Panel: MEDICINE AND THEOLOGY IN DIALOGUE: STEPS TOWARDS MORE EFFECTIVE SPIRITUAL CARE



1086.4 - BETWEEN HEALING AND RECOGNITION: MEDICAL, THEOLOGICAL, AND COMMUNICATIVE ASPECTS OF DEAFNESS IN THE AGE OF AI.

AUTHORS:
Bednarska M. (University of Information Technology and Managment ~ Rzeszow ~ Poland)
Text:
The presence of people with disabilities in the Church has been and continues to be a topic that raises many questions. For many years, disability was viewed as a medical condition—something that required the intervention of doctors to improve a person's physical condition, to heal them. When we look at the content of the Holy Scriptures, it is very clear how people who were sick or disabled were treated. They were excluded, stigmatized, and condemned. And suddenly Jesus Christ appears, who communicates with people whom the rest of society stigmatizes and excludes. That's not all - He goes further and begins to heal: what was medically impossible, and He heals illnesses that were treated as a sign of the presence of an evil spirit in a person. It seems obvious why He does this. It is not only about a person's physical condition, but about the consequences of His conversations and healing - a person regains their humanity, respect, and can fulfill their need to be with people and with God. This raises the question of deaf people, who are now viewed from a medical perspective but also from a cultural perspective - a minority with their own identity and language, different from those of hearing people. The fact of increasingly progressive changes in the field of medicine and technology, the birth of artificial intelligence, has a real impact on the lives of this group of people, because, like most hearing people, they participate in social life. The question should therefore be asked: does the development of digital media and AI change the way we understand both "healing" and 'participation' in religious life, and if so, how? Should technology "repair the body" or rather "expand the community"? If it expands the community, will this be an opportunity or a threat? Where does communication fit into healing and participation, what does it look like, and what should it look like? These issues will be the subject of the presentation.