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Warning: The following post contains mention of spiritual and sexual abuse. The Disability and Faith Forum highlights "The Betrayal of Witness", a collection of essays reckoning with Jean Vanier’s influence, abuse, and legacy. The article explores themes of spiritual authority, disability theology, safeguarding, and the need to hold genuine insight alongside serious harm.
Few figures shaped conversations about disability and Christian community more than Jean Vanier. The founder of L’Arche – communities where people with and without intellectual disabilities live and work together – Vanier was celebrated internationally as a theologian, a humanitarian, and something close to a living saint. In Canada especially, his influence ran deep.
Then came the reports of and confirmation of serial sexual abuse. For anyone working at the intersection of faith and disability, the fallout has not been simple. Vanier’s books line shelves. His words have been quoted in sermons, articles, and training materials. His model of community continues to shape practice. And yet the man behind those words used his spiritual authority to cause serious and traumatic harm, repeatedly, over decades.
The Betrayal of Witness: Reflections on the Downfall of Jean Vanier, edited by Stanley Hauerwas and Hans S. Reinders (Cascade Books, 2024), takes that reality head-on. It does not gloss over or cancel. It asks: How do we reckon honestly with someone whose work carried genuine insight and genuine harm? What does it mean that a person so articulate about vulnerability and community could sustain such cruelty in secret? And what do we need to change so that the same dynamics do not produce similar harm again?
The Betrayal of Witness: Reflections on the Downfall of Jean Vanier
The contributors, who include theologians, ethicists, and disability scholars, read each other’s work and engage across chapters, which keeps the conversation from becoming repetitive and pushes it deeper. The book covers caregiver burnout and community dynamics, re-reads some of Vanier’s favoured biblical texts with fresh and more critical eyes, and wrestles with the intersection of Christian celebrity, spiritual authority, and unchecked power.
Canadian Voices in the Conversation
Two of the contributors are Canadian. Jason R. Greig serves in Catholic Chaplaincy at McMaster University and was a lecturer in disability studies and philosophy at King’s University College in London, Ontario. Keith Dow, Manager of Organizational and Spiritual Life at Karis Disability Services, contributes a chapter titled “Against Living Saints,” which examines structural factors that set Vanier up to cause the harm he did, and what safeguards communities need to put in place to prevent similar abuses.
Faith Today published an extended review of the book in its January-February 2025 issue. Reviewer Larry Hurst describes it as reading “like case study notes from sensitive, knowledgeable people each bringing a different perspective.”
GET THE EBOOK FREE UNTIL MAY 15
Use code HAUERWAS26 at checkout at wipfandstock.com.
Entering a promo code on the Wipf & Stock site can be a little tricky. Watch the video to learn more.
A Note on Proceeds
All proceeds from The Betrayal of Witness go to L’Arche Internationale. The book is not an attempt to preserve or rehabilitate Vanier’s legacy. It is an attempt to understand it clearly enough that the same mistakes are less likely to be repeated.
Vanier’s influence on disability theology and spirituality is not going to disappear, nor should it simply be discarded. But it needs to be held carefully, with honest attention to the conditions that allowed profound harm to coexist with genuine insight. This book is a serious contribution to that ongoing work.
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Warning: The following post contains mention of spiritual and sexual abuse. The Disability and Faith Forum highlights "The Betrayal of Witness", a collection of essays reckoning with Jean Vanier’s influence, abuse, and legacy. The article explores themes of spiritual authority, disability theology, safeguarding, and the need to hold genuine insight alongside serious harm.
Few figures shaped conversations about disability and Christian community more than Jean Vanier. The founder of L’Arche – communities where people with and without intellectual disabilities live and work together – Vanier was celebrated internationally as a theologian, a humanitarian, and something close to a living saint. In Canada especially, his influence ran deep.
Then came the reports of and confirmation of serial sexual abuse. For anyone working at the intersection of faith and disability, the fallout has not been simple. Vanier’s books line shelves. His words have been quoted in sermons, articles, and training materials. His model of community continues to shape practice. And yet the man behind those words used his spiritual authority to cause serious and traumatic harm, repeatedly, over decades.
The Betrayal of Witness: Reflections on the Downfall of Jean Vanier, edited by Stanley Hauerwas and Hans S. Reinders (Cascade Books, 2024), takes that reality head-on. It does not gloss over or cancel. It asks: How do we reckon honestly with someone whose work carried genuine insight and genuine harm? What does it mean that a person so articulate about vulnerability and community could sustain such cruelty in secret? And what do we need to change so that the same dynamics do not produce similar harm again?
The Betrayal of Witness: Reflections on the Downfall of Jean Vanier
The contributors, who include theologians, ethicists, and disability scholars, read each other’s work and engage across chapters, which keeps the conversation from becoming repetitive and pushes it deeper. The book covers caregiver burnout and community dynamics, re-reads some of Vanier’s favoured biblical texts with fresh and more critical eyes, and wrestles with the intersection of Christian celebrity, spiritual authority, and unchecked power.
Canadian Voices in the Conversation
Two of the contributors are Canadian. Jason R. Greig serves in Catholic Chaplaincy at McMaster University and was a lecturer in disability studies and philosophy at King’s University College in London, Ontario. Keith Dow, Manager of Organizational and Spiritual Life at Karis Disability Services, contributes a chapter titled “Against Living Saints,” which examines structural factors that set Vanier up to cause the harm he did, and what safeguards communities need to put in place to prevent similar abuses.
Faith Today published an extended review of the book in its January-February 2025 issue. Reviewer Larry Hurst describes it as reading “like case study notes from sensitive, knowledgeable people each bringing a different perspective.”
GET THE EBOOK FREE UNTIL MAY 15
Use code HAUERWAS26 at checkout at wipfandstock.com.
Entering a promo code on the Wipf & Stock site can be a little tricky. Watch the video to learn more.
A Note on Proceeds
All proceeds from The Betrayal of Witness go to L’Arche Internationale. The book is not an attempt to preserve or rehabilitate Vanier’s legacy. It is an attempt to understand it clearly enough that the same mistakes are less likely to be repeated.
Vanier’s influence on disability theology and spirituality is not going to disappear, nor should it simply be discarded. But it needs to be held carefully, with honest attention to the conditions that allowed profound harm to coexist with genuine insight. This book is a serious contribution to that ongoing work.
