Gelassenheit and Intellectual Disability

Many early Anabaptists held the concept of Gelassenheit near to the heart of their understanding of theology and ethics. However, Gelassenheit has become a term that may be used colloquially but has largely fallen out of scholarly discourse. This essay attempts to reclaim an understanding of it for contemporary Anabaptism while at the same time showing the liberatory power that it can have for understanding the places and roles of people with intellectual disabilities in our communities today. The author brings Gelassenheit into a particular realm of the ethical and suggests where it may find a place in the world of disability theology.