Distinctive Concept of God
• 4. A Distinctive Way of Handling the Bible
• 5. A Distinctive Understanding of Prayer
• 6. A Distinctive Response to Supporting Texts
• 7. Maintaining Engagement Through Adaptation
• Part 2: Reaching Out to Help
• 8. Modelling Cognitive Engagement
• 9. Designing and Running a Pilot Study
• 10. Implementing the Engagement Model
• 11. Passing on the Baton
• Appendix: Summary of Church Support Resources
• Bibliography